the Lord (used as a proper name of God only) · proper noun, a title
GOD
יְהוִ֔הYah.weh
H3069
YHWH · proper noun, a title
shewed
הִרְאַ֙נִי֙hir.'A.ni
H7200
to see · verb, hiphil perfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix
Lord
אֲדֹנָ֣י'a.do.Nai
H136
the Lord (used as a proper name of God only) · proper noun, a title
GOD
יְהוִ֑הYah.weh
H3069
YHWH · proper noun, a title
called
קֹרֵ֛אko.Re'
H7121
to call out to (i.e. properly · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
contend
לָרִ֥בla.Riv
H7378
properly · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
fire
בָּאֵ֖שׁba.'Esh
H784
fire (literally or figuratively) · preposition with the article + noun, common both genders singular absolute
devoured
וַתֹּ֙אכַל֙va.To.khal
H398
to eat (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular
great
רַבָּ֔הra.Bah
H7227
abundant (in quantity · adjective, feminine singular absolute
deep
תְּה֣וֹםte.Hom
H8415
an abyss (as a surging mass of water) · noun, common feminine singular absolute
up
וְאָכְלָ֖הve.'a.khe.Lah
H398
to eat (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
part
הַחֵֽלֶקha.Che.lek
H2506
properly · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Isaiah 66:15-16 For, behold, the LORD will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames…
Amos 7:1 Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me; and, behold, he formed grasshoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and, lo…
Exodus 9:23-24 And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the LORD ra…
Leviticus 10:2 And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD.
Numbers 16:35 And there came out a fire from the LORD, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense.
Deuteronomy 32:22 For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the…
Isaiah 27:4 Fury is not in me: who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together.
Jeremiah 4:4 Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury com…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Amos 7:1-9
We here see that God bears long, but that he will not bear always, with a provoking people, both these God here showed the prophet: Thus hath the Lord God showed me, Amo 7:1, Amo 7:4, Amo 7:7. He showed him what was present, foreshowed him what was to come, gave him the knowledge both of what he did and of what he designed; for the Lord God reveals his secret unto his servants the prophets, Amo 3:7.
I. We have here two instances of God's sparing mercy, remembered in the midst of judgment, the narratives of which are so much like one another that they will be best considered together, and very considerable they are.
1. God is here coming forth against this sinful nation, first by one judgment…
called to contend--that is with Israel judicially (Job 9:3; Isa 66:16; Eze 38:22). He ordered to come at His call the infliction of punishment by "fire" on Israel, that is, drought (compare Amo 4:6-11), [MAURER]. Rather, war (Num 21:28), namely, Tiglath-pileser [GROTIUS].
devoured the . . . deep--that is a great part of Israel, whom he carried away. Waters are the symbol for many people (Rev 17:15).
did eat up a part--namely, all the land (compare Amo 4:7) of Israel east of Jordan (Ch1 5:26; Isa 9:1). This was a worse judgment than the previous one: the locusts ate up the grass: the fire not only affects the surface of the ground, but burns up the very roots and reaches even to the deep.
Adam Clarke on Amos 7:4
The Lord God called to contend by fire - Permitted war, both civil and foreign, to harass the land, after the death of Jeroboam the second. These wars would have totally destroyed it, had not the prophet interceded.
It devoured the great deep, and did eat up a part - We are here to understand the partially destructive wars which afterwards took place; for the Lord causes all these things to pass before the eyes of Amos in the vision of prophecy; and intimates that, at the intercession of his prophets, total ruin should be prevented.
