Amos 3:15

“And I will smite the winter house with the summer house, etc.] Both the one and, the other shall fall to the ground, being beat down by the enemy, or shook and made to fall by the earthquake predicted, (<300101>Amos 1:1); as Kimchi thinks: kings and great personages had houses in the city in the winter season, in which they lived for warmth; and others in the country in the summertime, to which they retired for the benefit of the air; or they had, in one and the same house, a summer and a winter parlour; (see <070320>Judges 3:20 <243622>Jeremiah 36:22); it signifies that the destruction should reach city and country, and deprive them of what was for their comfort and pleasure: and the houses…”

“winter . . . summer house-- (Jdg 3:20; Jer 36:22). Winter houses of the great were in sheltered positions facing the south to get all possible sunshine, summer houses in forests and on hills, facing the east and north. houses of ivory--having their walls, doors, and ceilings inlaid with ivory. So Ahab's house (Kg1 22:39; Psa 45:8). Next: Amos Chapter 4”

“And I will smite the winter house with the summer house - Upon idolatry, there follow luxury and pride. “So wealthy were they,” says Jerome, “as to possess two sorts of houses, “the winter house” being turned to the south, the “summer house” to the north, so that, according to the variety of the seasons, they might temper to them the heat and cold.” Yet of these luxuries, (so much more natural in the East where summer-heat is so intense, and there is so little provision against cold) the only instance expressly recorded, besides this place, is “the winter house” of Jehoiakim. In Greece and Rome , the end was attained, as with us, by north and south rooms in the same house. These, which Amos…”

“The winter - house - Which probably was in the chief city, whither the great men retired in the winter. The summer - house - The houses of pleasure, where the nobles and rich men spent the summer time. Of ivory - Beautified with ivory. Next: Amos Chapter 4”

“3:15 Ivory represents the immense, ill-gotten wealth of the rich. Archaeologists have found some of these ivory inlays in the ruins of Samaria.”

“the winter: Jer 36:22 the summer: Jdg 3:20 the houses: Kg1 22:39 the great: Amo 3:11, Amo 6:11; Isa 5:9 Next: Amos Chapter 4”