The Bible

 

Amos 2

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1 Thus saith the Lord: For three crimes of Moab, and for four I will not convert him: because he hath burnt the bones of the king of Edom even to ashes.

2 And I will seed a fire into Moab, and it shall devour the houses of Carioth: and Moab shall die with a noise, with the sound of the trumpet:

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

4 Thus saith the Lord: For three crimes of Juda, and for four I will not convert him: because he hath cast away the law of the Lord, and hath not kept his commandments: for their idols have caused them to err, after which their fathers have walked.

5 And I will send a fire into Juda, and it shall devour the houses of Jerusalem.

6 Thus saith the Lord: For three crimes of Israel, and for four I will not convert him: because he hath sold the just man for silver, and the poor man for a pair of shoes.

7 They bruise the heads of the poor upon the dust of the earth, and turn aside the way of the humble: and the son and his father have gone to the same young woman, to profane my holy name.

8 And they sat down upon garments laid to pledge by every altar: and drank the wine of the condemned in the house of their God.

9 Yet I cast out the Amorrhite before their face: whose height was like the height of cedars, and who was strong as an oak: and I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots beneath.

10 It is I that brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and I led you forty years through the wilderness, that you might possess the land of the Amorrhite.

11 And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites. Is it not so, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord?

12 And you will present wine to the Nazarites: and command the prophets, saying: Prophesy not.

13 Behold, I will screak under you as a wain screaketh that is laden with hay.

14 And flight shall perish from the swift, and the valiant shall not possess his strength, neither shall the strong save his life.

15 And he that holdeth the bow shall not stand, and the swift of foot shall not escape, neither shall the rider of the horse save his life.

16 And the stout of heart among the valiant shall flee away naked in that day, saith the Lord.

   

Commentary

 

Command

  
Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze

To command is to give an order that something must be done, and is directed to an individual, or a group. It is an imperative, not a suggestion. Commanding can be done in two ways, or from two differing motives. It often comes in an organization, where it is used to impose an order that is necessary to do the organization's work, such as a business, or government or an army, and can be legitimate, or is used in a family by parents to maintain an orderly home. But it can also be used by a person who loves power and having gotten it in some way, loves to impose his or her will on others for selfish gratification. So one motive is love of a use, or of good, and the other is for the love of self, or possessions. The Lord, from His infinite love, has given mankind commandments because He is order itself, and knows that our happiness to eternity depends on our acceptance of His order of creation, which ultimately is the only order that exists.