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.

3368. ‘Ne descendas Aegyptum, reside in terra quam dico ad te’: quod significet quod non ad scientifica, sed ad rationalia, quae a Divino illustrata sunt apparentiae veri, constat a significatione ‘Aegypti’ quod sint scientifica, de qua n. 1164, 1165, 1186, 1462; et a significatione ‘terrae’ quod hic sint rationalia quae a Divino illustrata sunt apparentiae veri, terra enim quae hic intelligitur, est Gerar ubi Abimelech rex Philistaeorum, et per ‘Gerarem’ significatur fides, perque ‘Abimelechum’ doctrina fidei spectans rationalia, et per ‘regem Philistaeorum’ doctrinalia, videatur n. 3364, 3365; ideo per ‘terram’, nempe Gerarem ubi Abimelechus, non aliud in sensu interno significatur; significatio enim terrae est varia, videatur n. 620, 636, ¹ 1066, et significat quale gentis de qua praedicatur n. 1262; in proprio autem sensu significat Ecclesiam, n. 3355, et quia Ecclesiam, etiam significat illa quae sunt Ecclesiae, hoc est, illa quae apud hominem faciunt Ecclesiam, proinde doctrinalia charitatis et fidei, ita quoque rationalia quae a Divino illustrata sunt apparentiae veri; hae enim quod sint Ecclesiae vera, ita ejus doctrinalia, videatur supra n. 3364, 3365;

[2] sive dicas rationalia a Divino illustrata, sive apparentias veri, sive vera caelestia et spiritualia, qualia in regno Domini in Caelis seu in caelo, et qualia in regno Domini in terris seu in Ecclesia, idem est; eadem quoque dicuntur doctrinalia, sed hoc a veris quae in illis; rationale angelicum et humanum est et vocatur rationale ex apparentiis veri illustratis a Divino; absque illis non est rationale; ita rationalia sunt illae. Quod hic dicatur quod ‘ad Aegyptum non descenderet’, hoc est, quod non ad scientifica, est quia de scientificis prius actum est, peregrinatio enim Abrahami in Aegypto, repraesentabat instructionem Domini in scientificis in pueritia, videatur n. 1502: cum arcano quod ‘non descenderet in Aegyptum, sed peregrinaretur in terra Geraris’, hoc est, quod non spectaret ad scientifica sed ad rationalia, ita se habet:

[3] omnes apparentiae veri in quibus Divinum, sunt rationalis, usque adeo ut vera rationalia et apparentiae veri sint idem, scientifica autem sunt naturalis, usque adeo ut naturalia et vera scientifica ² sint idem; vera rationalia, seu apparentiae veri, nusquam possunt esse et existere nisi ex influxu Divini in rationale, et per ³ rationalia in scientifica quae naturalis sunt; quae tunc fiunt in rationali apparent in naturali sicut multorum imago simul in speculo; ac ita sistuntur ⁴ coram homine, etiam coram angelo; sed coram angelo non ita evidenter in naturali, sed ⁵ apud illos qui in mundo spirituum, ⁶ et in spirituali naturali sunt, inde his repraesentativa veri;

[4] similiter se habet apud unumquemvis hominem, nam, ut prius dictum, qui in bono est, exiguum caelum est, seu quod idem, imago caeli maximi, et quia Divinum Verum non immediate influere potest in scientifica quae sunt naturalis ejus hominis, sed per rationalia, ut dictum, ideo hic dicitur quod ‘non descenderet Aegyptum, sed resideret in terra Geraris’: sed de his non potest clara idea haberi nisi sciatur ⁷ qualis influxus est, ut et quales ideae, quapropter de illis, ex Divina Domini Misericordia, ad finem capitum, ubi experientiae, agendum.

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