Thus says Yahweh: "For three transgressions of Moab, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; Because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime;
In this chapter, Amos reached the principal object of his prophecy, the rebuke of Israel and the prophecy of her destruction.  This series of judgments (Amos 1:3-2:16) is not a "collection" of separate "oracles," assembled and pieced together by some "editor" or "redactor" from some undetermined period subsequent to the times of Amos; but they constitute a very coherent, logically arranged, and skillfully presented prophecy, the principal import of which was directed against the northern kingdom.  In the previous chapter, Amos cried out against the wickedness of Damascus, Philistia, and Tyre (Israel's pagan neighbors), then against Edom and Ammon (two of Israel's pagan relatives).  In this chapter, Amos continued the prophecy against Israel's pagan kinsmen, Moab, and then very properly, and of necessity, included the prophetic denunciation of his own nation, Judah, including a specific revelation that Jerusalem too would be destroyed for their sins.  If Amos had left out this denunciative prophecy of Jerusalem, it would have compromised his whole message.  The people would have said, "Ah, we see that this so-called prophet is blind to the spectacular sins of his nation at the very moment he is crying out against everyone else!"  In the light of this truth which is clearly visible to anyone, how utterly unfounded, unprovable, illogical and arbitrary are the postulations of the malignant critics who would credit  Amos 2:4,5 to some nameless "redactor."  Further attention to this will be given in the notes on those verses; but let it be said here that the "redactor" of critical fancy is an imaginary person created subjectively by Biblical enemies, having no genuine reality whatever.  This ephemeral, shadowy "character" is impossible of any objective identification.  He belongs to all races, all centuries, all religions, and all conditions of society.  Every conceivable motive is freely ascribed to him, but no one has ever named him!  We unhesitatingly declare him to be a fraud and a deceit perpetrated in the interest of destructive criticism.  He is the "Piltdown Man" of Old Testament exegesis!  If the student is unfamiliar with this universally-known hoax, called the "Piltdown Man", let him consult an encyclopedia.