Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
Come to Beth-el and transgress - Having foretold their captivity, the prophet tries irony. But his irony is in bidding them go on to do, what they were doing earnestly, what they were set upon doing, and would not be withdrawn from. As Micaiah in irony, until adjured in the name of God, joined Ahab' s court-priests, bidding, him "go to Ramoth-Gilead" I Kings 22:15, where he was to perish; or Elijah said to the priests of Baal, "Cry aloud, for he is a god" I Kings 18:27; or our Lord, "Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers" Matthew 23:32; so Amos bids them do all they did, in their divided service of God, but tells them that to multiply all such service was to multiply transgression. Yet they were diligent in their way. Their offerings were daily, as at Jerusalem; the tithes of the third year for the poor was paid, as God had ordained Deuteronomy 14:28; Deuteronomy 26:12. They were punctual in these parts of the ritual, and thought much of their punctuality.
So well did they count themselves to stand with God, that there is no mention of sin offering or trespass offering. Their sacrifices were "sacrifics of thanksgiving" and "free will offerings," as if out of exuberance of devotion, such as David said that Zion would "offer," when God had been "favorable and gracious unto" her Psalms 51:18-19. These things they did; they "proclaimed" and "published" them, like the hypocrites whom our Lord reproves, "sounding a trumpet before them" Matthew 6:2 when they did alms; proclaiming these private offerings, as God bade proclaim the solemn assemblies. "For so ye love." They did it, because they liked it, and it cost them nothing, for which they cared. It was more than most Christians will sacrifice, two fifteenths of their yearly income, if they gave the yearly tithes, which were to be shared with the poor also. But they would not sacrifice what God, above all, required, the fundamental breach of God' s law, on which their kingdom rested, "the sin which Jeroboam made Israel to sin." They did what they liked; they were pleased with it, and they had that pleasure for their only reward, as it is of all which is not done for God.
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