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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.

   

Commentaire

 

Exploring the Meaning of Amos 5

Par 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.

Des oeuvres de Swedenborg

 

Apocalypse Explained #745

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745. Now is come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ, signifies that now the Lord has power by His Divine truth to save those who are of His church, who receive Divine truth in heart and soul. This is evident from the signification of "salvation," as being to be saved; and from the signification of "power," as being to have ability, thus possibility (of which presently); from the signification of "kingdom," as being heaven and the church (See above, n. 48, 685); from the signification of "our God," as being the Lord in relation to His Divine; and from the signification of "the authority of His Christ," as being the efficacy of Divine truth, thus by means of Divine truth. That "the Christ" means the Lord in relation to Divine truth may be seen above (n. 684, 685); and that "authority" signifies, in reference to the Lord, the salvation of the human race, may be seen above n. 293; and that the Lord has power to save by means of His Divine truth (n. 333, 726); and because the Lord can save only those who receive Divine truth from Him with heart and soul, this too is signified. From this it is clear that "Now is come the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ," signifies that now the Lord has power by His Divine truth to save those who are of His church who receive Divine truth with heart and soul.

[2] It is said "who receive with heart and soul," meaning with love and faith, likewise with the will and understanding; for in the Word when "soul and heart" are both mentioned "soul" signifies faith, likewise understanding, and "heart" signifies love, likewise will; for soul [anima] means there in the ultimate sense the respiration of man, which is also called his "spirit" [or breath], and the verb animare means to respire; also when a man dies he is said "to give up the ghost" [emittere animam et spirituum]. Moreover, it is also from correspondence that "soul" signifies faith, also the understanding, and that "heart" signifies love, as also the will; for faith and understanding correspond to the breathing [animatio] or respiration of the lungs, and the love and will correspond to the motion and pulsation of the heart (on which correspondence see above, n. 167; and the Arcana Coelestia 2930, 3883-3896, 9050).

[3] "Now is come the salvation and the power of our God" signifies that the Lord is now able to save; so "power" here signifies to have ability, thus the possibility, because the Lord could not save those who were of His church before the dragon with his angels had been driven out, that is, separated from heaven. One who does not know the laws of Divine order might believe that the Lord can save anyone He pleases, thus the evil as well as the good; and for this reason some are of the opinion that in the end all who are in hell will be saved. But that no one can be saved by immediate mercy, but only by mediate, and that still it is from pure mercy, that those who receive Divine truth from the Lord in soul and heart are saved, may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell 521-527.

[4] This is also meant by these words in John:

His own received Him not; but as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become sons of God, to them that believe on His name; who were born not of bloods nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:11-13).

"His own" who received Him not mean those who are of the church where the Word is, and to whom the Lord could be known through the Word; therefore those who were of the Jewish Church are here meant by "His own." That the Lord would "give to those that believe on His name power to become sons of God" signifies that He gives heaven to those 1 who receive Divine truths from Him in soul and heart, or in faith and life; "to believe on His name" meaning to receive the Lord in faith and life, for "the name of the Lord" signifies everything by which He is worshiped; "sons of God" mean those who are regenerated by the Lord; "who are born not of bloods" signifies who have not falsified and adulterated the Word; "nor of the will of the flesh" signifies who are not in evils from what is their own [proprium]; "nor of the will of man" signifies who are not in falsities from what is their own [proprium], for the "will" signifies what is man's own [proprium], "flesh" signifies evil, and "man" [vir] signifies falsity; "but born of God" signifies those who have been regenerated by truths from the Word and by a life according to them. From this it can be seen that those who are not willing to be reformed and regenerated by the Lord, which is effected by the reception of Divine truth in faith and life, cannot be saved.

Notes de bas de page:

1. The Latin has "to him who receive," for "to them."

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.