Part 458

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.

8:12. And they shall move from sea to sea, and from the north to the east: they shall go about seeking the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.

8:13. In that day the fair virgins, and the young men shall faint for thirst.

8:14. They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say: Thy God, O Dan, liveth: and the way of Bersabee liveth: and they shall fall, and shall rise no more.

Amos Chapter 9