God's Truth
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The Book of the Prophet Amos
The 1st Chapter
These are the sermons that were showed unto Amos (which was one of the shepherds at Thecua) upon Israel, in the time of Osiah king of Judah, and in the time of Jeroboam the son of Joah king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. And he said: The Lord shall roar out of Sion, and show his voice from Jerusalem: so that the pastures of the shepherds shall be in a miserable cause, and the top of Charmel dried up. Thus says the Lord: for three and four wickednesses of Damascus, I will not spare her: because they have threshed Galaad with iron stales: But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, the same shall consume the palaces of Benadab. Thus will I break the bars of Damascus, and root out the inhabitant from the field of Aven, and him that holds the scepter, out of the pleasant house: so that the people shall be driven out of fair Syria, says the Lord. Thus says the Lord: For three and four wickednesses of Gaza, I will not spare her: because they make the prisoners yet more captive, and have driven them into the land of Edom. Therefore will I send a fire in to the walls of Gaza, which shall devour their houses. I will root out them that dwell at Asdod, and him that holds the scepter of Ascalon, and stretch out mine hand over Accaron, that the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, says the Lord.
Thus says the Lord: For three and four wickednesses of the city of Tire, I will not spare her: because they increased the captivity of the Edomites, and have not remembered the brotherly covenant. Therefore will I send a fire into the walls of Tire, that shall consume her palaces. Thus says the Lord; For three and four wickednesses of Edom, I will not spare him, because he persecuted his brother with the sword, destroyed his mothers womb, bare hatred very long, and so kept indignation always by him. Therefore will I send a fire upon Theman, which shall devour the palaces of Bosra.
Thus says the Lord: For three and four wickednesses of the children of Ammon, I will not spare them: because they rip up the women great with child in Galaad, to make the borders of their lands that wider. Therefore I will kindle a fire in the walls of Rabbath, that shall consume her palaces: with a great cry, in the day of battle, in tempest and in the day of storm: So that their king shall go into captivity, he and his princes together, says the Lord.The 2nd Chapter
Thus says the Lord: For three and four wickednesses of Moab, I will not spare him: because he burned the bones of the king of Edom to ashes. Therefore will I send a fire into Moab, which shall consume the palaces of Carioth: so that Moab shall perish with a noise and the sound of a trumpet: I will root out the judge from among them, and slay all his princes with him, says the Lord. Thus says the Lord: For three and four wickednesses of Judah, I will not spare him: because he has cast aside the law of the Lord, and not kept his commandments: for why? they would be deceived with the lies, that their forefathers followed. Therefore I will send a fire into Judah, which shall consume the palaces of Jerusalem.
Thus says the Lord: For three and four wickednesses of Israel, I will not spare him: because he has sold the righteous for money, and the poor for shoes. They tread upon poor mens heads, in the dust of the earth, and crook the wages of the meek. The son and the father go to the harlot, to dishonor my holy name, they* lay beside every alter upon clothes taken to pledge, and in the house of their gods they drink the wine of the oppressed. Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, that was as high as the cedar trees, and strong as the oaks: notwithstanding I destroyed his fruit from above and his root from under. *To lay beside every hill alter upon clothes taken to pledge, is , to serve their gods taken by extortion from the poor.
Again: I brought you out of the land of Egypt, and led you forty years through the wilderness, that you might have the Amorites land in possession. I raised up prophets among your children, and abstainers among your young men. Is it not so, O you children of Israel, says the Lord? But you gave the abstainers wine to drink, yes you command the prophets, saying: Prophesy not. Behold, I will crash you in sunder, like as a wagon crasheth, that is full of sheaves: so that the swift shall not escape, neither the strong be able to do anything: no, the giant shall not save his own life. The archer will not abide, and the swift of foot shall not escape. The horseman shall not save his life, and he that is manly of stomach as the giant, shall in that day be fain to run his way naked, says the Lord.The 3rd Chapter
Hear, what the Lord speaks unto you (O you children of Israel) namely, unto all the tribes, whom I have brought out of Egypt, and said: you only have I accepted from all the generations of the earth: therefore I will visit you in all your wickednesses. May two walk together except they be agreed among themselves? does a lion roar in the woods, except he have prey? Or crys a Lions whelp out of his den, except he have gotten something? Does a bird fall in a snare upon the earth where no fouler is? Takes a man up his snare from the ground, before he catches something? Cry they out Alarm with the trumpet in the city, and the people not afraid? Comes there any plague in a city without it be the Lords doing? Now does the Lord God no manner of thing, but he tells his secret before unto his servants the prophets. When a lion roars, who will not be afraid? Seeing then that the Lord God himself speaks, who will not *prophecy?, *or receive prophesy MN
Preach in the palaces at Asded, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say: Gather you together upon the mountains of Samaria, so shall you see great murder and violent oppression among them, for why? they regard not the thing that is right, says the Lord: they gather together evil gotten goods, and lay up robbery in their houses.
