Amos 3:8

Amo 3:8 The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord GOD hath spoken, who can but prophesy?

Ver. 8. The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy?] Who that knoweth the terror of the Lord can dare to do otherwise, when he commandeth it? Shall men fear fire, water, bears, lions, &c., and not the great and terrible God? If he roar upon his servants and say, as to Jeremiah he once did, "Thou therefore, gird up the loins of thy mind, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them," Jer 1:17. We must roar against men’s sins, and be instant, though they roar against us for so doing, and threaten never so much. Micaiah will not budge for a king’s authority when once he had seen the Lord in his majesty; nor Paul for an angel’s, Gal 1:8, the rest of the apostles for the Sanhedrim’s, Act 4:19; Act 5:25. When the emperor threatened Basil with imprisonment, banishment, death, he answered: Let him threaten boys with such spectres; I am resolved: neither menaces nor flatteries shall silence me, or draw me to betray a good cause or conscience. If I deal not plainly and faithfully with your souls, said Bernard, vobis erit damnosum, mihi periculosum. Timeo itaque damnum vestrum, timeo damnationem meam si tacuero: i.e. it will be ill for you, and worse for me. The truth is, you would be betrayed, and I should be damned, if I should hold my peace. Let me be accounted proud, pragmatic, anything rather than found guilty of sinful silence when the Lord calleth me to speak, saith Luther. These were men whose hearts were fraught with the reverential fear of God; and therefore found themselves necessitated to be faithful; besides the love of Christ constraineth them, 2Co 5:14, so that they could do no less, they could not but speak, Act 4:19.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3:8 God, the lion, has roared from Mount Zion (1:2) and compelled Amos to prophesy (see 7:14-16).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Because the people ever murmured against the Prophets, he showeth that God’s Spirit moved them so to speak as they did.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

As when "the lion roars" (compare Amo 1:2; Amo 3:4), none can help but "fear," so when Jehovah communicates His awful message, the prophet cannot but prophesy. Find not fault with me for prophesying; I must obey God. In a wider sense true of all believers (Act 4:20; Act 5:29).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 8. The lion hath roared,] God hath sent forth a terrible alarm, Who will not fear? Can any hear such denunciations of Divine wrath and not tremble?

The Lord God hath spoken] And those only who are in communion with him have heard the speech. Who can but prophesy? Who can help proclaiming at large the judgment threatened against the nation?

But I think נבא naba, here, is to be taken in its natural and ideal signification, to pray, supplicate, or deprecate vengeance. The Lord hath spoken of punishment - who can help supplicating his mercy, that his judgments may be averted?

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

It now follows, The lion roars who would not fear? The Lord Jehovah speaks, who would not prophesy? In this verse the Prophet reproved the Israelites for their usual contentions with the Prophets when their sins were sharply reprehended. Thus indeed are men wont to do; they consider not that Prophets are sent from above, and that there is a charge committed to them. Hence, when Prophets are severe in their words, the world clamors and wrangles: “What do these men intend? Why do they urge us so much? Why do they not allow us to rest quietly? for they provoke against us the wrath of God.” Whenever then men are roused, they immediately menace God’s Prophets with strife and contention, and regard not threatening as coming from God himself. This vice the Prophet now condemns: The lion roars, he says, who would not fear? God speaks, who would not prophesy? “Ye think that I am your adversary; but ye can gain nothing by quarreling with me: were I silent, the voice of God would of itself be formidable enough. The evil then proceeds not from my mouth, but from God’s command; for I am constrained, willing or unwilling, to obey God: he has chosen me to be a Prophet, and has showed what he intends that I should proclaim. What can I do, he says? I am not at liberty to invent revelations; but I faithfully bring forth to you what has been delivered to me by the Lord. How great then is your madness, that ye contend with me, and consider not that your strife and contention is with God himself?” We now see what the Prophet meant, and also understand, why he adduced the four similitudes, of which we have already spoken. I now proceed with the remaining context.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(8) Roared.—Comp. the imagery of Amo_1:2, and that of Amo_3:4. The voice of the Lord is so audible, so clearly portending the coming judgment, that universal terror inevitably follows. (Comp. “If these should hold their peace, the stones would cry out.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Publish in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt,.... This is spoken to the prophets, to publish and declare in all the courts of the Philistines and Egyptians, and among all the princes and great men therein, the sins of the people of Israel, and the punishment God threatened them with; and let them, even these very Heathens, judge whether there was not a just proportion between them, and whether their sins did not deserve such calamities to be brought upon them, the Lord by his prophets had denounced;

