Thus Hashem showed me. This too is spoken by the prophet to Amaziah. He told him that what had been said to him in prophecy—that Israel would surely go into exile—had been shown to him in a vision, for the image depicted before the prophet in the prophetic vision indicates that the decree has been finalized and will inevitably come to pass. He explains the vision that he saw concerning this: Hashem showed him a basket of summer fruit. The keluv is a vessel specifically used for placing birds caught by a hunter, as it is written, "As a cage is full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit." The kayitz are dried figs, which are ordinarily placed in a basket, not in a cage; yet he saw the figs placed in a cage.

And He said, "What do you see?" That is, what appears remarkable to you in this vision? "A cage of summer fruit," for these two things together are remarkable: how can summer fruit be placed in a cage? He answered him that both the summer fruit and the cage signify what is destined to happen to Israel. The summer fruit signifies that "the end has come upon My people Israel." Just as the summer fruit marks the end of the gathering of the fruits and the season cannot be postponed, so too the final end has come, and "I will no longer pass over him." It will not be changed or postponed to another time.

And the songs of the temple shall become wailings on that day. The songs that they sang in the temple of the idols will be transformed into wailing, for it was because of them that the calamity came. And the fact that they were placed in a cage, which is a vessel specifically used for placing dead birds, comes to allude to the fact that many shall be the corpses, as numerous as the carcasses of captured birds, so that they will lie in every place. Not all of them will remain in the cage, but they will be cast out from the cage, for he saw the cage empty, without birds. That is, their corpses will lie strewn through the streets. Silence. This word has no clear explanation, and it appears that the prophet had one more thing to reveal but feared to reveal it because of the danger, and therefore said, "Silence," meaning that one must remain silent and not reveal the matter. What the prophet concealed here was later explained (Isaiah, chapter 7) in the words, "And within sixty-five years Ephraim shall be shattered from being a people." This means within sixty-five years from the time when Amos prophesied that "Israel shall surely go into exile from its land," for from that time until the exile of the Ten Tribes was sixty-five years. Yet nowhere in the words of Amos do we find that he explicitly specified the time, for he was commanded not to reveal it openly but only by allusion, and it was transmitted by tradition to the disciples of the prophets. He therefore said, "Silence," meaning that one must remain silent, and he chose this word because its numerical value is sixty-five, thereby alluding that within sixty-five years, corresponding to the numerical value of has, this event would occur. The reason he did not explicitly reveal the time is that when a prophet foretells a future calamity without specifying a time, this does not greatly trouble the people, for they know that adverse prophecies can sometimes be changed or their fulfillment delayed when the people's conduct changes for the better, as it is written, "The vision that he sees is for many days hence" (Ezekiel 12). But if he specifies a definite time, this indicates that the time is near and that the event will not change under any circumstances. Hashem therefore did not wish him to say this openly, and he said the word has, "Silence," to indicate that there was a secret here about which he remained silent, while also alluding to the time through the numerical value of has. This was transmitted by tradition to the disciples of the prophets, and Isaiah, who lived in the days of Ahaz, when the time was already approaching, explained the matter: the word has means that within sixty-five years Ephraim would be shattered from being a people, and there would be many corpses everywhere.

Hear this, please. He returns to what he began by saying, "For three transgressions of Israel, etc., because they sold the righteous for silver," for the final decree was sealed because they oppressed the poor and the needy. He says that those who pant after and desire to swallow up the needy, and to cause the poor of the land to cease, should hear this. They seek to have the poor cease from their labor by observing the Sabbatical year and the remission of debts, as he will explain.

Saying. Corresponding to "those who pant after the needy," since the needy man has no field and all his livelihood comes from gleanings, forgotten sheaves, and the corner of the field, they say, "When will the new moon pass?" This refers to the month of harvest, during which the poor sustain themselves from the gifts designated for them. Alternatively, it means: When will the month be intercalated, so that Nisan will pass beyond its proper time, thereby delaying the barley harvest because of the Omer and diminishing the needy man's food? Then "we may sell grain" at a high price. And when will "the Sabbath" come, meaning the Sabbatical year? This corresponds to what was said, "to cause the poor of the land to cease." Concerning the poor man who has a field, they look forward to the Sabbatical year, when he has no produce from his field, and then "we will open" our storehouses of grain and raise the market price, selling as we please. Their fraud will take three forms: first, "making the ephah small"; second, "making the shekel great"; and third, "distorting the balances of deceit," which is fraud in weight through the use of dishonest scales.

To buy. Until the poor lack bread, and then we will buy them with silver as slaves; and the needy man, who is worse off than the poor man, we will buy for a pair of sandals, meaning for something of little value. Then we will no longer sell grain that is clean and pure, but we will sell the refuse of the grain, the waste that falls through the sieve, and even for this we will receive a high price.

