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Amos 3

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1 Hear this word that Jehovah hath spoken against you, children of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying,

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

3 Shall two walk together except they be agreed?

4 Will a lion roar in the forest when he hath no prey? Will a young lion cry out of his den if he have taken nothing?

5 Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth when no gin [is laid] for him? Will the snare spring up from the earth when nothing at all hath been taken?

6 Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in a city, and Jehovah not have done [it]?

7 But the Lord Jehovah will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.

8 The lion hath roared, -- who will not fear? The Lord Jehovah hath spoken, -- who can but prophesy?

9 Publish in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria, and behold the great uproar in the midst thereof, and the oppressions that are within her:

10 and they know not to do right, saith Jehovah, who store up violence and plunder in their palaces.

11 Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: An adversary! -- even round about the land! And he shall bring down thy strength from thee, and thy palaces shall be pillaged.

12 Thus saith Jehovah: Like as the shepherd rescueth out of the jaw of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear; so shall the children of Israel be rescued that sit in Samaria in the corner of a couch, and upon the damask of a bed.

13 Hear ye, and testify in the house of Jacob, saith the Lord Jehovah, the God of hosts,

14 that in the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel upon him, I will also punish the altars of Bethel; and the horns of the altar shall be cut off, and fall to the ground.

15 And I will smite the winter-house with the summer-house; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and many houses shall have an end, saith Jehovah.

   

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Egypt

  
The mastaba of the official and priest Fetekti. Fifth Dynasty. Abusir necropolis, Egypt, Photo by Karl Richard Lepsius

In the Bible, Egypt represents knowledge and the love of knowledge. In a good sense that means knowledge of truth from the Lord through the Bible, but in a natural sense it simply means earthly knowledge to be stored up and possessed. And even knowledge from the Bible is not always good: If we learn them with the goal of making them useful, then they are filled with angelic ideas. But they lack purpose when they are learned only for the sake of knowing things or for the reputation of being learned. So Egypt is a place you go to learn things, but to become heavenly you have to escape the sterile "knowing" and journey to the land of Canaan, where the knowledge is filled with the internal desire for good. It's interesting that when Egypt was ruled by Joseph, it was a haven for his father and brothers. This shows that when a person's internal mind rules in the land of learning, they can learn much that is useful. But eventually a pharaoh arose that didn't know Joseph, and the Children of Israel were enslaved. The pharaoh represents the external mind; when it is in charge the excitement and self-congratulation of knowing can reduce the internal mind to a type of slavery. The mind - like the Children of Israel - ends up making bricks, or man-made falsities from external appearances.