Therefore thus says the Lord God: This land shall be troubled and besieged round about, your strength shall be plucked from you, and your palaces robbed. Thus says the Lord: like as a herdsman takes two legs or a piece of an ear out of the lions mouth: Even so shall the children of Israel (that dwell in Samaria having their couches in the corner, and the beds at Damascus) shall be plucked away. Hear, and bear recording the house of Jacob (says the Lord God of hosts), That when I begin to visit the wickedness Israel, I will visit the alters at Bethel also: so that the horns of the alter shall be broken off, and fall to the ground.
As for the winter house and summer house, I will smite them down: and the houses of Ivory, yes and many other houses shall perish, and be destroyed, says the Lord.The 4th Chapter
Hear this word, you fat cows, that be upon the hill of Samaria, you that do poor men wrong, and oppress the needy, you that say to your Lords: bring hither, and let us drink. Therefore the Lord has sworn by his holiness: The days shall come upon you, that you shall be lift up upon spears, and your posterity carried away in fishers baskets. you shall get you out at the gapes one after another, and in Armon shall you be cast away, says the Lord.
You came to Bethell for to work ungraciousness, and have increased your sins at Galgal: you brought your sacrifices in the morning, and your tithes unto the third day. you made a thank offering of leaven, you promised free will offerings, and proclaimed them. Such lust had ye, O you children of Israel, says the Lord God. Therefore I have given you idle teeth in all your cities, and scarceness of bread in all your places: yet will you not turn to me, says the Lord. When there were but three months unto the harvest, I withheld the rain from you: yes I rained upon one city, and not on another, one piece of ground was moistured with rain, and the ground that I rained not upon, was dry. Wherefore two, yes three cities came unto one, to drink water: but they were not satisfied, yet will you not turn unto me, says the Lord.
I have smitten you with drought and a blasting: and look how many orchards, vineyards, fig trees, and your olive trees you had: the caterpillar has eaten them up. But yet you will turn unto me, says the Lord. Pestilence have I sent among you, as I did in Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, and caused your horses to be taken captive: I will make the stinking savor of your tents to come up unto your nostrils: yet will you not turn unto me, says the Lord. Some of you I have overthrown as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah: so that you were as a brand plucked out of the fire. yet will you not turn unto me, says the Lord. Therefore thus will I handle you again, O Israel, you even thus I will handle you. Make you ready to meet your God, O Israel. For lo, he makes the mountains, he orders the wind, he shows a man what he is about to do: he makes the morning and the darkness, he treads upon the high places of the earth: the Lord God of hosts is his name.The 5th Chapter
Hear this word, O you house of Israel, and why? I must make this moan for you: The virgin Israel shall fall, and never rise up again: she shall be cast down upon her own ground, and no man shall help her up. For thus says the Lord God: Where as there dwelt a thousand in one city, there shall scarcely an hundred therin: and where there dwelt an hundred, there shall scarce ten be left for the house of Israel. Nevertheless, thus says the Lord unto the house of Israel: Seek after me, and you shall live, but seek not after Bethel. come not at Galgal, and go not to Bersaba: for Gilgal shall be carried away captive, and Bethel shall come to nought. Seek the Lord, that you may live: least the house of Joseph be burnt with fire and consumed, and least there be none to quench Bethel.
You turn the law into wormwood, and cast down righteousness into the ground. The Lord makes the seven stars and the *Orions *A constellation in the celestial equator, he turns the night into day, and of the day he makes darkness. He calls the waters of the sea, and pours them out upon the plain ground: the Lord is his name. He raises destruction upon the mighty people, and brings down the strong hold: but they owe him evil will, that reproves them openly: and who follows them the plain truth, they abhor him. For so much then as you oppress the poor, and rob him of his best sustenance: therefore, where as you have builded houses of square stone, you shall not dwell in them. Marvelous pleasant vineyards shall you plant, but the wine of them shall you not drink: and why? as for the multitude of your wickednesses and your stout sins, I know them right well. Enemies are you of the righteous, you take rewards, you oppress the poor in judgement. Therefore that wise must now be happy to hold his tongue, so wicked a time is it.
