In chapter 4 of the Book of Amos, verses 1-3 are talking about people who pervert the truths of the church. They will fall into falsities in outermost things.

In the Bible, fish represent "lower" things than mammals, so we can interpret the fishhooks in verse 2 as meaning being caught and held fast in natural or lower things.

Verses 4-6 are about acts of worship such as tithes and sacrifices. These look similar to genuine worship, but are only external sorts of things. We can tell because ‘teeth’ (in verse 6) represent ultimates or outermost things (see Secrets of Heaven 6380). It follows that “cleanness of teeth” would mean outermost things that look good but only imitate genuine worship. The Lord exhorts, “Yet you have not returned to me.”

Verses 7-8. Some things true will remain, when where there are too many false ideas, the truths don't get through. This can be seen where the Lord says, “I made it rain on one city; I withheld rain from another city... where it did not rain the part withered.” Again the Lord exhorts, “Yet you have not returned to me.”

Verse 9. Afterward all things of the church are falsified, shown by blight attacking the gardens, vineyards, fig tree and olive trees. The last three represent spiritual, natural and celestial things, or all the things of spiritual life. “Yet you have not returned to me,” says the Lord.

Verses 10-11. The Lord explains the devastating things he allowed to happen: plague in Egypt, death of young men by swords, stench in the camps, Sodom and Gomorrah. This is because they are profaned by sensual knowledges. Profanation means the mixing of good and evil together. (See Secrets of Heaven 1001[2]).

This extends to all things of the church, with the church being the Lord’s kingdom on earth (Secrets of Heaven 768[3]).

With profanation “as soon as any idea of what is holy arises, the idea of what is profane joins immediately to it,” (Secrets of Heaven 301).

Now there is hardly anything left. “Yet you have not returned to Me,” says the Lord again.

Verses 12-13: Because people adamantly remain in their profane ways, they are warned, “Prepare to meet your God!”. This is the God powerful and mighty, “who forms mountains, and creates the wind,” and even more close to home, “Who declares to man what his thought is.” As intimately a knowing as that is, the Lord’s love for all humanity is contained in His exhortations for them to turn themselves to Him.

See, for example, Luke 6:44-45, and True Christian Religion 373.

643. "Et si quis illis voluerit nocere, ita oportet illum occidi." - Quod significet quod secundum conatum inferendi malum pereant, constat ex significatione "velle nocere", quod sit conatus inferendi malum, nam velle est conari; et ex significatione "occidi", quod sit perire, hic quoad vitam spiritualem, quae perit unice a malis et falsis mali, inde enim est mors spiritualis (videatur supra, n. 315, 589). Quod hic iterum dicatur, "Si quis voluerit illis nocere", est quia intelligitur quod quisque pereat secundum voluntatem seu secundum conatum inferendi malum; nam voluntas facit vitam cujusvis. Quod quisque pereat secundum voluntatem nocendi "binis testibus, qui sunt binae olivae et bina candelabra", hoc est, bonum amoris et charitatis ac verum doctrinae et fidei, est quia in voluntate opposita sunt, et voluntas opposita contra bonum amoris et verum doctrinae est infernum, in tantum quanta oppositio est; inde est quod "ita oporteat eum occidi", hoc est, perire, quantum illis voluerit nocere. Praeterea unusquisque homo et spiritus in tutela Domini est, aeque malus ac bonus; et qui in tutela Domini est, ei non malum contingit; nam Domini voluntas est ut nemo pereat, nec ut puniatur: sed quisque tantum in tutela Domini est quantum abstinet a faciendo malum; at quantum non abstinet tantum se ipsum removet a tutela Domini; et quantum se removet tantum a malis spiritibus qui ab inferno laeditur, nam spiritibus inest continua cupido malefaciendi aliis; et quantum extra Divinam Domini tutelam sunt, hoc est, quantum faciunt malum, tantum veniunt in potestatem illorum qui illis malefaciunt puniendo et deprivando talibus quae vitae spiritualis sunt. Verbo, quantum aliquis nocere vult bonis amoris et veris doctrinae tantum "devoratur ab igne et occiditur", hoc est, tantum occupatur a malis et a falsis mali, et tantum spiritualiter moritur; et hoc non fit ex Divino, sed ex ipso malo quod quisque facit.