| Amos 1:3
| Thus saith the Lord: For three crimes of Damascus, and for four, I will not convert it: because they have threshed Galaad with iron wains.
| Three---four. That is, for their many unrepented of crimes. (Challoner) --- Three is the first number of which we can say "many or all." Four denotes excess. Thus God forgives many sins, yet punishes when they become excessive. (Worthington) --- Thus profane authors say, (Calmet) Terque quaterque pectus percussa decorum. (Virgil, Aeneid iv.) --- Convert it. That is, I will not spare them, nor turn away the punishments I design to inflict upon them. (Challoner) --- My decree is absolute. --- Wains, designed to make the corn come out, (Calmet) or to cut the straw. (St. Jerome) --- Such instruments were sometimes trailed over men. Septuagint, "they have sawed the pregnant women," etc. This circumstance is borrowed from 4 Kings viii. Damascus was often at war with Israel. But Jeroboam punished it as Theglathphalassar did afterwards, ver. 5., and 4 Kings 16:9. Amos might witness the ravages of the former. (Calmet) --- Azael, or Hazael, who slew his master, Benadad. (Haydock)
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