Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
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 Amos 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; Isaiah 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.
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing Amos 5:19:
Ecclesiastes 10:8
Isaiah 24:17
Malachi 2:17
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