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| 1 Hear this word, a lamentation, which I take up against you, O house of Israel. |
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| 2 The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more arise: she is cast down upon her land; there is none to raise her up. |
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| 3 For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: The city that went forth a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went forth a hundred shall have ten left, for the house of Israel. |
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| 4 For thus saith Jehovah unto the house of Israel: Seek ye me, and ye shall live. |
Seek ye me – Return to harmony with God and avert calamities. R3424:3
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| 5 And seek not Bethel, neither go to Gilgal, and pass not to Beer-sheba; for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought. |
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
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| 6 Seek Jehovah, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel. |
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
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| 7 Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth, |
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
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| 8 seek him that made the Pleiades and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night; that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon 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
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| 9 He causeth destruction to break forth suddenly upon the strong, and bringeth destruction upon the fortress. |
The spoiled – The masses. R3425:4
Against the strong – When they rise in anarchy against them. R3425:4
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| 10 They hate him that reproveth in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly. |
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| 11 Forasmuch, therefore, as ye trample upon the poor, and take from him presents of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, and ye shall not drink the wine of them. |
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
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| 12 For I know how manifold are your transgressions and your sins mighty: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the right of the needy in the gate. |
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| 13 Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in this time; for it is an evil time. |
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
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| 14 Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live; and so Jehovah, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye say. |
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
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| 15 Hate evil, and love good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that Jehovah, the God of hosts, will be gracious unto 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
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| 16 Therefore thus saith Jehovah, the God of hosts, the Lord: Wailing shall be in all broadways; and they shall say in all the streets, Alas! alas! And they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing. |
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| 17 And in all vineyards shall be wailing; for I will pass through the midst of thee, saith Jehovah. |
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| 18 Woe unto you that desire the day of Jehovah! To what end is the day of Jehovah for you? It shall be 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
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| 19 as if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. |
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| 20 Shall not the day of Jehovah be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it? |
Day of the LORD – The Day of Vengeance, the time of trouble. D11; R409:2, R592:2
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| 21 I hate, I despise your feasts, and I will not smell a sweet odour in your solemn assemblies. |
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| 22 For if ye offer up unto me burnt-offerings and your oblations, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace-offerings of your fatted beasts. |
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
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| 23 Take away from me the noise of thy songs, and I will not hear the melody of thy lutes; |
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| 24 but let judgment roll down as waters, and righteousness as an ever-flowing stream. |
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| 25 Did ye bring unto me sacrifices and oblations in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? |
Forty years – Prefiguring the 19 centuries of the Gospel age. R3079:3
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| 26 Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of your Moloch, and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye had made to yourselves; |
Of your Moloch – Type of the misrepresentation of God worshipped by those who endorse the eternal torment theory. R2360:1, R3464:6
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| 27 and I will cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith Jehovah, whose name is the God of hosts. |
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