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The point of the vision is rather obscured by the rendering "summer fruit." "Ripe fruit" would be better, since the emblem represents the northern kingdom as ripe for the dreadful ingathering of judgment. Just as the mellow ripeness of the fruit fixes the time of gathering it, so there comes a stage in national and individual corruption, when there is nothing to be done but to smite. That period is not reached because God changes, but because men get deeper in sin. Because "the harvest is ripe," the sickle is called for. It is a solemn lesson, applying to each soul as well as to communities. By neglect of God's voice, and persistence in our own evil ways, we can make ourselves such that we are ripe for judgment, and can compel long suffering to strike. The tragedy of that fruit-gathering is described with extraordinary grimness and force in the abrupt language of verse

3. The crimes that ripened men for this terrible harvest are next set forth in verses 4 to 6. The catalogue of sins is left incomplete, as if holy indignation turned for relief to the thought of the certain juugment. Amos heaps image on image to deepen the impression of terror and confusion. Everything is turned to its opposite. these threats were fulfilled in the fall of the kingdom of Israel. But that "day of the Lord" was, in principle, a miniature foreshadowing of the great final judgment. The last section (vers. 11-14) specifies one feature of judgment, the deprivation of the despised Word of the Lord. The truth implied is universal in its application. God's message neglected is withdrawn. Conscience stops if continually unheeded. The Gospel may still sound in a man's ears, but have long ceased to reach further. There comes a time when men shall wish wasted opportunities back, and find that they can no more return than last summer's heat.

(A. Maclaren, D. D.)

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KJV: Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me: and behold a basket of summer fruit.

WEB: Thus the Lord Yahweh showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit.