In the Book of Amos, chapter two begins with the Lord declaring his anger against the people of Moab, Judea, and Israel. They have committed various wrongs against the Lord and the church, despite His efforts to guide them, and the chapter goes on to suggest that the Lord is losing faith in His people.

Verses 1-8 of this chapter describe the specific ways in which people can destroy or misuse the good and truth of the Word.

Verses 1-3 discuss the Moabites specifically. They represent people who corrupt the good and truth of the church, meaning they would twist what they learned from the Word to suit their own selfish purposes. Bones represent natural truths that we can use as a framework to support all higher knowledge that we learn, so the fact that people were ‘burning bones’ means they destroyed their own foundation to gain spiritual knowledge. In verse 3, the Lord says that he will cut off the judge and the prince, meaning that the Moabites’ failure to determine what is good (like the judge), and lead a life based in truth (like the prince) will not stand against the real spiritual principles of the Lord.

Verses 4-5 are about people who destroy celestial things from the Word, by turning their hearts away from the Lord. The people of Judea had believed they were the Lord’s chosen people for so many generations at this point that they grew complacent, and no longer felt they needed to obey the Lord’s commandments.

Verses 6-8 tell what can happen when people pervert spiritual truths from the church, and turn them into falsities. Swedenborg writes that most of the images from these verses - silver, shoes, dust, wine - can all represent either falsity, or only the most external type of truth. The Israelites were turning to these falsities and to their own greed, instead of using the Lord’s truths to help the poor and the meek.

In verses 9-11, the Lord reminds the children of Israel of everything he has done to prepare them for salvation. He fought for them and delivered them from Egypt, lifted up their leaders and prophets, and provided them with the truths they would need in order to be regenerated.

He also shows that He has the strength to punish them, because He’s already overcome the Amorites, who symbolize evil in general (Secrets of Heaven 6306).

Verses 12-16 describe how the Israelites perverted the knowledge the Lord tried to give them. Instead of trusting what the Lord had taught them, they turned to their own self-righteousness for guidance. Since they thought they had all the answers, they corrupted the Nazarites and silenced the prophets. Without a proper understanding of the Lord’s teachings, the people were no longer equipped to fight against evils or to grow spiritually.

At face value, this chapter depicts the Lord as an angry god who will punish those who disobey him. What seems to be anger is actually the Lord fiercely protecting us, and calling us to follow Him. This chapter reminds us to turn our hearts toward the Lord, and to live according to the truths of the Word.

3960. 'And Leah said, God has endowed me with a good dowry; once again my husband will dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons' in the highest sense means the Lord's Divine itself and His Divine Human, in the internal sense the heavenly marriage, and in the external sense conjugial love. This is clear from the meaning of 'dwelling together' and also from all the other words which Leah uttered at this point. The reason why 'dwelling together' in the highest sense means the Lord's Divine itself and His Divine Human is that the Divine itself, and the Father, exists mutually and reciprocally within the Divine Human, termed the Son of God, according to the words of the Lord Himself in John,

Jesus said, Philip, he who has seen Me has seen the Father. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me. John 14:9-11; 10:38.

This union is the Divine Marriage itself, see 3211, 3952. That union is not however a dwelling together, though it is expressed as such in the sense of the letter. For things which are one present themselves in the sense of the letter as two - as the Father and the Son - or even as three, as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They do so for many reasons which will in the Lord's Divine mercy be discussed elsewhere.

[2] Here also lies the reason why 'dwelling together' in the internal sense means the heavenly marriage, for it is from the Divine Marriage - the union of the Father and the Son, that is, of the Lord's Divine itself with His Divine Human - that the heavenly marriage comes into being. The heavenly marriage exists as that which is called the Lord's kingdom and also heaven, and it is so called because it comes into being from the Divine Marriage, which is the Lord. This then is what is meant in the internal sense by 'dwelling together', and is also the reason why heaven is called God's dwelling-place, as in Isaiah,

Look out from heaven, and see from the dwelling-place of Your holiness and of Your glory. Where are Your zeal and Your might? The yearning of Your loins, and Your compassion ¹ towards me have held themselves back. Isaiah 63:15.

'The dwelling-place of holiness' stands for the celestial kingdom, and

'The dwelling-place of glory' for the spiritual kingdom. 'Dwelling-place' used here in Isaiah is derived from the same word as 'dwelling together' and 'Zebulun' are derived.

[3] The reason why 'dwelling together' in the external sense means conjugial love is that all genuine conjugial love has its origin nowhere else than in the heavenly marriage, which is a marriage of good and truth, and this in turn has its origin in the Divine Marriage, which is that of the Lord's Divine itself and His Divine Human. See what has been stated already on these matters in the following places:

The heavenly marriage descends from Divine Good present within the Lord, and from Divine Truth proceeding from Him, 2508, 2618, 2803, 3132.

This marriage is the origin of conjugial love, 2728, 2729.

People who live in genuine conjugial love are dwelling together in the inmost things of life, 2732, and so in love for good and truth since these constitute the inmost things of life.

Conjugial love is the fundamental love of all loves, 2737-2739.

The marriage of good and truth exists in heaven, in the Church, with every member of heaven and the Church, and in every individual thing within the natural order, 718, 747, 917, 1432, 2173, 2516, 2712, 2758; it exists in every detail of the Word, 683, 793, 801, 2516, 2712; and so in the highest sense it is the Lord Himself.

The names Jesus Christ mean the Divine Marriage, 3004.

[4] These are the things meant not only by 'dwelling together', that is, by the words 'once again my husband will dwell with me' but also by those preceding them, 'God has endowed me with a good dowry'. The former however means the truth of good whereas the latter means the good of truth, for these two constitute the heavenly marriage. And because this is a conclusion the statement 'because I have borne him six sons' is added; for 'six' here is similar in meaning to twelve. In the Word half a number, or twice that number, has the same meaning as the number itself when the subject is similar.

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