AMOS Analysis 2:4

Walk through Amos, verse by verse, with the great Bible Commentaries of Matthew Henry (1662 - 1714) & Adam Clarke (1760 - 1832)

2:4

Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have despised the law of the LORD, and have not kept his commandments, and their lies caused them to err, after the which their fathers have walked: KJV

{The Lord saith these things, On three great trespasses of Judah, and on four, I shall not convert him, for he hath cast away the law of the Lord, and kept not the commandments of him; for their idols, after which the fathers of them went, deceived them.} Wycliffe's Bible

For three transgressions of Judah - We may take the three and four here to any latitude; for this people lived in continual hostility to their God, from the days of David to the time of Uzziah, under whom Amos prophesied. Their iniquities are summed up under three general heads:

1. They despised, or rejected the law of the Lord.
2. They kept not his statutes.
3. They followed lies, were idolaters, and followed false prophets rather than those sent by Jehovah.

  Judah also is a near neighbor to Israel, and therefore, now that justice is riding the circuit, that shall not be passed by; that nation has made itself like the heathen and mingled with them, and therefore the indictment here runs against them in the same form in which it had run against all the rest: