seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Amos 8:1 This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: a basket of ripe fruit. 2 “What do you see, Amos?” he asked.
“A basket of ripe fruit,” I answered.
Then the Lord said to me, “The time is ripe for my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.
3 “In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “the songs in the temple will turn to wailing.[a] Many, many bodies—flung everywhere! Silence!”
4 Hear this, you who trample the needy
and do away with the poor of the land,
and do away with the poor of the land,
5 saying,
“When will the New Moon be over
that we may sell grain,
and the Sabbath be ended
that we may market wheat?”—
skimping on the measure,
boosting the price
and cheating with dishonest scales,
6 buying the poor with silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals,
selling even the sweepings with the wheat.
that we may sell grain,
and the Sabbath be ended
that we may market wheat?”—
skimping on the measure,
boosting the price
and cheating with dishonest scales,
6 buying the poor with silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals,
selling even the sweepings with the wheat.
7 The Lord has sworn by himself, the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget anything they have done.
8 “Will not the land tremble for this,
and all who live in it mourn?
The whole land will rise like the Nile;
it will be stirred up and then sink
like the river of Egypt.
and all who live in it mourn?
The whole land will rise like the Nile;
it will be stirred up and then sink
like the river of Egypt.
9 “In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord,
“I will make the sun go down at noon
and darken the earth in broad daylight.
10 I will turn your religious festivals into mourning
and all your singing into weeping.
I will make all of you wear sackcloth
and shave your heads.
I will make that time like mourning for an only son
and the end of it like a bitter day.
and darken the earth in broad daylight.
10 I will turn your religious festivals into mourning
and all your singing into weeping.
I will make all of you wear sackcloth
and shave your heads.
I will make that time like mourning for an only son
and the end of it like a bitter day.
11 “The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord,
“when I will send a famine through the land—
not a famine of food or a thirst for water,
but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.
12 People will stagger from sea to sea
and wander from north to east,
searching for the word of the Lord,
but they will not find it.
“when I will send a famine through the land—
not a famine of food or a thirst for water,
but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.
12 People will stagger from sea to sea
and wander from north to east,
searching for the word of the Lord,
but they will not find it.
13 “In that day
“the lovely young women and strong young men
will faint because of thirst.
14 Those who swear by the sin of Samaria—
who say, ‘As surely as your god lives, Dan,’
or, ‘As surely as the god[b] of Beersheba lives’—
they will fall, never to rise again.”
will faint because of thirst.
14 Those who swear by the sin of Samaria—
who say, ‘As surely as your god lives, Dan,’
or, ‘As surely as the god[b] of Beersheba lives’—
they will fall, never to rise again.”
a. Amos 8:3 Or “the temple singers will wail
b. Amos 8:14 Hebrew the way
I like this commentary from the easy English site.
Amos now has a fourth picture from God. It is a very ordinary picture. Workers put the fruit in baskets like this at harvest time.
God asks Amos a clear question. There is only one answer. In Hebrew, the words ‘ripe fruit’ sound like ‘end’. God does not want to wait. His mercy has come to an end. Amaziah warned Amos not to prophesy against Israel. But nothing can stop Amos.
During this time, there were two main groups of people. One group had a lot of money. The members of this group were usually business people or merchants. They took advantage of the government’s decisions. These people ‘walked’ on the poor people. The poor people did not have enough to eat. They did not have good health. Some of them had to become slaves. These were crimes against God.
This verse describes business people. These business people knew that they had to keep the Sabbath. They knew that they had to keep the New Moon holiday. This was a covenant holiday that Moses started (Numbers 10:10; 28:11). The Law said that people should not work on the Sabbath. But the business people loved their profits. They hated waiting for the Sabbath to end. They were in a hurry to start selling again. The people in the towns needed to buy food. So the merchants took advantage of this. They were not honest when they weighed the food on sale. They gave the poor people less food than they had paid for. This was against the Law (Leviticus 19:35-36). Other prophets also spoke against these practices (Micah 6:10; Ezekiel 45:9-12).
Verse 6 This verse is like 2:6b. God hated the way that people became slaves. He hated the way that merchants bought slaves. They were buying slaves at low prices. They were using the same money that the poor people gave them. The poor people were desperate for food. So, the people who were selling wheat mixed it with rubbish. They would sell anything if they could get more money.
