19. As if a man did flee . . . a lion, and a bear met
him--Trying to escape one calamity, he falls into another. This
perhaps implies that in
Am 5:18
their ironical desire for the day of the Lord was as if it would be an
escape from existing calamities. The coming of the day of the Lord
would be good news to us, if true: for we have served God (that is, the
golden calves). So do hypocrites flatter themselves as to death and
judgment, as if these would be a relief from existing ills of life.
The lion may from generosity spare the prostrate, but the bear
spares none (compare
Job 20:24;
Isa 24:18).
leaned . . . on the wall--on the side wall of the house, to support
himself from falling. Snakes often hid themselves in fissures in a wall.
Those not reformed by God's judgments will be pursued by them: if they
escape one, another is ready to seize them.
JFB.
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