The Crimes of Israel and her Neighbours (Chs. 1, 2). 

        The mention of all Israel’s neighbours as ripe for judgment will have made the people think that the New Year was ushering in the Day of the Lord. Note that in at least one case (Moab, 2:1ff), and possibly in two others (Philistines, 1:6ff, and Tyre, 1:9f), the crimes condemned are not against Israel at all. God will not punish the nations because they have harmed Israel, but because He is the Judge of all the earth.

        For the Nazirites (2:11) see Num. 6:1-21. Their purpose was obviously to enable the Israelite who had no other possi­bility of publicly serving God to show his zeal and love. The opposition to them arose probably from the Nazirites’ rejection of the grape-vine and all connected with it, thus reminding the people of the contrast between the wilderness (cf. Hos. 2:14f; 9:10, Jer. 2:2), where the covenant was first made, and the settled life of the land of  Canaan.