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Amos 5

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1 Dinggin ninyo ang salitang ito na aking itinataghoy sa inyo, Oh sangbahayan ni Israel.

2 Ang dalaga ng Israel ay nabuwal; siya'y hindi na magbabangon pa, siya'y nahagis sa kaniyang lupain; walang magbangon sa kaniya.

3 Sapagka't ganito ang sabi ng Panginoong Dios: Ang bayan na lalabas na isang libo, maiiwang isang daan, at ang lalabas na isang daan ay maiiwang sangpu, sa sangbahayan ni Israel.

4 Sapagka't ganito ang sabi ng Panginoon sa sangbahayan ni Israel; Hanapin ninyo ako, at kayo'y mangabubuhay;

5 Nguni't huwag ninyong hanapin ang Beth-el, ni magsipasok man sa Gilgal, at huwag kayong magsidaan sa Beer-seba: sapagka't walang pagsala ang Gilgal ay papasok sa pagkabihag, at ang Beth-el ay mauuwi sa wala.

6 Inyong hanapin ang Panginoon, at kayo'y mangabubuhay; baka siya'y sumigalbong parang apoy sa sangbahayan ni Jose, at supukin yaon, at sa Beth-el ay walang makapapatay niyaon:

7 Kayong nagpapaging ajenjo sa kahatulan, at nagwawaksi ng katuwiran sa lupa.

8 Inyong hanapin ang lumikha ng mga Pleyades at ng Orion, at ang lilim ng kamatayan ay pinapaging umaga, pinapagdilim ang araw sa pamamagitan ng gabi; yaong tumatawag sa tubig sa dagat, at nagbubugso ng mga yaon sa ibabaw ng lupa (Panginoon ang siya niyang pangalan);

9 Yaong nagdadala ng biglang kabuwalan sa malakas, na anopa't ang pagkasira ay dumarating sa katibayan.

10 Kanilang kinapopootan ang nananaway sa pintuang-bayan, at kanilang kinasusuklaman ang nagsasalita ng matuwid.

11 Palibhasa nga't inyong niyayapakan ang dukha, at inyong hinihingan siya ng trigo: kayo'y nangagtayo ng mga bahay na batong tinabas, nguni't hindi ninyo tatahanan; kayo'y nangagtanim ng mga maligayang ubasan, nguni't hindi kayo magsisiinom ng alak niyaon.

12 Sapagka't talastas ko kung gaano karami ang inyong mga pagsalangsang, at kung gaano kalaki ang inyong mga kasalanan: kayong nagsisidalamhati sa ganap, na kinukunan ninyo ng suhol, at inyong inililigaw sa kanilang matuwid ang mapagkailangan sa pintuang-bayan.

13 Kaya't siya na mabait ay tatahimik sa panahong yaon; sapagka't masamang panahon.

14 Magsihanap kayo ng kabutihan, at huwag kasamaan, upang kayo'y mangabuhay; at sa gayo'y ang Panginoon, ang Dios ng mga hukbo, ay sasa inyo, gaya ng inyong sinasabi.

15 Inyong kapootan ang masama, at ibigin ang mabuti, at kayo'y mangagtatatag ng kahatulan sa pintuang-bayan: marahil ang Panginoon, ang Dios ng mga hukbo ay magiging mapagbiyaya sa nalabi sa Jose.

16 Kaya't ganito ang sabi ng Panginoon, ng Dios ng mga hukbo, ng Panginoon: Panaghoy ay sa lahat na daan; at sila'y mangagsasabi sa lahat na lansangan, Sa aba! sa aba! at kanilang tatawagin ang mangbubukid sa pananambitan, at ang lahat na bihasa sa pananaghoy sa pagtaghoy.

17 At sa lahat ng ubasan ay magkakaroon ng panaghoy; sapagka't ako'y daraan sa gitna mo, sabi ng Panginoon.

18 Sa aba ninyo na nangagnanasa ng kaarawan ng Panginoon! bakit ninyo ninanasa ang kaarawan ng Panginoon? kadiliman nga, at hindi kaliwanagan.

19 Gaya ng kung ang tao ay tumatakas sa leon, at isang oso ang sumasalubong sa kaniya; o pumapasok sa bahay at ikinakapit ang kaniyang kamay sa pinid, at isang ahas ang tumutuka sa kaniya.

20 Hindi baga magiging kadiliman ang kaarawan ng Panginoon, at hindi kaliwanagan? na totoong madilim, at walang ningning?

