Amos 4:9

9 I smote you with burning wind, and with rust, either mildew, the multitude of your orchards, and of your vineries; and a wortworm ate your olive places, and your fig places; and ye came not again to me, saith the Lord. (I struck you with burning wind, and with rust, or mildew, yea, the multitude of your orchards, and your vineyards; and the wortworms ate your olive places, and your fig places; and still ye did not come back to me, saith the Lord.)

Amos 4:9 Meaning and Commentary

Amos 4:9

I have smitten you with blasting and mildew
"Blasting" is what we commonly call "blights", generally occasioned by an east wind; and so Kimchi interprets the word here used; and the Vulgate Latin version renders it, "a burning wind"; which causes the buds and leaves of trees to shrivel up as if they were burnt with fire. "Mildew" is a kind of clammy dew, which falling upon corn corrupts and destroys by its moisture; and is a kind of jaundice to the fruits of the earth; and has its name as that, from yellowness, in the Hebrew language: when the Lord is said to smite them with these the sense is, that he sent these upon the fruits of their gardens, fields and vineyards, which consumed them: when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive
trees increased, the palmer worm devoured [them];
just when they were budding and blossoming, and bringing forth fruit; and so what the blasting and mildew did not consume, that the palmer worm, a kind of locust, did; which has its name from its biting and cutting off the leaves and branches of trees, as of those mentioned vines, olives and fig trees, with which the land of Canaan abounded, the cutting off which was a great calamity. The Targum is,

``the multitude of your gardens the palmer worm hath eaten:''

yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord;
this dispensation of Providence was also without its desired fruit and effect; (See Gill on Amos 4:6).

Amos 4:9 In-Context

7 Also I forbad rain from you, when three months were yet to coming, till to ripe corn; and I rained on one city, and on another city I rained not; one part was berained, and the part dried up on (that) which I rained not. (And I forbade any rain to come to you, when there were yet three months left until the harvest; and I rained on one city, and on another city I did not rain; yea, one part was berained, and the part on which I did not rain, dried up.)

8 And twain and three cities came to one city, to drink water, and those were not [ful]filled; and ye came not again to me, saith the Lord. (And the people of two or three cities came to one city, to drink water, and still they were not fulfilled, or satisfied; and still ye did not come back to me, saith the Lord.)

9 I smote you with burning wind, and with rust, either mildew, the multitude of your orchards, and of your vineries; and a wortworm ate your olive places, and your fig places; and ye came not again to me, saith the Lord. (I struck you with burning wind, and with rust, or mildew, yea, the multitude of your orchards, and your vineyards; and the wortworms ate your olive places, and your fig places; and still ye did not come back to me, saith the Lord.)

10 I sent into you death (as) in the way of Egypt, I smote with sword your young men, till to the captivity of your horses, and I made the stink of your hosts to go up into your nostrils; and ye came not again to me, saith the Lord. (I sent death into you, like I did into Egypt, and I struck down your young men with the sword, and I took away your horses, and I made the stink of the corpses, or of the carrion, in your tents, or in your camps, to go up into your nostrils; and still ye did not come back to me, saith the Lord.)

11 I destroyed you, as God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye be made as a brand ravished (out) of (the) burning; and ye turned not again to me, saith the Lord. (I destroyed you, like God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were made like a brand, or a stick, snatched from the fire; and still ye did not return to me, saith the Lord.)