Amos 4:10Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Because they were engaged in disgraceful ventures and excessively inclined towards gain, thus multiplying their crops of helicopias, grapes, figs, and olives, God penalized them, which led them to endure considerable anguish, ultimately prompting them to regain their senses and choose the worse over the better. God gathered these trials against them so that, bruised from every direction, they might find salvation. When even this proved inadequate, yet a more profound trial was added; thus, it is said, when you disregard my intervention and nearly attribute weakness to the Almighty, opting for Egypt’s support instead of my providence, trusting in ‘the fleshly horses’ and preferring ‘the man of Egypt’ (Is. 31:3), then, indeed, the most battle-hardened generation fell by the sword of Babylon, and all your cavalry found themselves in captivity, as the Lord stripped those renowned for their military prowess of their might. Death I sent your way through Egypt—this can be understood differently. In the time of King Josiah of Judah, Pharaoh Necho, the Egyptian leader, organized a campaign against Babylon. As he needed to traverse Judah, Josiah, suspecting that Necho’s attack was directed at him rather than Babylon, foolishly opposed him. In that conflict, Israel was defeated. Therefore, the Lord declares, I sent death upon you through the way of Egypt, meaning when the Egyptians were marching; I laid waste to your forces in flames. Instead of saying that I destroyed your fortified cities and towers, it was utter ruin. He reiterated this earlier: ‘And Ephraim went to Assyria’ (Hos. 5:13), ‘And Judah multiplied the cities: but I will send fire upon his cities, and it shall consume his foundations’ (Hos. 8:14). Thus, the Lord states, I have shaken your mightiest cities to their very core; and it is through this that they shall return to me, saith the Lord.

Though this was intended to correct the wayward and those in sin, still they did not seek Him, says the Lord.

Not only did He send such judgments then, but He also sends death daily in the manner of Egypt, so that one who treads that path may remember the apostolic warning at their end: "If I died, I died to sin; and if I live, I live to God" (Galatians 2). In another passage He reminds us, "if we die with Christ, we shall also live with Him" (Romans 6:8). Furthermore, we are told, "always bearing about in my body the dying of the Lord Jesus" (2 Corinthians 4:10). And again, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me" (Galatians 2:20). Through this death, the Lord aims to give us new life, allowing us, by dying to sin, to live for God. We die to sin when we put to death our earthly members—immorality, uncleanness, lust, idolatry, and other transgressions. In Isaiah, we find it written, "death" I sent "upon Jacob, and it came upon Israel" (Isaiah 9:8), according to the translation of the LXX, as the Hebrew rendering varies. Jacob, the name received at physical birth, contrasts with Israel, the name of blessing. Having wrestled all night and triumphed (Genesis 32), he could proclaim at dawn, with the apostle, "The night is far spent, the day is at hand" (Romans 13:12), thus earning the name Israel, meaning he who sees God. Death is thus sent upon Jacob first so that we may kill our earthly members and, through this mortification, attain to the life of Israel, where all passionate desires must perish within us.

God strikes down that which is strong in wickedness, rooted in the corruption of youth, to prevent it from aging, binding the horses so they do not swiftly fall into the abyss. He allows the stench of the camp to rise that they might recognize their iniquities, feel the weight of their sins, and cry out with David, "My wounds are foul and festering because of my folly" (Psalms 37:6). This was intended as a form of healing; yet, even so, they did not turn to Him, says the Lord.