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| Photo by Jim Tracy |
1 Thus hath the Lord GOD showed unto me: and behold a basket of summer fruit.
2 And 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.”
Summer fruit is fruit that is at the peek of ripeness. A ripe fruit is one that is fixing to spoil. Israel is ready for the picking.
3 And 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.
Instead of the songs of rejoicing the people were used to hearing in the temple, there will be mourning.
4 Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail,
5 Saying, “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?
6 “That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat?”
Israel was not only not enjoying the Sabbath-Rest with God, they were impatient to get back to cheating the poor.
7 The LORD hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, “Surely I will never forget any of their works.”
God will never forgive them for this.
8 Shall 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.
The Nile River floods a good part of Egypt every year, wiping out any structures in its path. The Assyrians are going to conquer in the same way.
9 And 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:
In the patriarch Joseph’s dreams, the sun and moon stood for the nation Israel. God is going to destroy this people; completely darken them so they can’t be seen.
10 And 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.
11 Behold, 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:
This was fulfilled from about 400BC to the time of John the Baptist. There was no inspired word from God during this time.
12 And 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.
13 In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.
Again, this is not a physical thirst, but a thirst for the Word of God.
14 They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, “Thy god, O Dan, liveth;” and, “The manner of Beersheba liveth;” even they shall fall, and never rise up again.
All the people of Israel will try to find some god to answer them but won’t be able to. They will die from a lack of God’s attention.