Jehovah repented for this. "It shall not be," saith Jehovah.
This the Lord Jehovah caused me to see: and behold, the Lord Jehovah was calling fire into the contest; and it devoured the Great Deep, yea, it was about to devour the land.
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"O Lord Jehovah, pardon, I pray thee! How shall Jacob rise again? He is so small!"
Jehovah repented for this. "It also shall not come to pa.s.s," saith the Lord Jehovah.
This he showed me, and behold the Lord has taken his station upon a city wall, a wall built with a plumbline.
And Jehovah said to me, "What art thou seeing?" And I said, "A plumbline." And the Lord said, "Behold, I am setting a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel. I will not again pa.s.s them over. The high places of Israel shall be desolate and the sanctuaries of Isaac laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword."
II
AMOS DEFIES THE PRIEST
("As Savonarola at the Duomo in Florence, as Luther at the Diet of Worms, as our Lord Himself at the feast in Jerusalem, so was Amos at the feast in Bethel."--_Smith_.)
Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, "Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to hold his words." For thus hath Amos said, "By the sword shall Jeroboam die, and Israel going shall go into captivity from off his own land."
And Amaziah Said unto Amos, "Visionary, be gone! Get thee off to the land of Judah; and eat thy bread there, and there play the prophet.
But at Bethel thou shalt not {356} again prophesy. The king"s sanctuary it is, and the house of the kingdom."
But Amos answered and said unto Amaziah, "No prophet I, nor prophet"s son. But a herdsman I, and a dresser of sycamores; and Jehovah took me from behind the flock and Jehovah said unto me, "Go, prophesy unto my people Israel."
"Now therefore hearken to the word of Jehovah, thou that sayest, prophesy not against Israel, nor let drop thy words against the house of Israel; therefore thus saith Jehovah. Thy wife in the city shall become an outcast; and thy sons and thy daughters by the sword--shall fall; and thy land--by the measuring rope shall be divided; and thou in an unclean land shalt die. And Israel shall be driven from his land into captivity."
III
THE DOOM OF A CORRUPT CIVILIZATION
Hear this word which Jehovah hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt. "You only have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore will I visit upon you all your iniquities." Can two walk together except they have an appointment? Doth a lion roar in the jungle and have no prey? Doth a young lion let forth his voice from his den if he hath taken nothing?
Doth a little bird fall on the snare earthwards and there be no noose about her? Doth the snare itself rise up from the ground, except it be capturing something?
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[Ill.u.s.tration]
CONVENT OF MAR-SARBA IN THE HILL COUNTRY OF JUDEA.
It is on the edge of this "wilderness of Judea" that the towns of Bethlehem, and Tekoa, the home of Amos, are situated, and in this region both David and Amos pastured their sheep.
[End ill.u.s.tration]
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Is the alarm trumpet blown in a city and do the people not tremble?
Shall calamity happen in a city and Jehovah not have done it? Yea, the Lord Jehovah doeth nothing but he has revealed his purpose to his servants the prophets. The lion has roared, who shall not fear?
Jehovah hath spoken, who can but prophesy?
Make proclamation over the palaces in Ashdod, and over the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, "Gather upon the Mount of Samaria and see!
Confusions manifold in the midst of her; violence to her very core!"
Yea they know not how to do uprightness, saith Jehovah, who store up wrong and violence in their palaces. Therefore saith the Lord, "Siege and investment of the land! And they shall bring down thy fortresses and plundered shall be thy palaces." Thus saith Jehovah: "As the shepherd saveth from the mouth of the lion, a pair of shin bones or a bit of an ear, so shall the children of Israel be saved--they who sit in Samaria in the corner of the divan and on a Damascus couch."
"Hear ye, and testify against the house of Jacob"--saith the Lord G.o.d of Hosts. "For on the days when I visit the crimes of Israel upon him, I shall there make visitation upon the altars of Bethel, and the horns of the altar shall be cut off and fall to the ground. And I will smite the winter house, and the summer house, and the ivory houses shall perish, yea, swept away shall be houses many"-- oracle of Jehovah.
Hear this word, women of Israel, kine of Bashan that are in the mount of Samaria, that oppress the poor, that crush the needy, that say to their lords, "Bring, and let us {360} drink." Sworn hath the Lord Jehovah by his holiness, lo! days are coming when there shall be a taking away of you with hooks, and of the last of you with fish-hooks.
Yea, by the breaches (in the wall of the stormed city) shall ye go out, everyone headlong, and ye shall fling yourselves out on the mountains as a refuge.
IV
FALSE WORSHIP. THE CHASTIs.e.m.e.nT OF THE LORD
Come away to Bethel and transgress!
At Gilgal exaggerate your transgressions!
And bring every morning your sacrifices.
Every three days your t.i.thes!
And send up the savour of leavened bread as a thank-offering.
And call out your charities--make them to be heard!
For so ye loved to do, a children of Israel--saith the Lord.
But I on my side withheld from you the winter rain, while it was still three months to the harvest, and I let it rain repeatedly on one city, and upon one city I did not let it rain: one piece was rained upon, and the piece that was not rained upon withered: and two or three cities kept struggling to one city for water, and were not satisfied--yet ye did not return to me--saith the Lord.
I smote you with blasting and with mildew: many of your gardens and your vineyards and your figs and your olives the locust devoured--yet ye did not return to me--saith the Lord.
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I overturned among you, like G.o.d"s own overturning of Sodom and Gomorrah, till ye became as a brand plucked from the burning--yet ye did not return to me--saith the Lord.
Therefore, thus shall I do to thee, O Israel: because I am going to do this to thee, prepare to meet thy G.o.d, O Israel. For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth to man what his thought is, that maketh the morning, darkness, and marcheth on the high places of the earth, the Lord G.o.d of Hosts his name.
V
THE OPPRESSION OF THE POOR
Seek ye Jehovah and live, lest he break forth like fire, O house of Joseph, and it consume and there be none to quench at Bethel. He that made the Pleiades and Orion, that turneth the deep shadow into morning, and day he darkeneth to night, that calleth for the waters of the sea and poureth them out on the face of the earth--Jehovah, his name. He it is that flasheth out ruin on strength, and bringeth down destruction on the fortified.