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.

382. Quod ‘vagus et profugus esse in terra’ significet non scire quid verum et bonam, constat a significatione ‘vagari et fugere in Verbo; ut apud Jeremiam,

Prophetae et sacerdotes vagantur caeci in plateis, polluti sunt in sanguine; ea quae non possunt, tangunt vestimentis, Thren. 4:13, 14;

ubi ‘prophetae’ pro iis qui docent; ‘sacerdotes’ pro iis qui secundum ea vivunt; ‘vagari caeci in plateis’ est non scire quid bonum et verum:

[2] apud Amosum, Pars agri unius pluviam accepit, et pars agri, super quem non pluit, exarescit; unde vagabuntur duae tresve urbes ad urbem unam ad bibendum aquas, et non satiabuntur, 4:7, 8;

ubi ‘pars agri super quam pluvia’ est doctrina fidei ex charitate; ‘pars seu gleba agri, super quem non pluit’ est doctrina fidei absque charitate; ‘vagari ad bibendum aquas’ est similiter quaerere quid verum:

apud Hoscheam,

[3] Percussus est Ephraim, radix eorum exaruit, fructum non facient, ... rejiciet eos Deus meus, quia non auscultarunt Ipsi, et erunt vagi inter gentes, 9:16, 17:

‘Ephraim’ pro intelligentia veri seu fide, quia primogenitus ¹ Josephi; ‘radix quae exaruit’ pro charitate quae fructum non facere potest; ‘vagi inter gentes’ quod non sciant verum et bonum:

apud Jeremiam,

[4] Ascendite contra Arabiam, et devastate filios orientis; fugite, vagamini valde, in profundum demiserunt se ad habitandum habitatores Hazoris, 49:28, 30;

‘Arabia et filii orientis’ pro possessione divitiarum caelestium, seu’ illorum quae sunt amoris, de quibus vastatis etiam praedicatur ‘fugere et vagari’, seu profugi et vagi esse, cum nihil boni faciunt; et de ‘habitatoribus Hazoris’, seu qui possident divitias spirituales, quae sunt fidei, praedicatur ‘demittere se in profundum’, seu perire:

apud Esaiam,

Cuncti primores tui vagantur una, prae arcu vincti sunt, e longinquo fugerunt, 22:3;

ubi agitur de valle visionis, seu phantasia de fide, quod detur absque charitate: unde quod ‘vagus et profugus’, seu quod nihil veri et boni sciat qui confitetur fidem praeter a charitate, in versu 14 sequente dicitur.

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