Part 1041

7:6. The Lord had pity upon this. Yea this also shall not be, said the Lord God.

7:7. These things the Lord shewed to me: and behold the Lord was standing upon a plastered wall, and in his hand a mason’s trowel.

7:8. And the Lord said to me: What seest thou, Amos? And I said: A mason’s trowel. And the Lord said: Behold, I will lay down the trowel in the midst of my people Israel. I will plaster them over no more.

7:9. And the high places of the idol shall be thrown down, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste: and I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.

7:10. And Amasias the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying: Amos hath rebelled against thee in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words.

7:11. For thus saith Amos: Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall be carried away captive out of their own land.

Jeroboam shall die by the sword.... The prophet did not say this; but that the Lord would rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword: which was verified, when Zacharias, the son and successor of Jeroboam, was slain by the sword. 4 Kings 15.10.

7:12. And Amasias said to Amos: Thou seer, go, flee away into the land of Juda: and eat bread there, and prophesy there.

7:13. But prophesy not again any more in Bethel: because it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is the house of the kingdom.

7:14. And Amos answered and said to Amasias: I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet: but I am a herdsman plucking wild figs.

I am not a prophet.... That is, I am not a prophet by education: nor is prophesying my calling or profession: but I am a herdsman, whom God was pleased to send hither to prophesy to Israel.

7:15. And the Lord took me when I followed the flock, and the Lord said to me: Go, prophesy to my people Israel.

7:16. And now hear thou the word of the Lord: Thou sayest, thou shalt not prophesy against Israel, and thou shalt not drop thy word upon the house of the idol.

The house of the idol.... Viz., of the calf worshipped in Bethel.

7:17. Therefore thus saith the Lord: Thy wife shall play the harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be measured by a line: and thou shalt die in a polluted land, and Israel shall go into captivity out of their land.

Amos Chapter 8

Under the figure of a hook, which bringeth down the fruit, the approaching desolation of Israel is foreshewed for their avarice and injustices.

8:1. These things the Lord shewed to me: and behold a hook to draw down the fruit.

8:2. And he said: What seest thou, Amos? And I said: A hook to draw down fruit. And the Lord said to me: The end is come upon my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more.

8:3. And the hinges of the temple shall screak in that day, saith the Lord God: many shall die: silence shall be cast in every place.

8:4. Hear this, you that crush the poor, and make the needy of the land to fail,

8:5. Saying: When will the month be over, and we shall sell our wares: and the sabbath, and we shall open the corn: that we may lessen the measure, and increase the sicle, and may convey in deceitful balances,

8:6. That we may possess the needy for money, and the poor for a pair of shoes, and may sell the refuse of the corn?

8:7. The Lord hath sworn against the pride of Jacob: surely I will never forget all their works.

8:8. Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein: and rise up altogether as a river, and be cast out, and run down as the river of Egypt?

8:9. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that the sun shall go down at midday, and I will make the earth dark in the day of light:

8:10. And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation: and I will bring up sackcloth upon every back of yours, and baldness upon every head: and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the latter end thereof as a bitter day.

8:11. Behold the days come, saith the Lord, and I will send forth a famine into the land: not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, but of hearing the word of the Lord.