IBhayibheli

 

Amos 5

Funda

   

1 Auxskultu cxi tiun vorton, per kiu mi plorkantas pri vi, ho domo de Izrael.

2 Falis kaj ne relevigxos la virgulino de Izrael; sxi estas jxetita sur la teron, kaj neniu sxin restarigos.

3 CXar tiele diras la Sinjoro, la Eternulo:La urbo, kiu elirigas milon, restos nur kun cento, kaj tiu, kiu elirigas centon, restos nur kun deko en la domo de Izrael.

4 CXar tiele diras la Eternulo al la domo de Izrael:Turnu vin al Mi, kaj tiam vi vivos.

5 Ne turnu vin al Bet-El, ne iru en Gilgalon, ne migru al Beer-SXeba; cxar Gilgal estos elpatrujigita kaj Bet-El farigxos senvalora.

6 Turnu vin al la Eternulo, kaj vivu, por ke la domo de Jozef ne ekflamu kiel fajro, kiu ekstermos, kaj neniu estingos en Bet-El.

7 La jugxon vi faras vermuto, kaj la veron vi jxetas sur la teron.

8 Li kreis la Plejadojn kaj Orionon; Li faras el la mallumo matenon, kaj el la tago Li faras malluman nokton; Li vokas la akvon de la maro kaj versxas gxin sur la teron; Lia nomo estas Eternulo.

9 Li sendas malfelicxon sur fortulon, kaj malfelicxo trafas urbon fortikigitan.

10 Sed ili malamas tiun, kiu admonas ilin en la pordego, kaj ili abomenas tiun, kiu parolas honestajxon.

11 Tial pro tio, ke vi premas senhavulon kaj forprenas de li la panon per grandaj impostoj, vi konstruos domojn el hakitaj sxtonoj, sed vi ne logxos en ili; vi plantos cxarmajn vinbergxardenojn, sed vi ne trinkos ilian vinon.

12 CXar Mi scias, kiel multaj estas viaj krimoj kaj kiel gravaj estas viaj pekoj:vi premas virtulon, vi prenas subacxeton, vi forpusxas malricxulojn en la pordego.

13 Tial la sagxulo silentas en cxi tiu tempo, cxar gxi estas tempo malbona.

14 Sercxu bonon, ne malbonon, por ke vi vivu; tiam la Eternulo, Dio Cebaot, estos kun vi, kiel vi diras.

15 Malamu la malbonon, amu la bonon, kaj starigu en la pordego justecon; eble la Eternulo, Dio Cebaot, indulgos la restintojn de Jozef.

16 Tial tiele diras la Eternulo, Dio Cebaot, la Sinjoro:Sur cxiuj placoj estos plorado, sur cxiuj stratoj oni dirados:Ho ve, ho ve! kaj oni vokos la plugiston, por plori, kaj la sciantojn de funebraj kantoj, por plorkanti.

17 Kaj en cxiuj vinbergxardenoj estos plorado, kiam Mi trairos meze de vi, diras la Eternulo.

18 Ve al tiuj, kiuj deziras vidi la tagon de la Eternulo! por kio vi gxin deziras? la tago de la Eternulo estas malluma, ne luma.

19 Tiel same, kiel se iu forkuras de leono kaj lin kaptas urso, aux li venis hejmen kaj apogis sian manon al muro kaj lin pikas serpento.

20 Malluma estos ja la tago de la Eternulo, ne luma; malluma kaj sen ia brilo.

21 Mi malamas, Mi abomenas viajn festojn, kaj Mi ne flaras la oferojn de viaj solenaj tagoj.

22 Kiam vi alportas al Mi bruloferojn kaj viajn farunoferojn, Mi ne akceptas ilin, kaj viajn grasajn dankoferojn Mi ne rigardas.

23 Forigu de Mi la bruon de viaj kantoj, la sonadon de viaj psalteroj Mi ne volas auxskulti.

24 Sed justeco fluu kiel akvo, kaj vero kiel potenca torento.

25 CXu bucxoferojn kaj farunoferojn vi alportadis al Mi en la dezerto dum kvardek jaroj, ho domo de Izrael?

26 Vi portis la tabernaklon de via Molehx, la kolonon de via idolo, la stelon de via dio, kiun vi faris al vi.

27 Tial Mi elpatrujigos vin trans Damaskon, diras la Eternulo, kies nomo estas Dio Cebaot.

   

Amazwana

 

Exploring the Meaning of Amos 5

Ngu New Christian Bible Study Staff

In this fifth chapter of the Book of Amos, the first three verses (Amos 5:1-3) state the Lord's sorrow that the church - the truth from the Divine flowing into the world - has successively been devastated. (That was seen in Amos 4). When, in verse 3, it says, “The city that goes out by a thousand shall have a hundred left,” it means that very little truth is left to nourish the people. This bad state is their own doing.

