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| 1 Thus did Jehovah shew unto me; and behold, a basket of summer-fruit. |
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| 2 And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer-fruit. And Jehovah said unto me, The end is come upon my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more. |
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| 3 And the songs of the palace shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord Jehovah. The dead bodies shall be many; in every place they shall be cast forth. Silence! |
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| 4 Hear this, ye that pant after the needy, even to cause to fail the poor of the land, |
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| 5 saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat? making the ephah small and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances for deceit: |
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| 6 that we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; and that we may sell the refuse of the wheat. |
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| 7 Jehovah hath sworn by the glory of Jacob, Certainly I will never forget any of their works. |
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| 8 Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein? And it shall wholly rise up like the Nile; and it shall surge and sink down, as the river of Egypt. |
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| 9 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord Jehovah, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the land in the clear day. |
Cause the sun to go down at noon – The light of the Gospel will not shine brightly, even during the presence of the Sun of Righteousness (Our returned Lord Jesus.)
I will darken the earth – God will permit darkness to come on those who will not see.
In the clear day – The term "clear day" means "bright" or "luminary," indicating the light of the Gospel is shining bright and yet the symbolic earth ("organized society under religious restraint") will not receive it.
In addition to the rather obvious symbolical references here there is yet another interesting literal fulfillment of this prophecy.
Br. Julian T. Gray explains this in his work "Which Is the True Chronology."
If we consider this from its literal standpoint, what clearly is being described is a Solar Eclipse. When we consider the time frame (not speaking of the end of the Gospel Age) it seems clear that there was only one eclipse of the Sun in that region during that time, i.e., the one recorded by the Babylonians as having taken place June 15, 763 B.C.
Br. Gray goes through the setting and explains how this lines up with biblical events and with history. He then concludes by comparing which of the various Bible chronologies match this astronomical event. - There is only one. The chronology used by Pastor Russell as presented to us in "The Time is at Hand." |
| 10 And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning for an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day. |
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| 11 Behold, days come, saith the Lord Jehovah, when I will send a famine in the land; not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of Jehovah. |
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| 12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north to the east; they shall run to and fro to seek the word of Jehovah, and shall not find it. |
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| 13 In that day shall the fair virgins and the young men faint for thirst; |
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| 14 they that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, As thy god, O Dan, liveth! and, As the way of Beer-sheba liveth! even they shall fall, and never rise up again. |
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