Part 1037

2:1. Thus saith the Lord: For three crimes of Moab, and for four I will not convert him: because he hath burnt the bones of the king of Edom even to ashes.

2:2. And I will send a fire into Moab, and it shall devour the houses of Carioth: and Moab shall die with a noise, with the sound of the trumpet:

2:3. And I will cut off the judge from the midst thereof, and will slay all his princes with him, saith the Lord.

2:4. Thus saith the Lord: For three crimes of Juda, and for four I will not convert him: because he hath cast away the law of the Lord, and hath not kept his commandments: for their idols have caused them to err, after which their fathers have walked.

2:5. And I will send a fire into Juda, and it shall devour the houses of Jerusalem.

2:6. Thus saith the Lord: For three crimes of Israel, and for four I will not convert him: because he hath sold the just man for silver, and the poor man for a pair of shoes.

2:7. They bruise the heads of the poor upon the dust of the earth, and turn aside the way of the humble: and the son and his father have gone to the same young woman, to profane my holy name.

2:8. And they sat down upon garments laid to pledge by every altar: and drank the wine of the condemned in the house of their God.

2:9. Yet I cast out the Amorrhite before their face: whose height was like the height of cedars, and who was strong as an oak: and I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots beneath.

2:10. It is I that brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and I led you forty years through the wilderness, that you might possess the land of the Amorrhite.

2:11. And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites. Is it not so, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord?

2:12. And you will present wine to the Nazarites: and command the prophets, saying: Prophesy not.

2:13. Behold, I will screak under you as a wain screaketh that is laden with hay.

I will screak.... Unable to bear any longer the enormous load of your sins, etc. The spirit of God, as St. Jerome takes notice, accommodates himself to the education of the prophet and inspires him with comparisons taken from country affairs.

2:14. And flight shall perish from the swift, and the valiant shall not possess his strength, neither shall the strong save his life.

2:15. And he that holdeth the bow shall not stand, and the swift of foot shall not escape, neither shall the rider of the horse save his life.

2:16. And the stout of heart among the valiant shall flee away naked in that day, saith the Lord.

Amos Chapter 3

The evils that shall fall upon Israel for their sins.

3:1. Hear the word that the Lord hath spoken concerning you, O ye children of Israel: concerning the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt, saying:

3:2. You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore will I visit upon you all your iniquities.

Visit upon.... That is, punish.

3:3. Shall two walk together except they be agreed?

3:4. Will a lion roar in the forest, if he have no prey? will the lion’s whelp cry out of his den, if he have taken nothing?

3:5. Will the bird fall into the snare upon the earth, if there be no fowler? Shall the snare be taken up from the earth, before it hath taken somewhat?

3:6. Shall the trumpet sound in a city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in a city, which the Lord hath not done?

Evil in a city.... He speaks of the evil of punishments of war, famine, pestilence, desolation, etc., but not of the evil of sin, of which God is not the author.

3:7. For the Lord God doth nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.