a
devouring fire,*** a plumb-line in the hands of the Lord,**** a basket
laden with summer fruits--till at last the whole people of Israel take
refuge in their temple, vainly hoping that there they may escape from
the vengeance of the Eternal. "There shall not one of them flee away,
and there shall not one of them escape. Though they dig into hell,
thence shall Mine hand take them; and though they climb up to heaven,
thence will I bring them down. And though they hide themselves in the
top of Oarmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they
be hid from My sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command
the serpent, and he shall bite them. And though they go into captivity
before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay
them; and I will set Mine eyes upon them for evil and not for good."^

* Most commentators admit that the nation raised up by
Jahveh to oppress Israel "from the entering in of Hamath
unto the brook of the Arabah" (Amos vi. 14) was no other
than Assyria. At the very period in which Amos flourished,
Assurdan made two campaigns against Hadrach, in 765 and 755,
which brought his armies right up to the Israelite frontier
(Schrader, Keilinschrift. Bibliothec, vol. i. pp. 210-
213).

** Amos vii. 1-3.

*** Amos vii. 4-6.

**** Amos vii. 7-9. It is here that the speech delivered by
the prophet at Bethel is supposed to occur (vii. 9); the
narrative of what afterwards happened follows immediately
(Amos vii. 10-17).

^ Amos viii. 1-3.; Amos ix. 1-4.

For the first time in history a prophet foretold disaster and banishment
for a whole people: love of country was already giving place in the
heart of Amos to his conviction of the universal jurisdiction of God,
and this conviction led him to regard as possible and probable a
state of things in which Israel should have no part. Nevertheless,
its decadence was to be merely temporary; Jahveh, though prepared to
chastise the posterity of Jacob severely, could not bring Himself to
destroy it utterly. The kingdom of David was soon to flourish anew:
"Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake
the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the
mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. And I
will bring again the captivity of My people Israel, and they shall build
the waste cities, and