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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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Apocalypse Revealed # 474

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474. Then the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land lifted up his hand to heaven and swore by Him who lives forever and ever. (10:6; 10:6) This symbolizes an attestation and testification of the Lord on His own authority.

The angel standing on the sea and on the land means the Lord (no. 470). Lifting up the hand to heaven symbolizes an attestation, here that there should be no more time (verse 6). Swearing symbolizes a testification, here that in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel the mystery of God would be concluded (verse 7). He who lives forever and ever means the Lord, as in Revelation 1:18; 4:9-10, and 5:14 above, and in Daniel 4:34. That the Lord swears on His own authority will be seen shortly.

It is apparent from this that the statement, "Then the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land lifted up his hand to heaven and swore by Him who lives forever and ever," symbolizes an attestation and testification of the Lord on His own authority.

[2] That Jehovah swears or testifies on His own authority is clear from the following passages:

I have sworn by Myself; a word has gone out of My mouth (which) shall not return... (Isaiah 45:23)

I swear by Myself... that this house shall become a desolation. (Jeremiah 22:5)

Jehovah... has sworn by His soul. (Jeremiah 51:14, Amos 6:8)

...Jehovah has sworn by His holiness. (Amos 4:2)

Jehovah has sworn by His right hand and by the arm of His strength. (Isaiah 62:8)

Behold, I have sworn by My great name... (Jeremiah 44:26)

That Jehovah, which is to say, the Lord, swore by Himself or on His own authority means, symbolically, that Divine truth attests; for the Lord is Divine truth itself, and this attests of itself and on its own authority.

In addition to these passages, that Jehovah swore may be seen in Isaiah 14:24; 54:9, Psalms 89:3, 35; 95:11; 110:4; 132:11.

We are told that Jehovah swore because the church established with the children of Israel was a representational church, and the conjunction of the Lord with the church was represented by a covenant, like one made between two parties who swear to their compact. Therefore, because an oath was a part of any covenant, we are told that Jehovah swore. Still, this does not mean that He swore, but that Divine truth attests to something.

[3] That an oath was a part of any covenant is apparent from the following:

I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you, so that you became Mine... (Ezekiel 16:8)

...to remember His covenant, the oath which He swore... (Luke 1:72-73; cf. Psalms 105:9, Jeremiah 11:5; 32:22, Deuteronomy 1:34; 10:11; 11:9, 21; 26:3, 15; 31:20; 34:4)

Because the covenant was representative of the conjunction of the Lord with the church, and reciprocally of the church with the Lord, and because an oath was a part of any covenant and was to be sworn on the ground of the truth in it, being sworn thus also in appeal to that truth, therefore the children of Israel were permitted to swear by Jehovah, and so in appeal to Divine truth (Exodus 20:7, Leviticus 19:12, Deuteronomy 6:13; 10:20, Isaiah 48:1; 65:16, Jeremiah 4:2, Zechariah 5:4).

After the representative constituents of the church were abrogated, however, the Lord also abrogated oaths to covenants (Matthew 5:33-37; 23:16-22).

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.