Matthew Henry on Amos 9:1-10
We have here the justice of God passing sentence upon a provoking people; and observe,
I. With what solemnity the sentence is passed. The prophet saw in vision the Lord standing upon the altar (Amo 9:1), the altar of burnt-offerings; for the Lord has a sacrifice, and multitudes must fall as victims to his justice. He is removed from the mercy-seat between the cherubim, and stands upon the altar, the judgment-seat, on which the fire of God used to fall, to devour the sacrifices. He stands upon the altar, to show that the ground of his controversy with this people was their profanation of his holy things; here he stands to avenge the quarrel of his altar, as also to signify that the sin of the…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Amos 9:8
eyes . . . upon the sinful kingdom--that is, I am watching all its sinful course in order to punish it (compare Amo 9:4; Psa 34:15-16).
not utterly destroy the house of Jacob--Though as a "kingdom" the nation is now utterly to perish, a remnant is to be spared for "Jacob," their forefather's sake (compare Jer 30:11); to fulfil the covenant whereby "the seed of Israel" is hereafter to be "a nation for ever" (Jer 31:36).
Adam Clarke on Amos 9:8
The eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom - The kingdom of Israel, peculiarly sinful; and therefore to be signally destroyed by the Assyrians.
I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob - The race shall not become extinct: I will reserve them as monuments of my justice, and finally of my mercy.
John Gill on Amos 9:8
Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom,.... God is omniscient, and his eyes are everywhere, and upon all persons, good and bad, and upon all kingdoms, especially upon a sinful nation: "the sinning kingdom" (n), or "the kingdom of sin" (o), as it may be rendered; that is addicted to sin, where it prevails and reigns; every such kingdom, particularly the kingdom of Israel, Ephraim, or the ten tribes, given to idolatry, and other sins complained of in this prophecy; and that not for good, but for evil, as in Amos 9:4; in order to cut them off from being a people:
and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth: so that it shall be no more, at least as a kingdom; as t…
