Footnote 2: The groundlessness of such a mode of viewing things is shown by the prophecy of events such as that mentioned in i. 15: "The people of Aram are carried away to Kir, saith the Lord;" compare the fulfilment in 2 Kings xvi. 9. They had originally come from Kir, Amos ix. 7. This circumstance furnished the natural foundation for the prophecy, and it was certainly this circumstance also which induced the conqueror to adopt his measures. But the supernatural character of the definite prophecy remains, nevertheless, unshaken.
Footnote 3: _Caspari_ in his commentary on Micah, S. 69, is wrong in remarking: "Joel beholds the instruments of punitive justice upon Israel, as numberless hosts only; Amos, already, as a single nation." In Amos vi. 14 the [Hebrew: gvi] as little means a single nation, as it does in the fundamental passage, Deut. xxviii. 49 ff., beyond the definiteness of which Amos does not go.
Footnote 4: Scarcely any doubt can, however, be entertained that we have here before us a _consequence_ of the war mentioned in 2 Kings iii., viz., the vengeance which the Moabites took for what they suffered on that occasion.
The chapter opens with a vision. The temple, shaken by the Angel of the Lord in its very foundations, falls down, and buries Judah and Israel under its ruins. Without a figure,--the breach of the Covenant by the Covenant-people brings destruction upon them. The prophet endeavours to strengthen the impression of this threatening upon their mind, by breaking down the supports of false security by which they sought to evade it. There is no deliverance, no escape, vers. 2-4, for the Almighty God is the enemy and pursuer, vers. 5, 6. There is no mercy on account of the Covenant, for Israel is no more the Covenant-people. They shall not, however, be altogether destroyed; but the destruction of the sinful mass shall be accompanied by the preservation of a small number of the godly, vers. 7-10. This great sifting is followed, however, by the restoration; the tabernacle of David which is fallen, the kingdom of God among Israel, connected with the family of David, shall be raised up again, ver. 11; rendered glorious by its extension over the heathen, ver. 12; and blessed with the abundance of the divine gifts, vers. 12-15.
