The Bible

 

Amos 2

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1 Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not revoke its sentence; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime.

2 And I will send a fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the palaces of Kerijoth; and Moab shall die with tumult, with shouting, [and] with the sound of the trumpet.

3 And I will cut off the judge from the midst thereof, and will slay all the princes thereof with him, saith Jehovah.

4 Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not revoke its sentence; because they have despised the law of Jehovah, and have not kept his statutes; and their lies have caused them to err, after which their fathers walked.

5 And I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.

6 Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke its sentence; because they have sold the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes;

7 panting after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turning aside the way of the meek; and a man and his father will go in unto the [same] maid, to profane my holy name.

8 And they lay [themselves] down by every altar upon clothes taken in pledge, and they drink [in] the house of their God the wine of the condemned.

9 But I destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was as the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; but I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath.

10 And I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you forty years in the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite.

11 And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites. Is it not even thus, ye children of Israel? saith Jehovah.

12 And ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not.

13 Behold, I will press upon you, as a cart presseth that is full of sheaves.

14 And flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not strengthen his force, neither shall the mighty deliver his soul.

15 Neither shall he stand that handleth the bow; and the swift of foot shall not escape, and he that rideth the horse shall not deliver his soul;

16 and he that is stout-hearted among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, saith Jehovah.

   

Commentary

 

Under

  

In the Bible, things that are lower down, or under, physically, generally represent things that are lower or more external spiritually. In some cases, the lower things have been separated and put away to protect the good, but in others, it can mean that a less exalted idea or good desire is supporting a more exalted one.

(References: Arcana Coelestia 4564 [1-2], 8610, 9656)

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #8610

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8610. 'And put it under him, and he sat on it' means correspondence with the highest level of truth. This becomes clear from the consideration that the stone supported Moses and 'Moses' represents the highest level of truth, which is God's truth that goes forth directly from the Lord. When the lowest level of truth corresponds with this highest level of truth it supports it, for they act as one. Interior truths are joined to exterior, and finally to the lowest through the correspondence [of each level with the one above it]. Highest truth then has might within the lowest, because it resides in it and acts through it. But if there is no such correspondence they are disjoined, and consequently highest truth has no might within lowest. What correspondence is may be seen from the extensive presentation, at the ends of a number of chapters, of the correspondence of all aspects of the human being with the Grand Man.

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