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.

1453. Quod ‘Bethel a mari, et Ai ab oriente’ significet quod adhuc status Ipsi obscurus, nempe quoad cognitiones caelestium et spiritualium; aliud enim est in caelestibus esse et aliud in cognitionibus caelestium; infantes et pueri sunt prae adultis in caelestibus, quia in amore erga parentes et in amore mutuo, tum in innocentia; adulti vero sunt prae infantibus et pueris in cognitionibus illorum, et perplures usque non in caelestibus amoris; antequam instruitur homo in illis quae sunt amoris et fidei, est in statu obscuro, nempe quoad cognitiones, qui status hic describitur per quod ‘Bethel esset a mari’, hoc est, ab occidente, et ‘Ai ab oriente’; per ‘Bethel’, ut dictum, significantur cognitiones caelestium, per ‘Ai’ vero cognitiones mundanorum; illae dicuntur ‘ab occidente’ cum in obscuro, nam occidens significat in Verbo obscurum; hae dicuntur ‘ab oriente’ cum in claro, nam oriens respective ad occidentem est clarum; quod occidens et oriens illa significent, non opus est confirmare, quia cuivis absque confirmatione patet:

[2] quod autem ‘Bethel’ significet cognitiones caelestium, constare potest ab aliis locis ubi Bethel nominatur in Verbo, ut in cap. seq. xiii, Quod Abram iverit juxta itinera sua a meridie usque ad Bethelem, usque locum, ubi fuit tentorium illius in initio inter Bethel et inter Aiam, ad locum altaris, quod fecit ibi, vers. 3, 4, 4;

ubi ¹ ‘juxta itinera sua a meridie ad Bethelem’ significat progressionem in lucem cognitionum, quare non ibi dicitur quod ‘Bethel ab occidente, et ² Ai ab oriente’: de Jacobo ubi vidit scalam, Dixit, Non hoc nisi Domus Dei, et hoc porta caeli.... et vocavit nomen loci hujus Bethel, Gen. 28:17, 19;

ubi similiter per ‘Bethel’ significatur cognitio caelestium; est enim homo ‘Bethel’, hoc est, Domus Dei, tum ‘porta caeli’, cum in cognitionum caelestibus est; cum regeneratur homo, introducitur per cognitiones spiritualium et caelestium, at cum regeneratus est, tunc introductus est, et est in cognitionum caelestibus et spiritualibus: postea, Dixit Deus ad Jacobum, Surge, ascende Bethelem, et habita ibi, fac ibi altare Deo, Qui apparuit tibi, Gen. 35:1, 6, 7;

[3] ubi similiter per ‘Bethel’ significantur cognitiones: quod arca Jehovae in Bethele, et illuc venirent filii Israelis, et interrogarent Jehovam, Jud. 20:18, 26, 27; 1 Sam. 7:16; 10:3, similia significant: tum quod rex Assyriae miserit unum de sacerdotibus, quos transportavit e Samaria, qui consedit in Bethele, et fuit docens eos quomodo timerent Jehovam, 2 Reg. 17:27, 28:

apud Amos, Dixit Amaziah ad Amos, Videns i, fuge tibi in terram Jehudae, et comede ibi panem, et ibi prophetes; et Bethele non addas amplius prophetare, quia sanctuarium Regis haec, et domus Regni haec, 7:12, 13.

[4] Postquam profanavit Jeroboam Bethelem, 1 Reg. 12:32; 13:1-8; 2 Reg. 23:15, per Bethelem repraesentabatur contrarium, ut 10:15; Amos 3:14, 15; ³ 5:5-7. Quod autem ‘Ai’ significet cognitiones mundanorum, confirmari quoque potest ab historicis et propheticis Verbi, apud Jos. 7:2; 8:1-28; Jer. 49:3, 4.

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