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Amos 4

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1 Hear this word, ye fat kine that are in the mountains of Samaria: you that oppress the needy, and crush the poor: that say to your masters: Bring, and we will drink.

2 The Lord God hath sworn by his holiness, that lo, the days shall come upon you, when they shall lift you up on pikes, and what shall remain of you in boiling pots.

3 And you shall go out at the breaches one over against the other, and you shall be cast forth into Armon, saith the Lord.

4 Come ye to Bethel, and do wickedly: to Galgal, and multiply transgressions: and bring in the morning your victims, your tithes in three days.

5 And offer a sacrifice of praise with leaven: and call free offerings, and proclaim it: for so you would do, O children of Israel, saith the Lord God.

6 Whereupon I also have given you dulness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet you have not returned to me, saith the Lord.

7 I also have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon: and the piece whereupon I rained not, withered.

8 And two and three cities went to one city to drink water, and were not filled: yet you returned not to me, saith the Lord.

9 I struck you with a burning wind, and with mildew, the palmerworm hath eaten up your many gardens, and your vineyards: your olive groves, and fig groves: yet you returned not to me, saith the Lord.

10 I sent death upon you in the way of Egypt, I slew your young men with the sword, even to the captivity of your horses: and I made the stench of your camp to come up into your nostrils: yet you returned not to me, saith the Lord.

11 I destroyed some of you, as God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrha, and you were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet you returned not to me, saith the Lord.

12 Therefore I will do these things to thee, O Israel: and after I shall have done these things to thee, be prepared to meet thy God, O Israel.

13 For behold he that formeth the mountains and createth the wind, and declareth his word to man, he that maketh the morning mist, and walketh upon the high places of the earth: the Lord the God of hosts is his name.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #7505

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7505. 'An extremely severe pestilence' means an overall annihilation. This is clear from the meaning of 'a pestilence' as a laying waste of truth, and since it says 'an extremely severe pestilence' the annihilation of truth is meant. The fact that 'a pestilence' means a laying waste of truth is evident from the following places in the Word: In Ezekiel,

... when I shall send My four severe 1 judgements - sword, and famine, and evil wild animal, and pestilence - onto Jerusalem, to cut off man and beast from it. Ezekiel 14:21.

'Cutting off man and beast' stands for the laying waste of good, interior and exterior. In the same prophet,

The sword is without, and pestilence and famine within; he that is in the field will die by the sword, but him that is in the city famine and pestilence will devour. Ezekiel 7:15.

'Pestilence' stands for a laying waste of good. In the same prophet,

Therefore because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your abominations, a third part of you will die from pestilence, and be annihilated [by famine] in your midst. Ezekiel 5:11-12.

'Pestilence' stands for an annihilation of good. In Amos,

I have sent the pestilence upon you in the way of Egypt, I have killed your young men with the sword, along with your captured horses. 2 Amos 4:10.

'The pestilence in the way of Egypt' stands for a laying waste of good and truth by means of falsities, which are 'the way of Egypt'. 'I have killed young men with the sword, along with captured horses' stands for a laying waste of truth, truths being meant by 'young men' and intellectual concepts by 'horses' as above in 7503. In David,

You will not be afraid of the terror of the night, of the arrow that flies by day, of the pestilence that creeps in thick darkness, of death that lays waste at noon-day. Psalms 91:5-6.

'The pestilence that creeps in thick darkness' stands for evil that lays waste in concealment; 'death that lays waste at noonday' stands for evil which does so out in the open. 'Pestilence' occurs in other places besides these.

Footnotes:

1. literally, evil

2. literally, the captivity of your horses

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