IBhayibheli

 

Amos 5

Funda

   

1 Dinggin ninyo ang salitang ito na aking itinataghoy sa inyo, Oh sangbahayan ni Israel.

2 Ang dalaga ng Israel ay nabuwal; siya'y hindi na magbabangon pa, siya'y nahagis sa kaniyang lupain; walang magbangon sa kaniya.

3 Sapagka't ganito ang sabi ng Panginoong Dios: Ang bayan na lalabas na isang libo, maiiwang isang daan, at ang lalabas na isang daan ay maiiwang sangpu, sa sangbahayan ni Israel.

4 Sapagka't ganito ang sabi ng Panginoon sa sangbahayan ni Israel; Hanapin ninyo ako, at kayo'y mangabubuhay;

5 Nguni't huwag ninyong hanapin ang Beth-el, ni magsipasok man sa Gilgal, at huwag kayong magsidaan sa Beer-seba: sapagka't walang pagsala ang Gilgal ay papasok sa pagkabihag, at ang Beth-el ay mauuwi sa wala.

6 Inyong hanapin ang Panginoon, at kayo'y mangabubuhay; baka siya'y sumigalbong parang apoy sa sangbahayan ni Jose, at supukin yaon, at sa Beth-el ay walang makapapatay niyaon:

7 Kayong nagpapaging ajenjo sa kahatulan, at nagwawaksi ng katuwiran sa lupa.

8 Inyong hanapin ang lumikha ng mga Pleyades at ng Orion, at ang lilim ng kamatayan ay pinapaging umaga, pinapagdilim ang araw sa pamamagitan ng gabi; yaong tumatawag sa tubig sa dagat, at nagbubugso ng mga yaon sa ibabaw ng lupa (Panginoon ang siya niyang pangalan);

9 Yaong nagdadala ng biglang kabuwalan sa malakas, na anopa't ang pagkasira ay dumarating sa katibayan.

10 Kanilang kinapopootan ang nananaway sa pintuang-bayan, at kanilang kinasusuklaman ang nagsasalita ng matuwid.

11 Palibhasa nga't inyong niyayapakan ang dukha, at inyong hinihingan siya ng trigo: kayo'y nangagtayo ng mga bahay na batong tinabas, nguni't hindi ninyo tatahanan; kayo'y nangagtanim ng mga maligayang ubasan, nguni't hindi kayo magsisiinom ng alak niyaon.

12 Sapagka't talastas ko kung gaano karami ang inyong mga pagsalangsang, at kung gaano kalaki ang inyong mga kasalanan: kayong nagsisidalamhati sa ganap, na kinukunan ninyo ng suhol, at inyong inililigaw sa kanilang matuwid ang mapagkailangan sa pintuang-bayan.

13 Kaya't siya na mabait ay tatahimik sa panahong yaon; sapagka't masamang panahon.

14 Magsihanap kayo ng kabutihan, at huwag kasamaan, upang kayo'y mangabuhay; at sa gayo'y ang Panginoon, ang Dios ng mga hukbo, ay sasa inyo, gaya ng inyong sinasabi.

15 Inyong kapootan ang masama, at ibigin ang mabuti, at kayo'y mangagtatatag ng kahatulan sa pintuang-bayan: marahil ang Panginoon, ang Dios ng mga hukbo ay magiging mapagbiyaya sa nalabi sa Jose.

16 Kaya't ganito ang sabi ng Panginoon, ng Dios ng mga hukbo, ng Panginoon: Panaghoy ay sa lahat na daan; at sila'y mangagsasabi sa lahat na lansangan, Sa aba! sa aba! at kanilang tatawagin ang mangbubukid sa pananambitan, at ang lahat na bihasa sa pananaghoy sa pagtaghoy.

17 At sa lahat ng ubasan ay magkakaroon ng panaghoy; sapagka't ako'y daraan sa gitna mo, sabi ng Panginoon.

18 Sa aba ninyo na nangagnanasa ng kaarawan ng Panginoon! bakit ninyo ninanasa ang kaarawan ng Panginoon? kadiliman nga, at hindi kaliwanagan.

19 Gaya ng kung ang tao ay tumatakas sa leon, at isang oso ang sumasalubong sa kaniya; o pumapasok sa bahay at ikinakapit ang kaniyang kamay sa pinid, at isang ahas ang tumutuka sa kaniya.

20 Hindi baga magiging kadiliman ang kaarawan ng Panginoon, at hindi kaliwanagan? na totoong madilim, at walang ningning?

21 Aking kinapopootan, aking hinahamak ang inyong mga kapistahan, at hindi ako malulugod sa inyong mga takdang kapulungan.

22 Oo, bagaman inyong ihandog sa akin ang inyong mga handog na susunugin at mga handog na harina, hindi ko tatanggapin; ni akin mang kalulugdan ang mga handog tungkol sa kapayapaan na inyong mga matabang hayop.

