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Amos 8

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1 Thus hath the Lord GOD shown to me: and behold a basket of summer fruit.

2 And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the LORD to me, The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.

3 And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord GOD: there shall be many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them forth with silence.

4 Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail,

5 Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?

6 That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; and even sell the refuse of the wheat?

7 The LORD hath sworn by the excellence of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works.

8 Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth in it? and it shall rise up wholly as a flood: and it shall be cast out and drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.

9 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord GOD, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day:

10 And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end of it as a bitter day.

11 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord:

12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.

13 In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.

14 They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beer-sheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise again.

   

Commento

 

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If we turn ourselves toward the Lord, we can get the full inflowing of His wisdom and love; if we turn away from Him we cast ourselves into cold and shadow -- we turn ourselves toward hell. In the Bible, "turning" generally refers to a change in spiritual state, as people turn themselves toward the Lord or away from the Lord.

Dalle opere di Swedenborg

 

Arcana Coelestia #2434

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2434. That 'he said to him, Behold, I have accepted you as regards this matter also' means assent, provided that the interior aspects of that truth derive anything from good. This is clear from the meaning of 'face'. 'Face' occurs very many times in the Word and in those places it means the interiors, as shown in 358, 1999; and when the word 'face' is used in reference to Jehovah or the Lord it means mercy, peace, and good, 222, 223. Here therefore 'face' means good which is interiorly within truth, so that 'accepting the face' means assent, provided that the interior aspects of that truth derive anything from good. 'As regards this matter' means as regards this thing. Unless truth has good within it, it is not truth, see 1496, 1832, 1900, 1904, 1928, 2063, 2173, 2269, 2401, 2403, 2429; and the source of man's blessing and happiness after death is not truth but the good lying within truth, 2261. Consequently blessing and happiness are for him increased the more good there is lying within truth. That good lies within truth and causes it to be truth becomes clear also from goods and truths as they exist in worldly things. When a person takes in and acknowledges something within these as being good, then whatever regards that good with favour he calls the truth. But whatever does not regard it with favour he rejects and calls falsity. He may also call something the truth which does not regard that good with favour; but in that case he is pretending one thing and thinking another. The same also applies in spiritual things.

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