Seek after the thing that is good, and not evil, so shall you live: yes the Lord God of hosts shall be with you, according to your own desire. Hate the evil, and love the good: set up right again in the port: and (no doubt) the Lord God of hosts shall be merciful unto the remnant of Joseph. If no (says the Lord God, the God of hosts) there shall be mourning in all streets, yes they shall say in every street: alas, alas. They shall call the husband man to lamentation, and such as can mourn to mourning. In all vineyards there shall be heaviness, for I will come among you, says the Lord. Wo be unto them that desire the day of the Lord: Wherefore would you have it? As for the day of the Lord, it shall be dark and not clear: Yes like as when a man runs from a lion, and a bear meets him: or when he comes into the house, and leans his hand upon the wall, a serpent bit him. Shall not the day of the Lord be dark, and not clear? shall it not be cloudy, and no shine in it?
I hate and abhor your holy days, and where you cense me when you come together I will not except it. And though you offer me burnt offerings and meat offerings, yet have I no pleasure therin. As for your fat thank offerings, I will not look upon them. Away with the noise of your songs, I will not hear your plays of your music: but see that equity flow as water, and righteousness as a mighty stream. O you house of Israel, gave you me offerings and sacrifices those forty years long in the wilderness? yet you set up tabernacles to your Moloch, and images of your Idols, yes and the star of your God *Rempha, figures which you made to worship them. Therefore will I cause you to be carried away beyond Damascus, says the Lord, whose name is the God of Hosts. *Rempha : left out of KJV here, but found in ActsThe 6th Chapter
O woe be to the proud wealthy in Sion to such as think them so sure upon the mount of Samaria: which hold themselves for the best of the world, and rule the house of Israel, even as they jest. Go unto Calne, and see: and from then see get you to Nemath the great city, and so go down to Gath of the Philistines: be they better at ease than these kingdoms, or the border of their land wider than yours? you are taken out for the evil day, even you that sit in the stole of willfulness: you that lie upon beds of ivory, and use your wantonness upon your couches: you that eat the best lambs of the flock, and the fattest calves of the herd: you that sing to the lute, and in playing of instruments compare yourselves to David: you that drink wine out of goblets, and anoint yourselves with the best oil, but no man is sorry for Josephs hurt. Therefore now shall you be the first of them, that shall be led away captive, and the lust you cheer of the willful shall come to an end.
The Lord God has sworn even by himself (says the Lord the God of hosts), I will hate the pride of Jacob, and abhor his palaces: and I will give over the city, with all that is therin: so that though there remain ten men in one house, they shall die. So their next kinfolks and the dead buryers shall take them, and carry away their bones, and say unto him, that is in the innermost house: is there yet any more by you? And he shall answer: they are all gone, hold your tongue (shall he say) for they would not remember the name of the Lord.
Behold, the Lord is minded to smite the great houses, so that they shall decay: and that little houses, so that they shall clean a *sunder.*break apart Who can run with horses, or plow with oxen upon the hard rocks of stone? For why? you have turned true judgement into bitterness and the fruit of righteousness into worm wood: Yes even you , that rejoice in vain things: you that say: have not we obtained horns in our own strength? Well, take heed, O you house of Israel, says the Lord God of hosts: I will bring a people upon you, which shall trouble you, from the way that goes toward Hemath, unto the brook in the meadow.The 7th Chapter
The Lord God showed me such a vision: behold, there stood on that made grasshoppers, even when the corn was shooting forth, after the king had clipped his sheep. Now when they undertook to eat up all the green things in the land, I said: O' Lord God, be merciful, I beseech you: who should else help up Jacob that is brought so low? So the Lord was gracious therin, and the Lord said: Well, it shall not be. Again, the Lord showed me this vision: behold, the Lord God called the fire to punish withal, and it devoured the great deep: yes it consumed a part already. Then said I: O' Lord God hold your hand: who should else help up Jacob that is brought so low? So the Lord was merciful therin, and the Lord God said: well, it shall not be.
