SEV Biblia, Chapter 3:12
Así dijo el SEÑOR: De la manera que el pastor libra de la boca del león dos piernas, o la punta de una oreja, así escaparán los hijos de Israel que moran en Samaria, al rincón de la cama, y al canto del lecho.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Amos 3:12
Verse 12. As the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion] Scarcely any of you shall escape; and those that do shall do so with extreme difficulty, just as a shepherd, of a whole sheep carried away by a lion, can recover no more than two of its legs, or a piece of its ear, just enough to prove by the marks on those parts, that they belonged to a sheep which was his own. So shall the children of Israel be taken out] Those of them that escape these judgments shall escape with as great difficulty, and be of as little worth, as the two legs and piece of an ear that shall be snatched out of the lion's mouth. We know that when the Babylonians carried away the people into Chaldea they left behind only a few, and those the refuse of the land.
In the corner of a bed] As the corner is the most honourable place in the East, and a couch in the corner of a room is the place of the greatest distinction; so the words in the text may mean, that even the metropolitan cities, which are in the corner-in the most honourable place-of the land, whether Samaria in Israel, or Damascus in Syria, shall not escape these judgments; and if any of the distinguished persons who dwell in them escape, it must be with as great difficulty as the fragments above-mentioned have been recovered from a lion. The passage is obscure.
Mr. Harmer has taken great pains to illustrate it; but I fear with but little success. A general sense is all we can arrive at.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 12. Thus saith the Lord, as the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion , etc.] Or what the lion has left, to show to his master that it had been seized and torn by a beast of prey; for otherwise it is a most daring thing, and not usual, for a shepherd to take anything out of a lion’s mouth, though David did: and here it is said to be not a whole sheep, or a lamb, but two legs, or a piece of an ear ; the body of the creature being devoured by the lion, only some offal left he cared not for; two shanks of the legs that had no flesh upon them, and the gristle of the ear, as the Targum; having satisfied his hunger with the best of it: signifying hereby that only a few of the Israelites should escape the enemy, and those poor and insignificant, he made no account of; and this in a miraculous manner, it being like taking anything out of the mouth of a lion, to which a powerful enemy is compared, and particularly the king of Assyria, ( Jeremiah 50:17); so shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria ; only a few of them, and those the poorest; and their escape will be next to a miracle, when the city will be taken; even such as are weak and sickly, or faint hearted: being in a corner of a bed ; who either through sickness lie there, or slothfulness, danger being near; or through poverty, having only a corner or a piece of a bed to lie on; or through cowardice they hid themselves in one part of it: and in Damascus [in] a couch ; or “in a bed of Damascus” f104 ; the chief city in Syria, taken much about the same time as Samaria was; and where some of the Israelites might betake themselves, and think themselves secure as persons laid on a couch: or at the bed’s feet f105 , as some render it; or “in a corner of a couch” f106 , as before. The Targum paraphrases it, “that dwell in Samaria, in the strength of power, trusting in Damascus.”
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 9-15 - That power which is an instrument of unrighteousness, will justly be brought down and broken. What is got and kept wrongfully, will not be kept long. Some are at ease, but there will come a day of visitation and in that day, all they are proud of, and put confidence in, shal fail them. God will inquire into the sins of which they have bee guilty in their houses, the robbery they have stored up, and the luxur in which they lived. The pomp and pleasantness of men's houses, do no fortify against God's judgments, but make sufferings the more grievou and vexatious. Yet a remnant, according to the election of grace, wil be secured by our great and good Shepherd, as from the jaws of destruction, in the worst times __________________________________________________________________
Original Hebrew
כה 3541 אמר 559 יהוה 3068 כאשׁר 834 יציל 5337 הרעה 7462 מפי 6310 הארי 738 שׁתי 8147 כרעים 3767 או 176 בדל 915 אזן 241 כן 3651 ינצלו 5337 בני 1121 ישׂראל 3478 הישׁבים 3427 בשׁמרון 8111 בפאת 6285 מטה 4296 ובדמשׁק 1833 ערשׂ׃ 6210
