Amos 2:9 - Exposition

God complains of Israel's ingratitude for the favour which he had shown them. And yet I. The personal pronoun has a prominent position, and is continually repeated, to contrast God's faithfulness and the people's unthankfulness. The Amorite ( Joshua 24:8 , Joshua 24:18 ). The representative of the seven nations of Canaan who were dispossessed by the Israelites ( Genesis 15:16 ; Exodus 23:27 ; Exodus 34:11 ). The hyperbolical description of this people is taken from Numbers 13:32 , etc.; Deuteronomy 1:28 . Thus is shown Israel's inability to cope with such an enemy, and their entire dependence on the help of the Lord. Fruit … roots. Keil explains that the posterity of a nation is regarded as its fruit, and the kernel of the nation out of which it springs as the root, comparing Job 18:16 ; Ezekiel 17:9 ; Hosea 9:16 . The expression is equivalent to our "root and branch" ( Malachi 4:1 ).