Moreover, he showed me this vision: behold, the Lord stood upon a plastered wall, and a masons trowel in his hand. And the Lord said unto me: Amos, what see you? I answered: a masons trowel. Then said the Lord: behold, I will lay the trowel among my people of Israel, and will nomore oversee them: but the high hill chapels of Isaac must be laid waste and the *churches of Israel made desolate: and as for the house of Jeroboam, I will stand up against with a sword. Upon this sent Amasiah the priest to Bethel unto Jeroboam the king of Israel saying: Amos makes the house of Israel to rebel against you, the land cannot away (Hebrew: endure it or allow it) with his words. For Amos says, Jeroboam shall die with the sword, and Israel shall be led away, captive out of their own land. And Amasiah said unto Amos: Get you from here, now (you that can see so well) and flee into the land of Juda: get you there your living, and prophesy there: and prophesy no more at Bethel, for it is the kings chapel, and the kings court. *churches: note that the Lord made desolate and laid waste these "churches" of Israel. RN
Amos answered, and said to Amasiah: As for me I am neither prophet , nor prophets son: but a keeper of cattle. Now as I was breaking down my mulberries, and going after cattle, the Lord took me, and said unto me: Go your way, and prophesy unto my people of Israel. And therefore, bear you now the word of the Lord: You say: prophesy not against Israel, and speak nothing against the house of Isaac. Wherefore thus says the Lord: your wife shall be defiled in the city, your sons and daughters shall be slain with the sword, and your land shall be measured out with the line. You your self shall die in an unclean land, and Israel shall be driven out of his own country.The 8th Chapter
The Lord God showed me this vision: and behold, there was a maunder with summer fruit. And he said: Amos, what see you? I answered: a maunder with summer fruit. Then said the Lord unto me: the end comes upon my people Israel, I will no more oversee them. In that day shall the songs of the temple be turned to sorrow, says the Lord God. Many dead bodies shall lie in every place, and be cast forth secretly. Hear this, O you that oppress the poor, and destroy the needy in the lands, saying: When will the new month be gone, that we may sell vitals, and the Sabbath, that we may have scarceness of corn: to make the bushel less, and the Sickle greater? We shall set up false weights, that we may get the poor under us with their money, and the needy also for shoes: yes let us sell the chaff for corn.
The Lord has sworn against the pride of Jacob: these works of theirs I will never forget. Shall not the land tremble, and all they that dwell therin, mourn for this? Shall not their destruction come upon them like a water stream, and flow over them, as the flood of Egypt? At the same time (says the Lord God) I shall cause the sun to go down at noon, and the land to be dark in the clear of day. Your high feasts will I turn to sorrow, and your songs to mourning: I will bring sack cloth upon all backs, and baldness on every head: yes such a mourning will I send them, as is made upon an only begotten son, and they shall have an miserable end.
Behold the time comes (says the Lord God) that I shall send an hunger into the earth: not the hunger of bread, nor the thirst of water: but an hunger to hear the word of the Lord: so that they shall go from one sea to the other, yes from the north unto the east, running about to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it. In that time shall the fair virgins and the young men perish for thirst, yes even they that swear in offense of Samaria, and say: as truly as your God lives at Dan, and as truly as your God lives at Bersaba. These shall fall, and never rise up again.The 9th Chapter
I saw the Lord standing upon the alter, and he said: smite the door check, that the posts may you shake withal. For their covetousness shall fall upon all their heads, and their posterity shall be slain with the sword. They shall not flee away, there shall not one of them escape, nor be delivered. though they were buried in hell, my hand shall fetch them from that place: though they climb up to heaven, yet shall I cast them down: though they hide themselves upon the top of Carmel, yet shall I seek them out, and bring them from that place: though they creep down from my sight in to the deep of the sea, I shall command the serpent, even there to bite them. If they go away before their enemies in to captivity, then shall I command the sword, there to slay them.
Thus will I set mine eyes upon them, for their harm and not for their wealth. For when the Lord God of the hosts touches a land, it consumes away, and all they that dwell therin, must needs mourn: And why? their destruction shall arise as every stream and run over them, as the flood of Egypt. He that has his dwelling in Heaven, and grounds his tabernacle in the earth: He that calls the waters of the sea, and pours them out upon the plain ground: his name is the Lord. O you children of Israel, are you not unto me, even as the Morians, says the lord: have not I brought Israel out of the land of Egypt, the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir? Behold, the eyes of the Lord are upon the realm that sins, to root it clean out of the earth: Nevertheless I will not destroy the house of Jacob, says the Lord.
For lo, this I promise: though I sift the house of Israel among all the nations (like as they use to sift in a sieve) yet shall not the smallest gravel stone fall upon the earth: But all the wicked doers of my people, that say: Tush, the plague is not so nigh, to come so hastily upon us: those shall perish with the sword. At that time I will build again the tabernacle of David, that is fallen down, and hedge up his gaps: and look what is broken, I shall repair it: Yes I shall build it again, as it was before time, that they may possess the remnant of Edom, yes and all such people as call upon my name with them, says the Lord, which does these things.
Behold, the time comes (says the Lord) that the plowman shall over take the mower, and the treader of grapes, him that sows seed. The mountains shall drop sweet wine, and the hills shall be fruitful, and I will turn the captivity of my people of Israel: they shall repair the waste cities, and have them in possession: they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof: they shall make gardens, and enjoy the fruits of them. And I will plant them upon their own ground, so that I will never root them out again from their land which I have given them says the Lord your God.The end of the Prophesy of Amos.
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