King James Version, with Nii Okai's journal notes · 6 notes
1Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me: and behold a basket of summer fruit.
2And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the LORD unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.
3And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord GOD: there shall be many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them forth with silence.
4Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail,
5Saying, 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 by deceit?
This is so much like our land: thievery & wickedness even in the marketplace.
6That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat?
We do this even today, in our marketplaces. False balances and poisoned foods are being sold for money.
7The LORD hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works.
8Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein? and it shall rise up wholly as a flood; and it shall be cast out and drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.
9And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord GOD, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day:
10And 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 of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day.
When such statements used to be made, I did not quite understand, till I grew and lost some loved ones,
and oh, imagine the pain of a parent losing their son, their only son.
11Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:
12And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.
God, have mercy!
Though this is OT, we find the same in the NT. I see that many themes of the OT have parallels in the new.
It was not the written word these people were going to faint for; it was the spoken word.
That a word from the Lord through a true prophet will come to them and save them, or guide them at least.
13In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.
14They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beer-sheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.
Were they attributing the works and power and mercy of GOD to their gods?