2 And he said, The LORD will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither.
(Verse 2.) And he said: The Lord from Zion shall roar, and from Jerusalem he shall give his voice. And the pastures of the shepherds have shone, and the top of Carmel has dried up. LXX: And he said: The Lord from Zion has spoken, and from Jerusalem he has given his voice, and the pastures of the shepherds have shone, and the top of Carmel has dried up. It is natural that all artisans of their craft speak with examples, and each one brings forth the likeness of the one in which he has spent his time: for example, the sailor and the navigator compare their sadness to a storm; they call damage, shipwreck; they call their enemies, adverse winds. Once again, it names prosperity and joy, the most gentle breeze and favorable winds; calm seas and waters, like peaceful fields. From the opposite direction, the soldier signifies whatever he says, shield, sword, armor, helmet, spear, bow, arrow, death, wound, and victory. In the mouths of philosophers, Socrates and Plato are always present, Xenophon and Theophrastus, Zeno and Aristotle, Stoics and Peripatetics. Orators praise Lysias and Hyperides, Pericles and Demosthenes, Gracchi, Catos, Ciceros, and Hortensius in heaven. If they are epic poets, they frequently mention Homer and Virgil; if they are lyric poets, they celebrate Pindar and Flaccus. Why were these things said? To show that even the prophet Amos, who was a shepherd of shepherds, not in cultivated places with planted trees and vineyards, or certainly among green forests and meadows, but in the vastness of the wilderness, where the fierceness of lions and the killing of livestock dwell, made use of his skill in words, in order to mention the terrible and fearful voice of the Lord, the roaring of lions, and the growling of a lion. Comparing the destruction of the Israelite cities to the solitude of shepherds and the dryness of mountains: The Lord, he says, will roar from Zion, and from Jerusalem he will give his voice. In Hebrew, to roar is called Jesag: Beautifully he will roar from Zion, and from Jerusalem he will give his voice, where the temple and the religion of God were, in order to teach that God is not present in the cities of Israel, that is, in Bethel and Dan, where the golden calves were, nor in the capital city of Samaria and Jezreel, but rather in the true religion, which was practiced at that time in Zion and Jerusalem. With the roaring of Zion, and giving his voice from Jerusalem (for the law shall go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem), all the shepherds and kings of Israel have mourned, and the peak of Carmel has dried up, which once abounded with joyful pastures. Carmel is called in Greek and Latin, but in Hebrew it is called Chermel: and there are two mountains, which are called by this name. One in which Nabal was, Carmelus, the husband of Abigail to the South. According to Ptolemy, the place formerly called Acho, which is close to the sea, where the prophet Elias obtained rain on bended knees (1 Kings 15). If therefore it refers to Chermel, where Nabal lived, it is more suitable for the flocks of shepherds, because it is close to the wilderness (3 Kings 18). But if it refers to that place which is near the coast, it pertains to the kings and the pride of the kings of Israel, whom he says are to be devastated like the desert mountains when captivity is imminent. Otherwise, when the Lord from Zion and Jerusalem, from the watchtower of the Church, which is situated on the mountain and cannot be hidden, and in which the vision of peace is, has given through the old and new Testament, and through the ecclesiastical teachers his voice, and has sounded as a clear trumpet, then all the beautiful things of the shepherds, that is, the doctrine of the heretics, which seemed composed in beautiful language, and the knowledge of circumcision (for this is interpreted as Chermel, through which they promise themselves the knowledge of the true circumcision), will mourn and wither, and thousands of peoples, who are called flocks because of their simplicity, will wither suddenly with drought.
[AD 420] Jerome on Amos 1:2