John Gill's Bible Commentary Ver. 5. And the Lord God of hosts [is] he that toucheth the land, and it shall melt , etc.] Which is another reason why it is impossible to escape the hands of a sin revenging God, because he is omnipotent as well as omniscient; he is the Lord of all the armies above and below; and if he but touch the land, any particular country, as the land of Israel, it shakes and trembles, and falls into a flow of water, or melts like wax; as when he toucheth the hills and mountains they smoke, being like fuel to fire; (see <19A432> Psalm 104:32 <19E405> 144:5); and all that dwell therein shall mourn ; their houses destroyed, their substance consumed, and all that is near and dear to them swallowed up: and it shall rise up wholly like a flood, and shall be drowned as [by] the flood of Egypt ; (see Gill on “ Amos 8:8”).
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-10 - The prophet, in vision, saw the Lord standing upon the idolatrous alta at Bethel. Wherever sinners flee from God's justice, it will overtak them. Those whom God brings to heaven by his grace, shall never be cas down; but those who seek to climb thither by vain confidence i themselves, will be cast down and filled with shame. That which make escape impossible and ruin sure, is, that God will set his eyes upo them for evil, not for good. Wretched must those be on whom the Lor looks for evil, and not for good. The Lord would scatter the Jews, an visit them with calamities, as the corn is shaken in a sieve; but he would save some from among them. The astonishing preservation of the Jews as a distinct people, seems here foretold. If professors make themselves like the world, God will level them with the world. The sinners who thus flatter themselves, shall find that their professio will not protect them.
Original Hebrew ואדני136 יהוה3069 הצבאות6635 הנוגע5060 בארץ776 ותמוג4127 ואבלו56 כל3605 יושׁבי3427 בה ועלתה5927 כיאר2975 כלה3605 ושׁקעה8257 כיאר2975 מצרים׃4714
