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Amos 9

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1 I saw the Lord standing beside the altar: and he said, Smite the capitals, that the thresholds may shake; and break them in pieces on the head of all of them; and I will slay the last of them with the sword: there shall not one of them flee away, and there shall not one of them escape.

2 Though they dig into Sheol, thence shall my hand take them; and though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down.

3 And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and it shall bite them.

4 And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them: and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good.

5 For the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, [is] he that toucheth the land and it melteth, and all that dwell therein shall mourn; and it shall rise up wholly like the River, and shall sink again, like the River of Egypt;

6 [it is] he that buildeth his chambers in the heavens, and hath founded his vault upon the earth; he that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth; Jehovah is his name.

7 Are ye not as the children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? saith Jehovah. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?

8 Behold, the eyes of the Lord Jehovah are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; save that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith Jehovah.

9 For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all the nations, like as [grain] is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least kernel fall upon the earth.

10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who say, The evil shall not overtake nor meet us.

11 In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up its ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old;

12 that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and all the nations that are called by my name, saith Jehovah that doeth this.

13 Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.

14 And I will bring back the captivity of my people Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.

15 And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be plucked up out of their land which I have given them, saith Jehovah thy God.

   

Commentary

 

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'To hide themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains,' as mentioned in Revelation 6:15, signifies being in evils and falsities of evil.

(References: Apocalypse Revealed 338)

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Apocalypse Revealed #338

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338. Hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains. This symbolically means that they were now caught up in evils and in the falsities accompanying evil.

Hiding themselves in caves and in mountain rocks means, symbolically, to be caught up in evils and in the falsities accompanying evil, because the people who pretended before the world that they were prompted by the goodness of love, and yet were caught up in evil, after death hid themselves in caves. And those who pretended that they were prompted by truths of faith, and yet were caught up in the falsities accompanying evil, hid themselves in mountain rocks.

The entrances appear as holes in the ground and as crevices in the mountains, into which they slip like snakes and there hide themselves.

That such is the nature of their abodes is something I have often seen.

It is in consequence of this that caves in the following places symbolize the evils in such people, and holes and crevices the falsities accompanying evil:

(In that day) they shall go into caves in the rocks, and into crevices in the cliffs..., when (Jehovah) rises to terrify the earth. (Isaiah 2:19)

In that day...(they shall) go into clefts in the rocks and into crevices in the cliffs, because of their terror of Jehovah... (Isaiah 2:20-21)

(They shall) live in crevices in the valleys, (and) in holes in the earth, and in rocks. (Job 30:6)

The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who dwell in crevices... (Obadiah v. 3)

...in that day... they will come, and... will rest in the desolate river beds and in the crevices of the rocks... (Isaiah 7:18-19)

...the palace will be a wilderness... The stronghold and watchtower shall be upon caves forever... (Isaiah 32:14)

...the pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the holes of the rock... (Jeremiah 49:16)

...they shall hunt them upon every mountain and hill, and out of the holes of the rocks... They are not hidden before Me, nor is their iniquity hidden... (Jeremiah 16:16-17)

(In that day) the nursing child shall play on the viper's hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the basilisk's 1 cave. (Isaiah 11:8)

Footnotes:

1. Legendary serpents or dragons, whose breath and glance were said to be lethal. Formerly identified in English translations of the Latin Vulgate with the cockatrice, and retained as such in the King James Bible.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.