Teks -- Amos 3:5 (NET)

3:5 Does a bird swoop down into a trap on the ground if there is no bait? Does a trap spring up from the ground unless it has surely caught something?

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per frasa)

Wesley: Amo 3:5 - Can a bird fall

So here for your sins, God will cast the net over you.

Wesley: Amo 3:5 - Shall one take up a snare

The fowler will not take up the snare, before the prey be taken in it.

JFB: Amo 3:3-6

Here follow several questions of a parable-like kind, to awaken conviction in the people.

JFB: Amo 3:3-6 - Can two walk together, except they be agreed?

Can God's prophets be so unanimous in prophesying against you, if God's Spirit were not joined with them, or if their prophecies were false? The Israelites were "at ease," not believing that God was with the prophets in their denunciations of coming ruin to the nation (Amo 6:1, Amo 6:3; compare 1Ki 22:18, 1Ki 22:24, 1Ki 22:27; Jer 43:2). This accords with Amo 3:7-8. So "I will be with thy mouth" (Exo 4:12; Jer 1:8; Mat 10:20). If the prophets and God were not agreed, the former could not predict the future as they do. In Amo 2:12 He had said, the Israelites forbade the prophets prophesying; therefore, in Amo 3:3, Amo 3:8, He asserts the agreement between the prophets and God who spake by them against Israel [ROSENMULLER]. Rather, "I once walked with you" (Lev 26:12) as a Father and Husband (Isa 54:5; Jer 3:14); but now your way and Mine are utterly diverse; there can therefore be no fellowship between us such as there was (Amo 3:2); I will walk with you only to "punish you"; as a "lion" walks with his "prey" (Amo 3:4), as a bird-catcher with a bird [TARNOVIUS]. The prophets, and all servants of God, can have no fellowship with the ungodly (Psa 119:63; 2Co 6:16-17; Eph 5:11; Jam 4:4).

JFB: Amo 3:5

When a bird trying to fly upwards is made to fall upon the earth snare, it is a plain proof that the snare is there; so, Israel, now that thou art falling, infer thence, that it is in the snare of the divine judgment that thou art entangled [LUDOVICUS DE DIEU].

JFB: Amo 3:5 - shall one take up a snare from the earth, and have taken nothing

The bird-catcher does not remove his snare off the ground till he has caught some prey; so God will not withdraw the Assyrians, &c., the instruments of punishment, until they have had the success against you which God gives them. The foe corresponds to the "snare," suddenly springing from the ground and enclosing the bird on the latter touching it; the Hebrew is literally, "Shall the snare spring from the earth?" Israel entangled in judgments answers to the bird "taken."

Clarke: Amo 3:5 - Can a bird fall in a snare

Can a bird fall in a snare - Can ye, as a sinful people, fall into calamities which I have not appointed

Clarke: Amo 3:5 - Shall one take up a snare - and have taken nothing

Shall one take up a snare - and have taken nothing - Will the snare be removed before it has caught the expected prey? - shall I remove my judgments till they are fully accomplished? This is a curious passage, and deserves farther consideration. The original, literally translated, is nearly as follows: "Shall the trap arise from the ground; and catching, shall it not catch?"Here is a plain allusion to such traps as we employ to catch rats, foxes, etc. The jaws of the trap opening backward, press strongly upon a spring so as to keep it down; and a key passing over one jaw, and hooking on a table in the center, the trap continues with expanded jaws, till any thing touch the table, when the key, by the motion of the table, being loosened, the spring recovers all its elastic power, and throws up the jaws of the trap, and their serrated edges either close in each other, or on the prey that has moved the table of the trap. Will then the jaws of such a trap suddenly spring up from the ground, on which before they were lying flat, and catch nothing? Shall they let the prey that was within them escape? Certainly not. So my trap is laid for these offenders; and when it springs up, (and they themselves will soon by their transgressions free the key), shall not the whole family of Israel be inclosed in it? Most certainly they shall. This is a singular and very remarkable passage, and, when properly understood, is beautifully expressive.