23 Ihiwalay mo sa akin ang ingay ng iyong mga awit; sapagka't hindi ko didinggin ang tinig ng iyong mga biola.

24 Kundi bumugso ang katarungan na parang tubig, at ang katuwiran na parang malakas na agos.

25 Nagdala baga kayo sa akin ng mga hain, at ng mga handog sa ilang na apat na pung taon, Oh sangbahayan ni Israel?

26 Oo, inyong pinasan ang tabernakulo ng inyong hari at ang dambana ng inyong mga larawan, ang bituin ng inyong dios, na inyong ginawa para sa inyong sarili.

27 Kaya't kayo'y aking papapasukin sa pagkabihag sa dako roon ng Damasco, sabi ng Panginoon, na ang pangala'y Dios ng mga hukbo.

   

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.

Okususelwe Emisebenzini kaSwedenborg

 

Arcana Coelestia #9825

Funda lesi Sigaba

  
Yiya esigabeni / 10837  
  

9825. 'And a robe' means Divine Truth there in its inward form. This is clear from the meaning of 'a robe' as the middle of the spiritual kingdom, thus the actual truth that is there. For Aaron's garments represented the Lord's spiritual kingdom, 9814, and so represented the forms of truth present in their proper order there, 9822; and since that kingdom was divided into three degrees - the inmost, the middle, and the outermost - 'the robe' was a sign of what belongs in the middle of that kingdom. That kingdom was divided into three degrees because the inmost part there is in touch with the celestial [heaven], and the outermost with the natural; and the middle part thereby draws equally on both. Indeed for anything to be perfect it must be divided into three degrees. This is so with heaven, and it is so with the forms of good and truth there. As is well known, there are three heavens; consequently there are three degrees of good and truth there. Each heaven too is divided into three degrees. The inmost part of it must be in direct touch with what lies above, and the outermost with what lies below, and so the middle through them with what lies both above and below, all of which brings perfection to that heaven. The situation is just the same with a person's interiors. These in general have been divided into three degrees - into celestial, spiritual, and natural. And each of these has in like manner been divided into its own three degrees. For a person who has the good of faith and love to the Lord within him is heaven in the smallest form it takes, corresponding to the largest, 9279. The situation is also the same in everything belonging to the natural order. The natural level of a person too has been divided into three degrees, see 4570, as generally have all things present in him on interior and exterior levels, 4154. The reason why this should be so is that end, cause, and effect must be present everywhere. The end must be that which is inmost, the cause that which comes in the middle, and the effect that which is last, if a thing is to be perfect. This is why 'three' in the Word means what is complete from beginning to end, 2788, 4495, 7715, 9198, 9488, 9489. From all this people may know why Aaron's holy garments consisted of an ephod, a robe, and a tunic, and that the ephod represented the outermost part there, the robe the middle, and the tunic the inmost.

[2] Since the robe represented the middle in the spiritual kingdom, and the middle draws on both the other parts, this robe stood in a representative sense for that very kingdom, as in the first Book of Samuel,

Samuel turned to go away, but Saul took hold of the skirt of his robe, and it was torn away. Consequently Samuel said to him, Jehovah will tear away the kingdom of Israel from upon you this day, and He has given it to your companion, who is better than you. 1 Samuel 15:27-28.

From these words it is evident that the tearing off of the skirt of Samuel's robe was a sign of the tearing away of the kingdom of Israel from Saul; for 'the kingdom of Israel' means the Lord's spiritual kingdom, see 4286, 4598, 6426, 6637, 6862, 6868, 7035, 7062, 7198, 7201, 7215, 7223, 8805. Something similar occurs again in the same book,

David secretly cut off the skirt of Saul's robe. And when he showed it to Saul, Saul said, Now I know that you will indeed reign, and the kingdom of Israel will be firmly established in your hand. 1 Samuel 24:4-5, 11, 20.

Also, when Jonathan made a covenant with David he took off the robe from upon himself and gave it to David, [with his armour,] even to his sword, bow, and belt, 1 Samuel 18:3-4. All this represented the renunciation of the kingdom of Israel by Jonathan, who was the heir, and his passing it over to David.

[3] Since the robe represented the spiritual kingdom, it also represented the truths of that kingdom generally, the truths of that kingdom being what are called the spiritual truths that are present in the understanding part of a person's mind. These truths are meant by 'robes' in Ezekiel, All the princes of the sea will step down from upon their thrones, and will cast away their robes and will strip off their embroidered garments. Ezekiel 26:16.

This refers to Tyre, by which cognitions or knowledge of good and truth are meant, 1201; the ruination of them in the Church is described here. 'The robes' which they will cast away are truths of faith present in the understanding part of the mind; but 'the embroidered garments' are truths on the level of factual knowledge that are present in the natural, 9688. The reason why those truths are meant is that in the Lord's spiritual kingdom truth, which belongs to the understanding, holds sway, whereas in His celestial kingdom good, which belongs to the will, holds sway. In Matthew,

The scribes and Pharisees do all their works to be seen by people, and they enlarge the hems of their robes. Matthew 23:5, 6.

'Enlarging the hems of robes' stands for speaking about truths in a majestic way solely in order that they may be heard and regarded by other people. The fact that such things are meant by 'a robe' will become clearer still from the description of it further on, in verses 31-35 of this chapter.

  
Yiya esigabeni / 10837  
  

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