21 Aking kinapopootan, aking hinahamak ang inyong mga kapistahan, at hindi ako malulugod sa inyong mga takdang kapulungan.

22 Oo, bagaman inyong ihandog sa akin ang inyong mga handog na susunugin at mga handog na harina, hindi ko tatanggapin; ni akin mang kalulugdan ang mga handog tungkol sa kapayapaan na inyong mga matabang hayop.

23 Ihiwalay mo sa akin ang ingay ng iyong mga awit; sapagka't hindi ko didinggin ang tinig ng iyong mga biola.

24 Kundi bumugso ang katarungan na parang tubig, at ang katuwiran na parang malakas na agos.

25 Nagdala baga kayo sa akin ng mga hain, at ng mga handog sa ilang na apat na pung taon, Oh sangbahayan ni Israel?

26 Oo, inyong pinasan ang tabernakulo ng inyong hari at ang dambana ng inyong mga larawan, ang bituin ng inyong dios, na inyong ginawa para sa inyong sarili.

27 Kaya't kayo'y aking papapasukin sa pagkabihag sa dako roon ng Damasco, sabi ng Panginoon, na ang pangala'y Dios ng mga hukbo.

   

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Exploring the Meaning of Amos 5

Napsal(a) New Christian Bible Study Staff

In this fifth chapter of the Book of Amos, the first three verses (Amos 5:1-3) state the Lord's sorrow that the church - the truth from the Divine flowing into the world - has successively been devastated. (That was seen in Amos 4). When, in verse 3, it says, “The city that goes out by a thousand shall have a hundred left,” it means that very little truth is left to nourish the people. This bad state is their own doing.

In Amos 5:4-9, amid this dying out, the Lord entreats, almost anxiously, “Seek Me and live,” and then names traps, or spiritual states, that will turn people away from Him: Bethel, Gilgal, and Beersheba.

- The first, Bethel, here stands for falsifying knowledges.

- The second, Gilgal, signifies sensuous or external pleasures.

- The third, Beersheba, symbolized the last negative attitudes towards everything that constitutes faith and its doctrine. (See Arcana Coelestia 3923).

The next warning is to those “who turn justice into wormwood,” in Amos 5:7, i.e. they turn good into evil. (Arcana Coelestia 1488)

The Lord wants the people to return to Him, and explains clearly that He is the source of power, the one who, “made the Pleiades and Orion,” and the one who “rains ruin upon the strong”.

In Amos 5:10-13, in their love of their own intelligence, people continue to reject the Lord, to “tread down the poor,” rejecting even the little bits of truth coming to them. The people are warned, “Though you have built houses of hewn stone, yet you shall not dwell in them."

Stone meaning truths in our natural minds. (Apocalypse Explained 745). The dictionary meaning of “hewn” means a workman making something, so it can be seen as coming from ourselves, or our own intelligence. Anything like that is “devoid of life from the Divine” (Arcana Coelestia 9852).

In Amos 5:14-15, the path is shown for the way the Lord can be with us: “Seek good and not evil, that you may live.” It can’t be any plainer. In that way the Lord can reach out with His mercy, and “be gracious to the remnant of Joseph”. That remnant is a small amount of truth, and Joseph is the spiritual part of us. (Arcana Coelestia 3921).

In Amos 5:16-20, people are warned of how bad it will be for them when the day of the Lord comes. “Is not the day of the Lord darkness?”, for those who are in evil, “with no brightness in it?” A person’s suffering will be painful, “as though he went into the house, leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him,” and terrorizing, “As though a man fled from a lion and a bear met him.”

In Amos 5:21-22, God warns that people's fear-spurred worship won’t be accepted. He says, “I hate, I despise your feast days”. The strong language of the Lord is the mirror opposite of the depth of the evil the people are in.

In verses 23-25, "Take away your noisy songs and melodies," the Lord says, i.e. take away what sounds beautiful to you but is hurtful to the Divine because it lacks internal goodness and truth. In its place, in one of the Bible's memorable images, Jehovah says, "Let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a mightly stream”.

Then, at the end, in verses 26-27, the warning is clear: if the people don’t return to the Lord, everything good will be taken from them, as shown in verse 27:

“Therefore I will send you into captivity beyond Damascus”.

Damascus was the furthest boundary of Canaan, or beyond where spiritual things reside. The “boundary of Damascus” is also referred to in Ezekiel 47:16-18. See also Apocalypse Explained 1088.

