Amos 4:12

"“I have overthrown some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a burning stick plucked out of the fire; yet you haven’t returned to me,” says the LORD."

Key Reflection

In Amos 4:12, God compares his judgment upon some of Israel's towns to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, emphasizing the severity of his wrath against their sins. The original audience would have immediately recalled the biblical narrative where these cities were utterly destroyed for their extreme wickedness (Genesis 19). This imagery underscores that if these Israelites had repented when similarly threatened, they might have been spared, but instead, they persisted in their rebellion and continued to disregard God’s warnings.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

Therefore thus will I do unto thee -God says more by His silence. He had enumerated successive scourges. Now, with His hand uplifted to strike, He mentions none, but says, “thus.” Rib.: “So men too, loth to name evils, which they fear and detest, say, “God do so to me, and more also.” God using the language of people” Jerome, “having said, ‘thus will I do unto thee,’ is silent as to what He will do; that so, Israel hanging in suspense, as having before him each sort of punishment (which are the more terrible, because he imagines them one by one), may indeed repent, that God inflict not what He threatens.” Prepare to meet thy God -In judgment, face to face, final to them.

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