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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, |
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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.
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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. |
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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. |
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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, |
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 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. |
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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. |
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| 13 In that day faint do the fair virgins, And the young men, with thirst. |
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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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