‘Pride of Jacob’ is a special name. This name means that the Israelites are proud of their God. God also says that he is the Glory of Israel (1 Samuel 15:29). God makes more promises than anyone else in the Old Testament. In Psalm 47:5, ‘pride of Jacob’ refers to the land of Israel. So God is making a promise in a very important way. The land of Israel is part of God’s covenant.
Amos is saying that there will be an earthquake. During an earthquake the whole land shakes and buildings fall down. Israel will become a place of death. Many people will weep for their friends. There were seasons when it rained a lot in Ethiopia. When this happened, the level of the Nile rose. Water filled the whole valley and the result was much good soil. Perhaps the word ‘stir’ refers to this.
The joy of Israel will come to an end. The holidays of the Israelites were special days when the people ate lots of food. They probably sang at these times. But there would be no more of these happy days. People would cry instead of laughing. They would have to wear clothes made out of cheap rough cloth. This would show that they were really sad. In the time of Amos, a son was very important The son always had the name of his father. So, if a son died, the family name came to an end. This was a serious problem.
The seas are the Mediterranean Sea and the Dead Sea. People would travel a long way. They would not care how far they walked. But they would not find the word of God. This situation would not last for a long time. It would only last until God’s anger was over (Leviticus 26:44-45).
Israel does not want to make promises to God. Instead, she has made promises to her own gods. She has worshipped the gold bull at Bethel. She has worshipped the Baal-Asherah idol at the city of Samaria (1 Kings 16:32-33). She has also worshipped idols at Dan and Beersheba. There was another gold bull at Dan. The Hebrew for ‘way’ can also mean ‘power’. Perhaps the people mixed their worship at Beersheba. Perhaps it was a false god and not the true God. This worship was not part of the covenant. It would not happen again.
This outtake is from enduringword.com.Making the ephah small and the shekel large: There was chronic corruption and cheating in the business world, and God saw it and was angry. When they sold wheat (sometimes bad wheat), they used a small measure. When they bought or gave change, they used a large measure for the shekel.
Cheating and dishonesty in business is not a small sin, nor is it a sin excused of necessity. God sees it and takes account.
I have a neighbor who says she is "rottin'". Hubby and I were out on a morning walk. Of course when we saw her we asked how she was doing that day.... and she said "I'm rottin'". Hubby thought she said "rotten".... like over ripe.... ready to go. She explained that she was "rotting" not rotten.... She is from up north and her family suggested she move to avoid the cold snowy weather up north. She was fine with the idea..... until she realized her family was still up north. She has her name on a list to get into an exclusive community for seniors and as soon as her place is open... she's moving back. When I read the chapter for the day.... I thought of her.
There are a lot of reasons for the demise in this chapter. Greedy people wanted everyone to be able to buy and sell on the Sabbath and all those holidays. That's why they built the fake temples in Israel. The people had been leaving Israel and traveling to the Temple at Jerusalem, Judah. It was a long dangerous trip... there were no cars, planes or even buses. Almost everyone [except the very rich] walked everywhere.... it took time to get to the Temple, time for the ceremony and then time to get back home. This took the people out of the marketplace. This took the labor force away. The greedy people of Israel hated it.... so they built two temples and plopped fake gods [calves no less] in two convenient places..... and still the greedy merchants weren't happy..... the greedy merchants wanted the market to stay open 24/7/365. I guess it didn't really matter if the fake temples in Israel stayed open 24/7.... they weren't worshiping God anyway... they were taking time off of work to worship whatever thing that happened to be featured in the fake temples that day.
On top of that... those greedy people kept giving people smaller and smaller quantities for the same money. I know a young mother who is brought this message right into today's news. She gets assistance from WIC. According to the regulations... in order to enjoy the savings.....she has to purchase a 16 ounce loaf of bread. Bread isn't sold by the one pound loaf much anymore..... and the price keeps going up [thus the need to give people WIC to soothe the soul of the bakers and the merchants].
God told Amos the land would rise just like the Nile. When I read that.... I was thinking of that scene in the 10 Commandments [the movie] where God parts the Sea for Moses and the 2 million (+) refugees. I imagined that being land instead of water.... that's when I realized God is talking about that earthquake that is coming. If the Nile river valley rises like the water in the sea that Moses and those refugees walked across.... that will be one heck of an earthquake.
God knew those people would do this.... He knows how the story ends.... He controls time so He can scroll to the end of the story. He told Amos to warn those stupid, self absorbed, over indulged, greedy humans.
