Amos 8:10 - Exposition

I will turn your feasts into mourning, etc. (comp. Amos 8:3 : Amos 5:16 , Amos 5:17 ; Lamentations 5:15 ; Hosea 2:11 ; Tobit 2:6). Sackcloth . A token of mourning ( 1 Kings 20:31 ; Isaiah 15:3 ; Joel 1:8 , Joel 1:13 ). Baldness. On shaving the head as a sign of mourning, see note on Micah 1:16 ; and comp. Job 1:20 ; Isaiah 3:24 ; Jeremiah 16:6 ; Jeremiah 47:5 ; Ezekiel 7:18 ). I will make it; Ponam eam (Vulgate); sc . terram . But it is better to take it to refer to the whole state of things mentioned before. The mourning for an only son was proverbially severe, like that of the widow of Nain ( Luke 7:12 , etc.; comp. Jeremiah 6:26 ; Zechariah 12:10 ). And the end thereof as a bitter day. The calamity should not wear itself out; it should be bitter unto the end. Septuagint, θήσομαι … τοὺς μέτ αὐτοῦ ὡς ἡμέραν ὀδύνης , "I will make … those with him as a day of anguish."