Amos 1:11-12

Amos 1:11-12

[11] Thus saith  For three  transgressions  of Edom,  and for four,  I will not turn away  the punishment thereof; because he did pursue  his brother  with the sword,  and did cast off  all pity,  and his anger  did tear  perpetually,  and he kept  his wrath  for ever:  [12] But I will send  a fire  upon Teman,  which shall devour  the palaces  of Bozrah. 

What does Amos 1:11-12 Mean?

Contextual Meaning

Amos next moved from addressing chief cities to addressing countries, specifically countries with closer ethnic ties to the Israelites. Perhaps their closer relationship to Israel is why he mentioned countries rather than cities in the introductions to the later oracles.
Edom"s overflowing sin that brought divine wrath down on its people was the way the Edomites had treated the Israelites. The Edomites had been very hostile to their "brother," Israel (cf. Genesis 25:29-30; Numbers 20:14; Deuteronomy 2:4; Deuteronomy 23:7; Obadiah 1:12). This hostility existed throughout the history of these two nations. This animosity even led the Edomites to attack the Israelites with the sword (cf. Obadiah 1:10). Consequently God would send destruction on Edom"s chief southern region and a prominent northern city, even on the whole land (a merism). Teman was both a village and a southern region in Edom, but here the region is probably in view. [1] Bozrah was a northern city.
The Assyrians subjugated Edom in the eighth century B.C, and the Nabateans, an Arabian tribe, took it over in the fourth century B.C.