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.

560. "Et aculei erant in caudis illarum." - Quod significet astutias fallendi per illa, constat ex significatione "aculeorum", quod sint astutiae et calliditates ad persuadendum falsa; quare sequitur quod inesset eis potestas laedendi homines, qui enim astute et callide fallit, is maxime laedit: quod essent "in caudis", est quia sunt scientifica sensualiter percepta, per quae fallunt, tam per scientifica ex Verbo, quam per scientifica e mundo, ex quibus eruditio humana; per scientifica e Verbo, per quod id secundum litteram sensualiter explicant, et non secundum sensum ejus interiorem; per scientifica e mundo, per quod per illa confirmant. Sciendum est quod sensuales homines astuti et callidi sint prae aliis, proinde ad acute fallendum; nam sicut intelligentia et prudentia est illis qui spirituales homines sunt, ita malitia et astutia est illis qui sensuales et in falsis sunt; causa est, quia in malo residet omnis malitia, et in bono residet omnis intelligentia.

[2] Creditur in mundo quod illi qui astuti et callidi sunt, etiam prudentes et intelligentes sint; sed astutia et malitia non est prudentia et intelligentia, verum in se spectata est insania et stultitia: removent enim se a felicitate aeterna, et se conjiciunt in infelicitatem aeternam, quod non prudentis et intelligentis est, sed insani et stulti. Praeterea omnia quae sunt sapientiae caelestis et angelicae, in densa caligine apud illos sunt; et ubi illa sapientia est caligo, ibi est stultitia. Quod sensuales homines astuti et callidi sint, constare potest ex illis qui in inferno sunt, ubi omnes mere naturales et sensuales sunt; quibus tanta astutia et calliditas est ut vix ab aliquo possit credi; de qua re videatur in opere De Caelo et Inferno (n. 576-581), ubi actum est de malitia et artibus nefandis spirituum infernalium.

[3] Quod "aculei" significent astutias, constare potest absque confirmatione e Verbo, quoniam in communi sermone astutiae in loquelis, quibus alios fallunt, vocantur "aculei", et ipse sermo dicitur "acutus." In specie autem per "aculeos" significantur falsa interiora, quae sunt quae non discuti possunt, quia ex scientificis et fallaciis sensuum: quod illa falsa per "aculeos" significentur, constare potest ex repraesentativis in mundo spirituali; ibi falsa interiora repraesentantur variis modis per acuta, sicut per mucrones ensium, per spicula, et per aculeata in variis formis, et hoc quando intendunt laedere; ex qua causa etiam vetitum est talia ibi sistere in conspectum, nam spiritus ex illis visis in furorem laedendi veniunt.

[4] Haec falsa etiam per "aculeos" significantur apud Amos,

"Ecce dies venient super vos, quibus extrahent vos aculeis, et posteritatem vestram hamis piscationis" (4:2):

"extrahere aculeis" significat abducere a veris per scientifica ex Verbo et e mundo false applicata; et "extrahere hamis piscationis" significat per fallacias sensuum, ex quibus homo sensualis. ratiocinatur.

[5] Et apud Mosen,

"Si non expuleritis habitatores terrae coram vobis, erunt, quos residuos feceritis, in spinas in oculis vestris, et in aculeos lateribus vestris" (Numeri 33:55):

per "habitatores terrae", quos expellerent, significantur mala et falsa religionis et doctrinae; gentes enim terrae Canaanis in sensu abstracto illa significabant; inde quod "futuri in spinas in oculis vestris" significat quod maligna falsa damnum illatura sint veris ecclesiae; "in aculeos lateribus vestris" significat quod maligna falsa damnum illatura sint bonis ecclesiae; per "oculos" in Verbo significatur intellectus veri, et per "latera" significantur illa quae charitatis sunt, ita bona.