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Amos 4

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1 Hear this word, ye cows of Bashan, who are in the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who clash with the needy, who say to their lords, Bring, and we shall drink.

2 The Lord Jehovih* has promised by His holiness, that, behold, the days are coming on you, and He will bear you away with hooks*, and your posterity with fishing hooks.

3 And you shall go·​·out through* the breaches, each in·​·front·​·of her; and you shall cast down the palace, says Jehovah.

4 Come into Bethel, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgressors; and bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes for three days;

5 and burn·​·for·​·incense from what is leavened as a thanksgiving offering, and proclaim and make the freewill offerings heard; for thus you love to do, O ye sons of Israel, says the Lord Jehovih.

6 And I also have given to you emptiness* of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places; and you have not returned to Me, says Jehovah.

7 And also I have withheld the showers from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest; and I caused it to rain on one city, and on one city I caused it not to rain; one part of the field was rained on, and the part of the field, on which it rained not, dried·​·up.

8 And two three* cities wandered to one city, to drink water, but they were not satisfied; and you have not even· returned ·to Me, says Jehovah.

9 I have smitten you with scorching and mildew; much of your gardens and your vineyards and your fig·​·trees and your olive·​·trees, the palmerworm devoured; and you have not returned even·​·to Me, says Jehovah.

10 I have sent among you the pestilence in the way of Egypt; your young·​·men I have killed with the sword, and have taken your horses captive; and I have made the stink of your camps to go·​·up and into your nose; but you have not returned to Me, says Jehovah.

11 I have overturned some among you, as God overturned Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a firebrand rescued from burning·​·up; and you have not returned to Me, says Jehovah.

12 Therefore thus will I do to thee, O Israel; because I will do this to thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.

13 For, behold, He who forms the mountains, and creates the wind, and tells to man what his contemplation is, who makes the dawn upon the high·​·places of the earthJehovah, the God of Armies, is His name.

   


Thanks to the Kempton Project for the permission to use this New Church translation of the Word.

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Sodom

  

The city of "Sodom", in the Bible, represents the love of self and the love of ruling or dominating others springing from the love of self. This is why it is depicted as such an evil place, and why it was utterly destroyed by God.

This is not, of course, the usual association people have with Sodom; it has long been connected to homosexuality because in Genesis 19 the men of the city tried to rape the male angels who were visiting Lot. But if you think about it, it makes sense. Experts regard rape as a crime of violence and domination more than a crime of sexual desire. The fact that Lot offered his daughters as an alternative indicates that he thought that the men of the city were not picky about who they dominated and violated. Their chief pleasure was in the domination. All stories about adultery in the Bible -- from the more mild up to and including the intended homosexual gang rape in Sodom -- are actually depictions of selfishness in various forms.