Calvin: Amo 3:5 - NO PHRASE

The third similitude now follows, Will a bird fall on the earth, he says, without a fowler? The Prophet means here that nothing happens without being foreseen by God; for as nets are laid for birds, so God ensnares men by his hidden punishments. Unexpectedly indeed calamity comes, and it is commonly ascribed to chance; but the Prophet here reminds us that God stretches his nets, in which men are caught, though they think that chance rules, and observe not the hand of God. They are deceived, he says; for the bird foresees not the ensnaring prepared for him; but yet he falls not on the earth without the fowler: for nets weave not themselves by chance, but they are made by the industry of the man who catches birds. So also calamities do not happen by chance, but proceed from the secret purpose of God. But we must observe, that similitudes ought not to be too strictly applied to the subject in hand. Were one to asks how God could compare himself here to a fowler, as there is craft and artifice employed in catching innocent birds, when nets are laid for them, it would be a frivolous question; for it is evident enough what the Prophet meant, and that the design of his words was to show, that punishments fall on men, and that they are ensnared through the secret purpose of God; for God has long ago foreseen what he will do, though men act heedlessly, as the birds who foresee nothing.

Then it follows in the fourth place, Will the fowler remove his snare before he has made a capture? In this second clause the Prophet intimates that the threatening of God would not be without effect; for he will execute whatever he declares. It is indeed certain, that fowlers often return home empty, and gather their nets though they have taken nothing; but the Prophet, as I have said, in using these similitudes, only states what fowlers usually do, when they are in hope of some prey. As for instance, when one spreads his nets, he will wait, and will not gather his nets until he takes some prey, if so be that a prey should come; he may indeed wait in vain all night. Then as fowlers are not wearied, and wish not to lose their labor after they have spread their nets, so also the Prophet says that God does not in vain proclaim his threatenings to serve as empty bugbears, but that his nets remain until he has taken his prey; which means, that God will really execute what he has threatened by his Prophets. The meaning then is, that God’s word is not ineffectual, but when God declares any thing, it is sure to be accomplished: and hence he reproves the Israelites for receiving so heedlessly and with deaf ears all God’s threatening, as though he was only trifling with them. “It will not be,” he says, “as you expect; for God will take his prey before he takes up his nets.”

TSK: Amo 3:5

Ecc 9:12; Jer 31:28; Dan 9:14

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per Ayat)

Poole: Amo 3:5 - A bird // Fall in a snare // Shall one take up a snare, and have taken nothing at all?

A bird a sparrow properly, one kind put for all sorts.

Fall in a snare: these are taken by nets spread on the earth for that end, and these nets are watched by the fowler, attending till the birds are within the shrape, then he draws the net over them: so here, For your sins, O Israel, God will spread his net, he will as a watchful fowler attend and keep his eye upon you, and cast the net over you.

Shall one take up a snare, and have taken nothing at all? flatter not yourselves as if you should finally escape because you have so long been safe and prosperous; though the fowler doth long wait, he will not take up the snare before all the prey, or some of it at least, be taken in it: so the Lord, against whom you have sinned, and who hath spread his net for you, will certainly let it lie till you are taken in it.

Haydock: Amo 3:5 - Somewhat?

Somewhat? When the prophet speaks, has he no reason? God shews that he has sent him, by inflicting the punishments which he denounces.

Gill: Amo 3:5 - Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin is for him // shall one take up a snare from the earth // and have taken nothing at all

Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin is for him?.... No, there must be a snare set, or a bird can never be taken in it; and that is done, not by chance, but with the design of the fowler; yea, with the knowledge and will of God himself, Mat 10:29; the design of this is to show, that no judgment or affliction comes upon a people, or they into one, by chance, or without the appointment of God; they are his nets and snares, which he on purpose spreads and sets for persons, to take them in; and unless he did do so, they would not fall into any; see Job 5:6;

shall one take up a snare from the earth; the Targum adds, out of its time:

and have taken nothing at all? when men set a snare to catch anything, do they take it up before anything is caught? they do not; they let it stand till something is ensnared in it, and so their end answered, and then they take it up, and not before. And thus when God denounces or brings a judgment, or an affliction, upon a people, does he remove it before the end is answered by it? he does not; if the end is to bring men to a sense of sin, and humiliation for it; or to bring near to God who have been wandering from him; or to try their graces, or take away their sin; when such an end is answered, then, and not till then, is the snare taken up, or the affliction removed; tilt such an end is brought about, the distress is continued, or the threatening of it; and of this Israel is hereby assured.