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Additional Comments |
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| 1 Here, My Lord, Yahweh, gave me to see,–and lo! there was a basket of summer fruit. |
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| 2 So then he said, What canst thou see, Amos? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said Yahweh unto me, The end hath come unto my people Israel, I will not again any more forgive them; |
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| 3 but palace-songs, shall become howlings, in that day, Declareth My Lord, Yahweh,–Many shall be the dead bodies in every place–cast forth–[with a] hush! |
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| 4 Hear this, ye who pant after the needy, and to make an end of the oppressed of the land: |
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| 5 Who say, When will the new moon, pass away, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath that we may open grain? who diminish the ephah, and increase the shekel, and who falsify by deceitful weights: |
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| 6 Who buy–for silver–the poor, and the needy for a pair of shoes,–and that the refuse of the grain we may sell. |
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| 7 Sworn hath Yahweh, by the Excellency of Jacob,–Surely I will never forget any of their doings! |
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| 8 Is it not, for this, that the land, shall tremble? and shall mourn every inhabitant therein? Shall it not come up–like the Nile, all of it, and be tossed and subside like the river of Egypt? |
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| 9 Yea it shall come to pass, in that day, Declareth My Lord, Yahweh, that I will cause the sun to go in at high noon,–and will darken the earth on a day of brightness.! |
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 So will I turn your festivals into mourning, and all your songs into a dirge, and I will bring up–on all loins–sackcloth, and upon every head–baldness,–and I will make it like the mourning for an only one, even the afterpart thereof, as a day of bitterness. |
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| 11 Lo! days are coming, Declareth My Lord, Yahweh, that I will send a hunger throughout the land,–not a hunger for food, nor a thirst for water, but for hearing the words of Yahweh; |
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| 12 Therefore shall men rove about–from sea to sea, and from the north even unto sunrise,–they shall run to and fro–seeking the word of Yahweh, but shall not find [it]. |
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| 13 In that day, shall the fair virgins and the choice young men faint for thirst. |
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| 14 They who swear by the Guilt of Samaria, and say, As thy God, liveth, O Dan! and, As the Way of Beer-sheba, liveth, shall fall, and shall not rise any more. |
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