| Scripture |
Expanded Comments |
| |
|
| 1 Hear this word that I am bearing to you, A lamentation, O house of Israel: |
|
| 2 'Fallen, not again to rise, hath the virgin of Israel, Left on her land she hath no raiser up.' |
|
| 3 For thus said the Lord Jehovah: The city that is going out a thousand, Doth leave an hundred, And that which is going out an hundred, Doth leave ten to the house of Israel. |
|
| |
|
| 4 For thus said Jehovah to the house of Israel: Seek ye Me, and live, |
Seek ye me – Return to harmony with God and avert calamities. R3424:3
|
| 5 And seek not Beth-El, and Gilgal enter not, And Beer-Sheba pass not through, For Gilgal doth utterly remove, And Beth-El doth become vanity. |
Seek not Beth-el – It would be in vain for fleshly Israel to seek help from the coming calamities in the centers of their religious institutions which were corrupt. R3424:3
Today, as with the Lord and apostles, the chief opponents of the truth are the religious teachers who have " a form of godliness." (2 Tim. 3:5) R3424:2
|
| 6 Seek ye Jehovah, and live, Lest He prosper as fire [against] the house of Joseph, And it hath consumed, And there is no quencher for Beth-El. |
Like fire – Destruction. R3424:3
House of Joseph – The ten-tribe kingdom, so-called because of the preponderating influence of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. R3424:3
Beth-el – The city of idol worship. R2356:6
|
| 7 Ye who are turning to wormwood judgment, And righteousness to the earth have put down, |
Ye – The great ones of fleshly Israel in Amos' day, typifying the trusts in the close of this Harvest time. R3424:5, R3425:1
Judgment – Justice in your courts. R3424:4
Injustice, inequity, is now operating. R3425:1
To wormwood – Bitterness, disappointment. R3424:4
Instead of the sweets of justice. R3424:4
Leave off righteousness – Cast down righteousness to the earth. Equity was not a matter of primary consideration. R3424:4
|
| 8 The maker of Kimah and Kesil, And the turner to morning of death-shade, And day [as] night He hath made dark, Who is calling to the waters of the sea, And poureth them on the face of the earth, Jehovah [is] His name; |
The seven stars – The group Pleiades, in the constellation Taurus. R3424:4
And Orion – Referring to divine power in some what similar language as in Job 9:9 & Job 38:21. R3424:4
The shadow of death – When Christ appears, day appears, life appears, fruitfulness appears, and the curse departs. R302:3*
Into the morning – The resurrection morning, the Millennial age. E359; R302:3*
Calleth for the waters – Able not only to gather the waters into seas, but also to call the waters back from the seas to the clouds, and pour it down again upon the earth in its seasons. R3424:4
|
| 9 Who is brightening up the spoiled against the strong, And the spoiled against a fortress cometh. |
The spoiled – The masses. R3425:4
Against the strong – When they rise in anarchy against them. R3425:4
|
| 10 They have hated a reprover in the gate, And a plain speaker they abominate. |
|
| 11 Therefore, because of your trampling on the poor, And the tribute of corn ye take from him, Houses of hewn work ye have built, And ye do not dwell in them, Desirable vineyards ye have planted, And ye do not drink their wine. |
Ye take from him – A drunkenness of greed. R2357:2
Ye have built houses – Riches were accumulated, but they were in the hands of the rich and the great, and the poor were being unjustly dealt with. R3424:3
|
| 12 For I have known many [are] your transgressions, And mighty your sins, Adversaries of the righteous, taking ransoms, And the needy in the gate ye turned aside. |
|
| 13 Therefore is the wise at that time silent, For an evil time it [is]. |
The prudent – Being helpless, and in the minority. R3424:5
Shall keep silence – Some did witness the evils, but remained silent from motives of prudence. R3424:5
Similarly, it is not the duty of the Lord's people today to reprove public officials. R3424:5
|
| 14 Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live, And it is so; Jehovah, God of Hosts, [is] with you, as ye said. |
Seek good, and not evil – Make a thorough reformation-- love righteousness and hate sin. R3424:5
Everybody is seeking pleasure and not misery, happiness and not woe. The difficulty is that all of our judgments are more or less polluted. R5242:3
|
| 15 Hate evil, and love good, And set up judgment in the gate, It may be Jehovah, God of Hosts, doth pity the remnant of Joseph. |
Hate the evil – We are to be like God in our loves and hates--to hate sin and to love righteousness. R1251:1
We must have no affectionate love for evildoers, though we should charitably hope that much of the evil is the result of misinformation and inherited weaknesses, and accordingly should feel and act kindly, with pitying love toward such. R1251:2
|
| 16 Therefore, thus said Jehovah, God of Hosts, the Lord, In all broad places [is] lamentation, And in all out-places they say, 'Alas, alas,' And called the husbandman to mourning, And to lamentation the skilful of wailing. |
|
| 17 And in all vineyards [is] lamentation, For I pass into thy midst, said Jehovah. |
|
| 18 Ho, ye who are desiring the day of Jehovah, Why [is] this to you the day of Jehovah It is darkness, and not light, |
Woe unto you – "Ho you" (improperly translated "woe"--Young). R409:1
The great mass of the human family, aside from the saints. R93:4
Day of the LORD – The entire Millennial age, but generally applied to the beginning of that day. R592:2; B33
Darkness, and not light – The Gospel and Millennial ages lap; the one ending, the other commencing. The dark day is at once the closing scene of the night of weeping and the dawn of the morning of joy. R592:2, R409:1
|
| 19 As [when] one fleeth from the face of the lion, And the bear hath met him, And he hath come in to the house, And hath leant his hand on the wall, And the serpent hath bitten him. |
|
| 20 Is not the day of Jehovah darkness and not light, Even thick darkness that hath no brightness |
Day of the LORD – The Day of Vengeance, the time of trouble. D11; R409:2, R592:2
|
| |
|
| 21 I have hated I have loathed your festivals, And I am not refreshed by your restraints. |
|
| 22 For though ye cause burnt-offerings and your presents to ascend to Me, I am not pleased, And the peace-offering of your fatlings I behold not. |
Your meat offerings – Christendom's fine church edifices, grand organs, trained choirs, paid ministers, and formalistic worship are not recognized and accepted by the Lord. R5696:4
|
| 23 Turn aside from Me the noise of thy songs, Yea, the praise of thy psaltery I hear not. |
|
| 24 And roll on as waters doth judgment, And righteousness as a perennial stream. |
|
| 25 Sacrifices and offering did ye bring nigh to Me, In a wilderness forty years, O house of Israel |
Forty years – Prefiguring the 19 centuries of the Gospel age. R3079:3
|
| 26 And ye bare Succoth your king, and Chiun your images, The star of your god, that ye made for yourselves. |
Of your Moloch – Type of the misrepresentation of God worshipped by those who endorse the eternal torment theory. R2360:1, R3464:6
|
| 27 And I removed you beyond Damascus, Said Jehovah, God of Hosts [is] His name. |
|