Amos 9
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Book of Amos (5:21-9:15) in Latin in Codex Gigas, made around 13th century.
Book	Book of Amos
Category	Nevi'im
Christian Bible part	Old Testament
Order in the Christian part	30

Amos 9 is the ninth (and the last) chapter of the Book of Amos in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible.^[1][2] This book contains the prophecies spoken by the prophet Amos, especially the seventh, eighth, and ninth chapters contain visions, with their explanations.^[3] It is a part of the Book of the Twelve Minor Prophets.^[4][5]

Text

• The original text is written in Hebrew language.
• This chapter is divided into 15 verses.

Textual versions

Some most ancient manuscripts containing this chapter in Hebrew language:

• Masoretic Text (10th century)
• Dead Sea Scrolls: (2nd century BC)^[6][7]
  • 4Q82 (4QXII^g): extant: verses 1, 5‑6, 14‑15^[6]
  • Wadi Murabba'at (MurXII): extant: verses 1‑15^[6]

Ancient translations in Koine Greek:

• Septuagint (3rd century BC)
• Theodotion version (~AD 180)

Structure

This chapter can be grouped into:

• Amos 9:1–10 = The Destruction of Israel
• Amos 9:11–15 = Israel Will Be Restored

Verse 9

For, lo, I will command,

and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations,

like as corn is sifted in a sieve,

yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.^[8]

• "sift": I will cause the Israelites to be tossed about through all nations as corn is shaken about in a sieve, in such a way, however, that while the chaff and dust (the wicked) fall through (perish), all the solid grains (the godly elect) remain (are preserved), (Romans 11:26; Jeremiah 3:14). So spiritual Israel's final safety is ensured (Luke 22:32; John 10:28; 6:39).^[3]

Verse 11

In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen,

and close up the breaches thereof;

and I will raise up his ruins,

and I will build it as in the days of old:^[9]

• "In that day": When the judgment has fallen. The passage is quoted by St. James (Acts 15:16, 27), mostly from the Greek, in confirmation of the doctrine that the Church of God is open to all, whether Jew or Gentile.^[10]
• "The tabernacle": (Hebrew: sukkah) or "hut", "tent" (as Jonah 4:5); no palace now, but fallen to low estate, a "little house" (Amos 6:11). The prophet refers probably to the fall of the kingdom of David in the ruin wrought by the Chaldeans. Interpreted spiritually, the passage shadows forth the universal Church of Christ, raised from that of the Jews. Pusey notes that in the Talmud Christ is called "the Son of the fallen."^[10]
• "And close up": Literally, "wall up, the breaches thereof." The house of David had at this time sustained breaches. It had yet more serious breaches to sustain thereafter. The first great breach was the rending off of the ten tribes. It sustained breaches, through the Assyrians; and yet more when itself was carried away captive to Babylon, and so many of its residue fled into Egypt. Breaches are repaired by new stones; the losses of the house of David were to be filled up by accessions from the Gentiles. God Himself should "close up the breaches;" so should they remain closed; and "the gates of hell should not prevail against" the Church which He builded. Amos heaps upon one another the words implying destruction. A "hut" and that "falling; breaches; ruins;" (literally, "his ruinated, his destructions"). But he also speaks of it in a way which excludes the idea of "the hut of David," being "the royal Dynasty" or "the kingdom of Judah." For he speaks of it, not as an abstract thing, such as a kingdom is, but as a whole, consisting of individuals. He speaks not only of "the hut of David," but of "'their (fem.)' breaches," "'his' ruins," that God would "build 'her' up," "that 'they' (masc.) may inherit;" using apparently this variety of numbers and genders , in order to show that he is speaking of one living whole, the Jewish Church, now rent in two by the great schism of Jeroboam, but which should be reunited into one body, members of which should win the pagan to the true faith in God. "I will raise up," he says, "the tabernacle of David, the fallen, and will wall up 'their' breaches," (the breaches of the two portions into which it had been rent) and I will raise up "his" ruins (the "ruinated places" of David) and I will build "her" (as one whole) as in the days of old, (before the rent of the ten tribes, when all worshiped as one), that "they," (masculine) that is, individuals who should go forth out of her, "may inherit, etc."^[11]

Verse 14

And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel,

and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them;

and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof;

they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.^[12]

• "And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel": Which is not to be understood of the captivity of the Jews in Babylon, and their return from thence, with whom some of the ten tribes of Israel were mixed; for they were not then so planted in their own land as no more to be pulled up again, as is here promised; for they afterwards were dispossessed of it by the Romans, and carried captive, and dispersed among the nations again; but the captivity both of Judah and Israel is meant, their present captivity, which will be brought back, and they will be delivered from it, and return to their own land, and possess it as long as it is a land; see Jeremiah 30:3; as well as be freed from the bondage of sit, Satan, and the law, under which they have been detained some hundreds of years; but now shall be delivered into the glorious liberty of the children of God, of Christians, with which Christ has made them free.^[13]
• "build the waste cities": (Isaiah 61:4; Ezekiel 36:33-36).^[3]