and say, assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria; the metropolis of the ten tribes, Isa 7:9; and which was built upon a mountain, and several others were about it, and joined to it; where these princes of Ashdod or Azotus in Palestine, and of Egypt, are called to leave their courts, and meet together, to behold the iniquities committed by Israel, and to sit in judgment upon them, and declare their sense of what was just and fitting to be done to such a people:

and behold the great tumults in the midst thereof; the riots of its inhabitants, the noise of the mob committing all manner of outrages and wickedness:

and the oppressed in the midst thereof; the poor, the fatherless, and the widow, injured in their persons and properties, plundered of their substance, or defrauded of it.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The Lion hath roared: who will not fear? The Lord God hath spoken: who can but prophesy? - that is, there is cause for you to fear, when the Lord “roareth from Zion;” but if ye fear not, God’s prophets dare not but fear. So Paul saith, “necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel! For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward; but if against my will, a dispensation” of the Gospel “is committed unto me” 1Co 9:16-17; and Peter and John, “whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye! For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” Act 4:19-20; Moses was not excused, though slow of speech; nor Isaiah, though of polluted lips; nor Jeremiah, because he was a child; but God said, “Say not, I am child, for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak” Jer 1:7. And Ezekiel was bidden, “be not rebellious, like that rebellious house” Eze 2:8. And when Jeremiah would keep silence, he saith, “His Word was in mine heart as a burning fire, shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing and I could not stay” Jer 20:9.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The lion hath roared; God hath threatened; and, as a lion roareth when near his prey, so God hath terribly threatened what is near to be done. Amos lived and prophesied in Jeroboam’s time, about A.M. 3150, and these threatened judgments began to come upon Israel when the conspiracies and usurpations of Shallum, Menahem, &c. filled all with blood and confusions, about A.M. 3177.

Who will not fear? what wise man, who that is solicitous for his own good and safety, or that hath any affections for the good of others, will do less than reverence and fear, and prevent by a speedy repentance?

The Lord God hath spoken: this is plainly what was before figuratively set forth, God had spoken to his prophets but dreadful things against Israel. Who can but prophesy? they dare not conceal them, Amos cannot but speak what he had heard, Jer 1:17; Act 4:19; 5:25.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

As the lion"s roar forces every one to fear, so the Divine call of the prophet forces him to speak (Jer_20:9; Eze_2:8; 1Co_9:16, etc.) St. Gregory, moralizing, takes the lion in a spiritual sense: "After the power of his Creator has been made known to him, the strength of his adversary ought not to be concealed from him, in order that he might submit himself the more humbly to his defender, the more accurately he had learned the wickedness of his enemy, and might more ardently seek his Creator, the more terrible he found the enemy to be whom he had to avoid. For it is certain that he who less understands the danger he has escaped, loves his deliverer has; and that he who considers the strength of his adversary to be feeble, regards the solace of his defender as worthless" ("Moral.," 32:14). Of course, this exposition does not regard the context.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Hath roared - As a lion roareth when near his prey: so God hath terribly threatened what is near to be done. Prophesy - Amos can not but speak what he had heard.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

A lion has roared; who will not fear?—So has the Holy One, blessed be He, spoken to the prophets to prophesy. Who will not prophesy?

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.