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Arcana Coelestia # 2930

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2930. 'If you are willing' means if on account of an affection for truth coming from the heart. This is clear from the meaning of 'soul' in the internal sense. The expression 'with heart and soul' or 'with all the heart and with all the soul' occurs in various places in the Word where with all the will and all the understanding is meant. The fact that man possesses the dual powers of will and understanding, and also that the will is separated from the understanding may be well known to everyone, for we are all able to understand what is good and true but nevertheless will what is evil and false. From the beginning the human being was created in such a way that will and understanding with him were to make one, so that he would not think anything other than what he willed, nor will anything other than what he thought. Such is the state with celestial people and such it was in the celestial Church which was called Man or Adam. But with spiritual people, that is, in the spiritual Church, the first ability is separated from the second, that is to say, that of the understanding is separated from that of the will. A spiritual person is reformed by the Lord as to the former, namely the understanding part of his mind, and then within this there is formed a new will and a new understanding, 863, 875, 895, 897, 927, 928, 1023, 1043, 1044, 2256.

[2] The new will there, which is received from the Lord, is what is called 'the heart', while the new understanding is what is called 'the soul'. And when the expression 'with all the heart and with all the soul' is used, with all the will and with all the understanding is meant. This is what is meant by 'heart and soul' in Moses,

This day Jehovah your God is commanding you to observe these statutes and judgements - that you may keep and observe them with all your heart and with all your soul. Deuteronomy 26:16.

You shall love Jehovah your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. Deuteronomy 6:5.

In the same author,

Now Israel, what does Jehovah your God require of you except to fear Jehovah your God, to go in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve Jehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul? Deuteronomy 10:12; 11:13.

In the same author,

In the Book of Kings,

David said to Solomon, Jehovah will establish His Word which He spoke concerning me, saying, If [your] sons take heed to their way to walk before Me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there will not fail you a man on the throne of Israel. 1 Kings 2:4.

In Matthew,

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:29-30.

[3] The same is also said of Jehovah or the Lord because with the member of the Church He is the source of affection for good, which belongs to the will, and of the affection for truth, which belongs to the understanding; as in Samuel,

I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest, [who will do] according to what is in My heart and in My soul. 1 Samuel 2:35.

And in Jeremiah,

I will rejoice over them to do good to them, and I will plant them in this land in truth, with all My heart, and with all My soul. Jeremiah 32:41.

And there are still other places in the Word where 'soul' means the affection for truth, as in Isaiah,

With my soul I desired You in the night; even with my spirit within me I sought You early. For insofar as Your judgements are in the earth the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness. Isaiah 26:9.

Here 'soul' stands for an affection for truth, 'spirit' for an affection for good. 'Judgements' has reference to truths, and 'righteousness' to good, see 2235.

[4] In the same prophet,

The fool speaks folly, to make empty the hungry soul, and causes the [soul] thirsting for drink to fail. Isaiah 32:6.

'The hungry soul', which 'the fool makes empty', stands for the desire for good, while 'the soul thirsting for drink', which 'the fool causes to fail', stands for the desire for truth. In Jeremiah,

Their soul will become like a watered garden, and I will water the weary soul, and every sorrowful soul I will replenish. Jeremiah 31:12, 25.

'The soul' stands for the affection for truth and good. In the same prophet,

All its people groan as they search for bread. They have given their desirable things for food, to revive the soul. A comforter is far from me, one to revive my soul; my sons have been made desolate. They sought food for themselves to revive their soul. Lamentations 1:11, 16, 19.

'The soul' stands for the life of the affection for good and truth, 'food' stands for wisdom and intelligence.

[5] It has been said that 'the soul' means the affection for truth coming from the heart, because some affections for truth exist which do not come from the heart, such as those which come from self-love, which is the desire to be above others; from love of the world, which is the love of gain; and from love of merit. Affections for truth spring in a similar way from these loves, but they are not genuine affections. They come from the will of the flesh, not from the heart. That which comes from the heart comes from the Lord. Furthermore 'the soul' in the Word means in the universal sense all life, see 1000, 1005, 1040, 1742. Indeed in the universal sense the soul constitutes that from which another thing has its being and life. Thus the soul of the body is its spirit, since it is from this that the body has life. The soul of the spirit however is its still more interior life from which it derives its wisdom and intelligence.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.