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.

6427. Quid in binis his versibus in sensu interno continetur, patet ab illis quae explicata sunt, sed usque haec non possunt non obscura esse, nisi sciatur quale regnum spirituale est; hoc regnum consistit ex illis qui in vero fidei sunt, sed qui hoc verum faciunt vitae, ac ita bonum; ¹ verum fidei cum vivitur secundum illud fit bonum, et vocatur bonum veri, sed est in ² essentia sua verum actu; verum fidei in spirituali Ecclesia Domini est varium, nam in una Ecclesia dicitur id verum quod in altera dicitur non verum, et hoc secundum doctrinam cujusvis; ita doctrinalia sunt quae vocantur vera; haec vera sunt quae conjunguntur bono et faciunt bonum Ecclesiae spiritualis; inde tale fit bonum quale est verum, nam bonum quale suum habet a veris;

[2] inde constare potest quod bonum Ecclesiae spiritualis sit impurum, et quia impurum quod spirituales in caelum admitti nequeant nisi per ³ Divina media; ipsissimum Divinum medium fuit quod Dominus in mundum venerit, et Humanum in Se Divinum fecerit; per id salvati sunt spirituales; sed quia bonum apud illos impurum est, non possunt non ⁴ infestari a malis et falsis, et sic in pugna esse; sed Dominus providet, ⁵ ut per pugnas illas impurum apud eos per gradus purificetur, nam Dominus pugnat pro illis; haec sunt quae significantur per quod ‘filia incedit super murum’, et quod ‘exacerbent eum, et jaculentur, et odio habeant eum sagittarii; et sedebit in valido arcus sui, et roborantur brachia manuum ejus a manibus potentis Jacobi, exinde pastor lapis Israelis’.

[3] Videantur quae de illis qui ab Ecclesia spirituali prius dicta sunt quod nempe illis obscurum sit quoad verum et inde bonum, n. 2708, 2715, 2718, 2831, 2935, 2937, 3241, 3246, 3833, 6289; quod hoc obscurum illuminetur a Divino Humano Domini, n. 2716; quod ante Adventum Domini non regnum spirituale fuerit quale post Ipsius Adventum, n. 6372; quod Dominus venerit in mundum ut salvaret spirituales; et quod salventur per Divinum Humanum Domini, n. 2661, 2716, 2833, 2834, 3969; inde quoque patet quod per ‘roborantur brachia manuum ejus a manibus potentis Jacobi, exinde pastor, lapis Israelis’ significetur potentia virium pugnandi ab omnipotentia Divini Humani Domini, unde omne bonum et verum spirituali regno, n. 6424-6426.

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