Amos 5:20

"As if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him; or he went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a snake bit him."

Key Reflection

Amos 5:20 employs vivid imagery to convey God's message of judgment. The Israelites are likened to a person who escapes from one calamity only to face another, emphasizing the certainty and severity of divine punishment. This imagery would resonate with Amos' original audience, as it reflects their familiar experiences with natural dangers like lions, bears, and snakes, making the prophetic threat all the more poignant and immediate.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

Shall not the Day of the Lord be darkness? -He had described that Day as a day of inevitable destruction, such its man’s own conscience and guilty fears anticipate, and then appeals to their own consciences, “is it not so, as I have said?” People’s consciences are truer than their intellect. However, they may employ the subtlety of their intellect to dull their conscience, they feel, in their heart of hearts, that there is a Judge, that guilt is punished, that they are guilty. The soul is a witness to its own deathlessness, its own accountableness, its own punishableness . Intellect carries the question out of itself into the region of surmising and disputings.

More from Amos 5

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

Go deeper with Bible.talk - your AI Bible study companion