Hashem has sworn by the pride of Jacob, meaning by His glorious holy Name, upon which the pride of Jacob depended: "Surely I will never forget any of their deeds." Even if I do not punish them immediately, I will not forget, and in the end they will receive their punishment.

Shall not the land tremble for this? That is, how can I forget their deeds? Even if I wished to forget them, the land itself would tremble from its place to swallow its inhabitants, until all who dwell in it mourn. For when people corrupt the order of law and conduct between one person and another with such depravity, nature itself takes vengeance to destroy its inhabitants. In his figurative language, the prophet depicts the calamity that will come upon them through three poetic images: first, the trembling and quaking of the earth; second, a river overflowing and covering the land. He takes this image from the Nile, which covers the land and rises because of the rains that fall upon the mountains of the land of Cush (Abyssinia). The vapors rising in the land of Egypt are driven toward the mountains of Cush, where waters pour down from the mountains and return to cover Egypt. Therefore, he says, "And all of it shall rise like the Nile," calling the Nile or because of the rains that come from the air. When the Nile rises, its waters cast up mud and mire until these settle, and then the waters come to rest. The metaphor is that at first a rebellion arose against their king, Hoshea son of Elah, as I explained in various places in Hosea. This corresponds to the earthquake arising from within the land itself. The rebels then informed the king of Assyria that Hoshea had conspired against him and sent messengers to So, king of Egypt. This corresponds to the rainwater that goes forth from the land toward Cush. As a result, the king of Assyria came upon them like an overflowing river, as it is written, "Behold, Hashem brings up upon them the waters of the River, mighty and many, the king of Assyria, etc." It cast up mud and mire and flooded the land, and then the land sank down when its inhabitants were exiled, just as Ezekiel figuratively says in chapter 32, "Then I will make their waters settle, etc.," because neither the foot of man nor beast was found there, due to the desolation and destruction of the land.

And it shall be on that day that I will cause the sun to set at noon. Now he takes up a third image: darkness will come upon their land, both from above, in that the sun will set, which is a metaphor for Hashem's withdrawal from them and for the darkening of their fortune and prosperity; and also, "I will darken the land," meaning that there will be darkness from the earth below, in the form of cloud and thick gloom, which are attributed to the earth. This is a metaphor for the confounding of their counsel and the thwarting of their might. Both will occur contrary to nature and the ordinary order of the world, and therefore he says, "at noon, in broad daylight."

And I will turn your festivals into mourning. During a festival one does not mourn over the past, but only over something present or future, concerning which continuing mourning can be conceived. And your songs into lamentation; lamentation is only over the past. And I will bring sackcloth upon every waist; sackcloth is worn for prayer and fasting over a present or future calamity. And baldness upon every head; baldness is over the past. That is, they will lament and make themselves bald over the past, while they will mourn and wear sackcloth over the present and the future.

And I will make it like the mourning of an only child, like one who mourns for an only son and has no other son in whom to find consolation. And he adds, "and its end like a bitter day," for one whose son has died can still find consolation in the fact that he himself remains alive, but its end will be like the day of death, when all hope is lost.

Behold, days are coming. Corresponding to what he will say in verse 13, that on that day of exile they will faint from thirst because they did not wish to listen to the voice of Hashem, he first says that days will yet come when the famine that I will send upon the land will not be a famine for bread, and the thirst will not be a thirst for water, as on the day of exile, but rather the famine and thirst will be to hear the word of Hashem. This occurred during the Second Temple period, when the word of Hashem was rare in those days, for after the last prophets, prophetic vision ceased. Yet the Holy Spirit still remained among them, and they made use of the heavenly voice, and they sought after the word of Hashem and thirsted to hear His words.

And they shall wander. And after those days, they shall wander from sea to sea, that is, from the southern sea to the western sea, and from the north they shall wander to the east, for they will be scattered to the four corners of the heavens. And in all the places to which they wander in exile, they shall roam about seeking the word of Hashem, but they shall not find it, for after the destruction, even the heavenly voice ceased, together with the manifestation of the word of Hashem.

On that day. That is, all this will occur in the days to come in the future; but on that day of which he spoke above, when he said, "And the songs of the temple shall become wailings on that day," and, "And it shall be on that day that I will cause the sun to set at noon," namely, on the day appointed for the exile of the Ten Tribes sixty-five years later, it will not be the elders and those who seek Hashem who will thirst, nor will the thirst be for the word of Hashem. Rather, the beautiful maidens and the young men shall faint from actual thirst for water, for they do not thirst for the word of Hashem; rather, they are—

Those who swear by the guilt of Samaria, by the calves made by the kings of Samaria, and who swear by the calf in Dan and by the way of Beersheba, along which they would travel to Beth-el. Therefore, they shall fall and never rise again, as he said at the beginning of his words, "She has fallen and shall rise no more." He explained the matter by saying, "For thus says Hashem: Seek Me and live; but do not seek Beth-el, etc., nor pass through Beersheba."