John Gill on Amos 7:4
Thus hath the Lord showed unto me,.... Another vision after this manner:
and, behold, the Lord God called to contend by fire; gave out that he would have a controversy with his people Israel, and proclaimed the time when he would try the cause with them, and that by fire: or he called his family, as Jarchi; that is, his angels, as Kimchi, to cause fire to descend upon Israel, as upon Sodom and Gomorrah; so other Rabbins Kimchi mentions: or, as he interprets it, the scorching heat of the sun, like fire that restrained the rain, dried up the plants, and lessened the waters of the river, and so brought on a general drought, and in consequence famine: or rather a foreign army, involving them in…
The Church Fathers
(Vers. 4 seqq.) This the Lord God showed me, and behold, the Lord God called for judgment by fire, and it devoured the great deep and will consume it together with a portion. And I said: O Lord God, please cease; who will raise up Jacob since he is small? The Lord had mercy on this also, but even this shall not be, said the Lord God. LXX: Thus the Lord God showed me, and behold, He called for judgment by fire, and it devoured the great deep and consumed a portion. And I said: O Lord God, stop, who will raise up Jacob, since he is small? Let it repent thee, O Lord, upon this: and let it not be, saith the Lord, God of hosts. First the Lord shewed the prophet the workman of the locust in the beginning of the germination of the late crop, and after the late crop, the cutting off of the king or kingdom, and to express the word from word, the cutting off of the king Sennacherib, by which he sheared and laid waste all the ten tribes. Now the same Lord sheweth Nebuchadnezzar, yea, he calleth and commandeth him to come against Judah and Jerusalem. However, he calls upon the fire to set ablaze the temple and Jerusalem, and to carry out judgment in the fire against those who were once his people. And when the fire came for judgment, to fulfill the command of the Lord, it consumed a great abyss, and it also consumed a part, all the cities of Judah, and a part of the Lord's which was called his temple. And when the prophet saw this, he said to the Lord, not as before, be propitious, I beseech you, but be still, or cease; so that he may obtain by his prayers the person whom he had already seen begin to cease: especially since there is no other who can raise up the lying down and little and humiliated Jacob, except the Lord who is able to bring back the captive and those transported into Chaldea into the land of Judah. Because once, according to the prophet Hosea and the Psalmist saying: The sons of Ephraim, bending and shooting with the bow, turned back in the day of battle (Psalm 77, 9), we have attributed the ten tribes to the person of the heretics, who were called Israel, and the two, over which Judas presided, to the Church and the sinners of the Church, who indeed confess the right faith, but are in need of purging themselves from the filth of vices with flames: for this reason now the Lord shows that he calls himself to the fire of judgment, so that the fire may…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Visions · Mentioned in scripture: To Amos — Mentioned in scripture: To Amos
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Amos 7:4-6
4. Thus hath the Lord God shewed unto me: and, behold, the Lord God called to contend by fire, and it devoured the great deep, and did eat up a part.
4. Sic ostendit mihi Dominus Jehova: et ecce vocans ad disceptandum in igne Dominus Jehova, et consumpsit (aut, voravit) abyssum magnam (et consumpta fuit possessio) (alii chlq vertunt partem agri; sed malo accipere pro tota possessione.
5. Then said I, O Lord God, cease, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small.
5. Et dixi, Adonai Jehova, cessa, obsecro; quis (hoc est, quomodo) consurget Jacob? (vel, quis attollet, ut prius dictum est;) quia parvus est.
6. The Lord repented for this: This also shall not be, sa…
The Devouring Fire. - Amo 7:4. "Thus the Lord Jehovah showed me: and, behold, the Lord Jehovah called to punish with fire; and it devoured the great flood, and devoured the portion. Amo 7:5. And I said, Lord Jehovah, leave off, I pray: how can Jacob stand? for it is small. Amo 7:6. Jehovah repented of this; this also shall not take place, said the Lord Jehovah." That the all-devouring fire represents a much severer judgment than that depicted under the figure of the locusts, is generally acknowledged, and needs no proof. But the more precise meaning of this judgment is open to dispute, and depends upon the explanation of the fourth verse. The object to קרא is לריב בּאשׁ, and ריב is to be tak…
This fire symbolizes oppressive heat and drought. • depths of the sea: Although the Hebrew word properly indicates the sea, Amos probably did not suppose that the Mediterranean would disappear. More likely, this is a poetic reference to large bodies of fresh water (such as the Kinnereth Sea/Sea of Galilee) that Israel could use to irrigate its fields.
Rashi on Amos 7:4
showed me—another retribution to bring upon them.
and behold... calls—His household to contend with them by the retribution of the kindling of fire.
the field Heb. הַחֵלֶק, the parcel of land.
