17 Therefore thus says Yahweh: 'Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided by line; and you yourself shall die in a land that is unclean, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of his land.'"
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Thy wife shall be a harlot - These were, and still are, among the horrors of war. His own sentence comes last, when he had seen the rest, unable to hinder it. Against his and her own will, she should suffer this. Jerome: "Great is the grief, and incredible the disgrace, when the husband, in the midst of the city and in the presence of all, cannot hinder the wrong done to his wife , for the husband had rather hear that his wife had been slain, than defiled." What he adds "thy daughters" (as well as his "sons") "shall fall by the sword," is an unwonted barbarity, and not part of the Assyrian customs, who carried off women in great numbers, as wives for their soldiery .
Perhaps Amos mentions the unwonted cruelty, that the event might bring home the more to the minds of the people the prophecies which relate to themselves. When this had been fulfilled before his eyes , "Amaziah himself, who now gloried in the authority of the priesthood, was to be led into captivity, die in a land polluted by idols, yet not before be saw the people whom he had deceived, enslaved and captive." Amos closes by repeating emphatically the exact words, which Amaziah had alleged in his message to Jeroboam; "and Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his land." He had not said it before in these precise words. Now he says it, without reserve of their repentance, as though he would say, "Thou hast pronounced thine own sentence; thou hast hardened thyself against the word of God; thou hardenest thy people against the word of God; it remains then that it should fall on thee and thy people." Rup.: "How and when the prophecy against Amaziah was fulfilled, Scripture does not relate. He lies hid amid the mass of miseries" . Scripture hath no leisure to relate all which befalls those of the viler sort "The majesty of Holy Scripture does not lower itself to linger on baser persons, whom God had rejected.
Thy wife shall be a harlot - As this was the word of the Lord, so it was fulfilled; but as we have no farther account of this idolatrous priest, so we cannot tell in what circumstances these threatenings were executed.
1. His wife was to be a public prostitute; she was probably such already privately in the temple, as the wife of an idolatrous priest.
2. His sons and daughters were to fall by the sword.
3. Their inheritance was to be taken by strangers.
4. And himself was to die a captive in a heathen land.
Israel shall surety go into captivity - He now declares fully what he had not declared before, though Amaziah had made it a subject of accusation. This particular was probably revealed at this instant, as well as those which concerned Amaziah and his family.
Therefore thus saith the LORD; (i) Thy wife shall be an harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be divided by line; and thou shalt die in a polluted land: and Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his land.
(i) In this way God used to approve the authority of his Prophets, by his plagues and judgments against those who were malicious enemies as in (Jeremiah 28:12-17; Jeremiah 29:21-26), as this day he does against those that persecute the ministers of his Gospel.
Therefore thus saith the Lord,.... For withstanding the prophet of the Lord, and forbidding him to speak in his name against the idolatry of Israel, as well as for his own idolatry:
thy wife shall be an harlot in the city: either of Bethel or Samaria; either through force, being ravished by the soldiers upon taking and plundering the city; so Theodoret and others: or rather of choice; either, through poverty, to get bread, or through a vicious inclination, and that in a public manner: the meaning is, that she should be a common strumpet; which must be a great affliction to him, and a just punishment for his idolatry, or spiritual adultery; this must be before the siege and taking of Samaria, since by that time the priest's wife would be too old to be used as a harlot:
and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword; either of Shallum, who smote Zachariah the son of Jeroboam with the sword, before the people, and very probably many of his friends with him, among whom this family was; or of Menahem, who slew Shallum, and destroyed many places that opened not to him, with their inhabitants, and ripped up the women with child; or in the after invasions by Pul, Tiglathpileser, and Shalmaneser, 2-Kings 15:10;
and thy land shall be divided by line; either the whole land of Israel be lived in, or the land that was in the possession of this priest, and was his own property; this should be measured with a line, and be parted among foreigners, that should invade the land, and subdue it; a just punishment of the sins he had been guilty of, in getting large possessions in an ill manner:
and thou shall die in a polluted land; not in his own land, reckoned holy, but in a Heathen land, which was accounted defiled, because the inhabitants of it were uncircumcised and idolaters, and he was no better; perhaps the land of Assyria, whither he might with others be carried captive; or some other land he was forced to flee into:
and Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his land; as he had before prophesied, and here confirms it; and which was fulfilled in the times of Hoshea king of Israel, by Shalmaneser king of Assyria, 2-Kings 17:6.
Thy wife shall be an harlot in the city--that is, shall be forced by the enemy, while thou art looking on, unable to prevent her dishonor (Isaiah 13:16; Lamentations 5:11). The words, "saith the Lord," are in striking opposition to "Thou sayest (Amos 7:16).
divided by line--among the foe.
a polluted land--Israel regarded every foreign land as that which really her own land was now, "polluted" (Isaiah 24:5; Jeremiah 2:7).
In a polluted land - Among the Heathen. Israel - The ten tribes.
*More commentary available at chapter level.