In Amos 5:4-9, amid this dying out, the Lord entreats, almost anxiously, “Seek Me and live,” and then names traps, or spiritual states, that will turn people away from Him: Bethel, Gilgal, and Beersheba.

- The first, Bethel, here stands for falsifying knowledges.

- The second, Gilgal, signifies sensuous or external pleasures.

- The third, Beersheba, symbolized the last negative attitudes towards everything that constitutes faith and its doctrine. (See Arcana Coelestia 3923).

The next warning is to those “who turn justice into wormwood,” in Amos 5:7, i.e. they turn good into evil. (Arcana Coelestia 1488)

The Lord wants the people to return to Him, and explains clearly that He is the source of power, the one who, “made the Pleiades and Orion,” and the one who “rains ruin upon the strong”.

In Amos 5:10-13, in their love of their own intelligence, people continue to reject the Lord, to “tread down the poor,” rejecting even the little bits of truth coming to them. The people are warned, “Though you have built houses of hewn stone, yet you shall not dwell in them."

Stone meaning truths in our natural minds. (Apocalypse Explained 745). The dictionary meaning of “hewn” means a workman making something, so it can be seen as coming from ourselves, or our own intelligence. Anything like that is “devoid of life from the Divine” (Arcana Coelestia 9852).

In Amos 5:14-15, the path is shown for the way the Lord can be with us: “Seek good and not evil, that you may live.” It can’t be any plainer. In that way the Lord can reach out with His mercy, and “be gracious to the remnant of Joseph”. That remnant is a small amount of truth, and Joseph is the spiritual part of us. (Arcana Coelestia 3921).

In Amos 5:16-20, people are warned of how bad it will be for them when the day of the Lord comes. “Is not the day of the Lord darkness?”, for those who are in evil, “with no brightness in it?” A person’s suffering will be painful, “as though he went into the house, leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him,” and terrorizing, “As though a man fled from a lion and a bear met him.”

In Amos 5:21-22, God warns that people's fear-spurred worship won’t be accepted. He says, “I hate, I despise your feast days”. The strong language of the Lord is the mirror opposite of the depth of the evil the people are in.

In verses 23-25, "Take away your noisy songs and melodies," the Lord says, i.e. take away what sounds beautiful to you but is hurtful to the Divine because it lacks internal goodness and truth. In its place, in one of the Bible's memorable images, Jehovah says, "Let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a mightly stream”.

Then, at the end, in verses 26-27, the warning is clear: if the people don’t return to the Lord, everything good will be taken from them, as shown in verse 27:

“Therefore I will send you into captivity beyond Damascus”.

Damascus was the furthest boundary of Canaan, or beyond where spiritual things reside. The “boundary of Damascus” is also referred to in Ezekiel 47:16-18. See also Apocalypse Explained 1088.

IBhayibheli

 

Amos 6

Funda

   

1 Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who are secure on the mountain of Samaria, the notable men of the chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel come!

2 Go to Calneh, and see; and from there Go to Hamath the great; then go down to Gath of the Philistines. are they better than these kingdoms? or is their border greater than your border?

3 Those who put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near;

4 Who lie on beds of ivory, and stretch themselves on their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall;

5 who strum on the strings of a harp; who invent for themselves instruments of music, like David;

6 who drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the best oils; but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.

7 Therefore they will now go captive with the first who go captive; and the feasting and lounging will end.

8 "The Lord Yahweh has sworn by himself," says Yahweh, the God of Armies: "I abhor the pride of Jacob, and detest his fortresses. Therefore I will deliver up the city with all that is in it.

9 It will happen, if there remain ten men in one house, that they shall die.

10 "When a man's relative carries him, even he who burns him, to bring bodies out of the house, and asks him who is in the innermost parts of the house, 'Is there yet any with you?' And he says, 'No;' then he will say, 'Hush! Indeed we must not mention the name of Yahweh.'

11 "For, behold, Yahweh commands, and the great house will be smashed to pieces, and the little house into bits.

12 Do horses run on the rocky crags? Does one plow there with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness;

13 you who rejoice in a thing of nothing, who say, 'Haven't we taken for ourselves horns by our own strength?'

14 For, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, house of Israel," says Yahweh, the God of Armies; "and they will afflict you from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of the Arabah."