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Expanded Comments |
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| 1 Thus hath the Lord Jehovah shewed me, and, lo, a basket of summer-fruit. |
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| 2 And He saith, 'What art thou seeing, Amos ' and I say, 'A basket of summer-fruit.' And Jehovah saith unto me: 'The end hath come unto My people Israel, I do not add any more to pass over to it. |
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| 3 And howled have songstresses of a palace in that day, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah, Many [are] the carcases, into any place throw hush! |
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| 4 Hear this, ye who are swallowing up the needy, To cause to cease the poor of the land, |
O ye – An aristocracy of brains and wealth instead of the former aristocracy of heredity. D309
Swallow up the needy – Seeking to hold them down to bare subsistence. D309
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| 5 Saying, When doth the new moon pass, And we sell ground corn And the sabbath, and we open out pure corn To make little the ephah, And to make great the shekel, And to use perversely balances of deceit. |
The ephah – The measure. R2357:2
And the shekel – The price. R2357:2
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| 6 To purchase with money the poor, And the needy for a pair of sandals, Yea, the refuse of the pure corn we sell. |
And sell – And sell them. R2357:2
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| 7 Sworn hath Jehovah by the excellency of Jacob: 'I forget not for ever any of their works. |
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| 8 For this doth not the land tremble, And mourned hath every dweller in it And come up as a flood hath all of it. And it hath been cast out, and hath sunk, Like the flood of Egypt. |
It shall rise up – A new battle has begun on the part of the rich for the maintenance and increase of their wealth and power, and on the part of the lower classes for the right to labor and enjoy the moderate comforts of life. D308, D309
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| 9 And it hath come to pass in that day, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah, I have caused the sun to go in at noon, And caused darkness on the land in a day of light, |
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| 10 And have turned your festivals to mourning, And all your songs to lamentation, And caused sackcloth to come up on all loins, And on every head baldness, And made it as a mourning [of] an only one, And its latter end as a day of bitterness. |
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| 11 Lo, days are coming, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah, And I have sent a famine into the land, Not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water But of hearing the words of Jehovah. |
Will send a famine – The 1260 years of Papal supremacy. B256
Began 539 AD, when ecclesiastical power attained persecuting ability, and ended 1799 AD, as its persecutions came to an end. R5742:1, R234:6, R389:2*, R491:5
In another sense, the 1260 years from 325 AD, the Council of Nice, to 1585 AD. R5742:1
A spiritual famine. R5993:3, R557:3
A hunger and thirst for the truth--the bread of life and the water of life. OV259:4, R263:3; R3334:4; CR343:1
Resulting in nominal spiritual Israel's being in a dilapidated condition. R4923:1
The true-hearted are starving. R5063:1
Resulting in a lack of church attendance in fulfilment of this prophecy. R5375:1
"The honorable men (clergy, bishops and popes) are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst." (Isa. 5:13) R1896:3
Starving upon the inconsistencies of human theory and "tradition of the elders." R2808:3
Poor parishioners have been fed upon husks until they are famished. HG712:6
Not with standing Bibles by the millions and general education, so that rich and poor have the ability to read God's Word. OV259:2
Our day is full of philosophies, inventions, sciences (true and false), money-making, financial and theological schemes--but these things do not satisfy even the worldly. R3334:4
Even Babylon's notables are dissatisfied, famished. R2905:1
My people are "perishing for lack of knowledge." (Hos. 4:6) They have "hidden the key R2693:4; OV263:3
Typified by the 3 ½-year drouth in the days of Elijah. (1Kings 18,19) B256; R5993:3, R2326:6, R557:3, R491:5*, R389:2*, R234:6
Applies to Jews as well as to Christians. OV154:T
Of bread – Crying out for the bread of truth instead of the stones of error. R1579:2
Nor a thirst – "Because the people have no knowledge." (Isa. 5:13) they are consumed with th R2904:6, R1896:3
Illustrated by the large demand for truth literature, especially the Photodrama Scenario. R5618:6*
Hearing – Understanding. OV154:T, HG317:2
The words of the LORD – The message of God's love and of his plan. CR343:3
The necessary thing to do is to resume Bible study and that without our creedal spectacles. R4923:2
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| 12 And they have wandered from sea unto sea, And from north even unto east, They go to and fro to seek the word of Jehovah, And they do not find. |
From sea to sea – There is a famine in every denomination, in every part of the world. OV259:5
They – The Jews. Q269:2
Shall not find it – While today the Lord could feed the hungry Israelites indeed without our aid, let us gratefully thank him for the privilege of being co-workers in any capacity. R2644:4
Because they seek not where alone it is to be found. OV260:2
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| 13 In that day faint do the fair virgins, And the young men, with thirst. |
Faint for thirst – Increasing intelligence on every hand has awakened our reasoning faculties along religious lines, and the result is the gnawing of hunger in our hearts. OV259:3
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| 14 Those swearing by the guilt of Samaria, And have said, Live doth thy god, O Dan, And, Live doth the way of Beer-Sheba, And they have fallen and rise not again!' |
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