book of amos: a prophecy for right now
DESCRIPTION
TRANSCRIPT
Zekeniam Y’ISCHRaEL
Sherut haRitztzuy
(the ministry of reconciliation)
by whom we have now received the
( Atonement)
Reconciliation of the Dvar HaRitztzuy
Let this day be a day of reconciliation and regeneration
[“EHYEH ASHER EHYEH”]
( HaYaH (He was), Howeh (He is), and Yihyeh (He will be).
I AM
My Memorial for generation after generation.”
Shemot 3:13-16
This is MY NAME for ever,
YaHuWaH, ALuaHiYM of your father’s Abraham, Yitzchak [Isaac], and
Ya’aqob [Jacob], has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and this is
my memorial for generation to generation." and I appeared to Abraham,
to Yitzchak, and to Ya’aqob as hashadday [the almighty]. and my name,
YaHuWaH, was not well known (famous) to them.
The ministry of reconciliation
Message of Reconciliation
Torah sh’Bichtav
(Written Torah)
Who hath ears to hear, let him hear
“Sola Scriptura”
(the Scriptures alone is authoritative for faith)
(in His Name)
YaHuWaH
[Yah -hoo-Wah]
is the Name of the Creator.
YaHuWSCHuA
(YaHuWSCHuA) is His Son
ALuaHiYM
[Al-u-heem - ALHYM] means "Mighty Ones“ or "Power"
Qadosh
means Set-apart, Pure.
Kodesh
(Qodesh) also means "Set-apart"
Ruwach (Spirit) is the Ibry (Hebrew) name for His "Presence", pictured
as the Counselor, Helper, and Advocate, the One Who "proceeds from
the Father"
Teh 27:5
For in the day of trouble He will keep me secretly in His booth. In the
covering of His Tent He will hide me. On a Rock He raises me up.
is for you too!
Scripture speaks of a secret place where we can simply go, be alone, be
protected, pray, and hear from Yahuahshua. Knowing there is such a
place is a matter of faith. Going back time and again, that's a matter of
building a relationship. You need not have an advanced degree in any
subject, need not have memorized Scripture from beginning to end, but
instead be aware the YaHuWaH of Y’ISCHRa’EL has a place for each
Jew and Gentile who will open their minds and hearts to Him.
Mt 6:5-8
When you pray, you shall not be as the role-fakers, for they love to
stand and pray in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that
they may be seen by men. Most certainly, I tell you, they have received
their reward. But you, when you pray, enter into your inner chamber,
and having shut your door, pray to your Father Who is in secret, and
your Father Who sees in secret shall reward you openly. In praying,
don’t use vain repetitions, as the Gentiles do; for they think that they
shall be heard for their much speaking. Therefore don’t be like them,
don't you see that your Father knows what things you need before you
ask Him.
The truth in reality is visited in this secret place AND must be shared by
those who will live or else ... they will perish ... in darkness.
It is written
Luk 11:33
“No one, when he has lit a Lamp, puts it in a cellar or under a basket,
but on a stand, that those who come in may see the Light.
Teh 119:105
Your Word is a Lamp to my feet, and a Light (aur) for my path.
The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore when your eye is good, your
whole body is also full of Light; but when it is evil, your body also is full
of darkness. Therefore see whether the light that is in you isn’t darkness.
If therefore your whole body is full of Light, having no part dark, it shall
be wholly full of Light, as when the Lamp with its bright shining gives
you Light.”
With this in mind, heart soul and strength let us study together
in the Ruwach
“He who has an ear, let him hear what the
Ruwach says
And the name of the star is called Wormwood. And a third of the waters
became wormwood, and many men died from the waters, because they
were made bitter. There were lightnings, sounds, and thunders; and
there was a great earthquake, such as was not since there were men on
the earth, so great an earthquake, so mighty. Link to lightning’s, sounds,
thunders, an earthquake, and great hail followed. Great hailstones,
about the weight of a talent, (91 pounds) came down out of the sky on
people.]
Amos (pronounced AH-mose) was from a small town in the hill country
of Yahuwdah. His name means “burden-bearer” or “to place a load
upon”, with a root meaning of encouraging. He prophesied while both
kingdoms of Y’ISCHRa’EL were still thriving. In fact, Yahuwdah and
Y’ISCHRa’EL had just expanded their borders and taken control of many
trade routes in the newly-acquired territories. They had become very
prosperous, but this brought about political corruption and exploitation
of the poor by the “newly rich”, and most of all, forgetfulness that they
were set apart from all other nations for YaHuWaH’s special purposes.
Amows 1:1
The words of Amows, who was among the herdsmen of Teqowa, which
he saw concerning Y’ISCHRa’EL in the days of UzziYahuw king of
Yahuwdah, and in the days of Yarab'am the son of Yow'ash king of
Y’ISCHRa’EL, two years before the earthquake.
herdsmen:
Having spent a lot of time with animals taught Amos much about caring
for YaHuWaH’s flock. Being one of those who counted the ones that
“passed under the rod”, he would be concerned for individual sheep, like
the shepherd in YaHuWSCHuA’s parable.
Mat. 18:12
What do you think? If a man has one hundred sheep, and one of them
goes astray, doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine on the mountains, and go
seek that which has gone astray?
Indeed, it was only the “lost sheep of the House of Y’ISCHRa’EL” (the
very ones Amows was addressing) to whom YaHuWSHuWaH said He
was sent.
Mat. 15:24
“I was not sent except to the sheep which went astray from the House
of Y’ISCHRa’EL.”
Teqowa:
the name refers to a stockade, or possibly a sheepfold, but at its root it
means “a trumpet”, and is related to the word for the short, staccato
blasts on a shofar that signal danger or war (teqia).
Yarab’am
Not the same one who led the secession of Y’ISCHRa’EL from
Rehab’am, son of Shelomoh, but another, who began to reign 15 years
after UzziYahuw’s father AmatsYahuw began to reign, and reigned 41
years.
2 Kings 14:23
In the fifteenth year of AmatsYahuw, the son of Yahuw'ash sovereign of
Yahuwdah, Yeroboam the son of Yahuw'ash sovereign of Y’ISCHRa’EL
began to reign in Shomeron, and reigned forty-one years.
He began as a wicked king, but tradition says he was encouraged by the
prophet Yonah, and turned around and had many great successes. The
earthquake: literally, shaking—perhaps one of the massive catastrophes
caused by the former orbit of Mars crossing over earth’s orbit every 54
years. The last was in 701 B.C., The next to the last pass by would have
therefore been in 755 B.C., which coincides with the reigns of both kings
(UzziYahuw reigned from approx. 790 to 740, and Yarab’am from 793 to
753.) Because of the prophecy in
Zech. 14:1
Behold, a Day of YaHuWaH comes, when your spoil will be divided in
your midst. For I will gather all nations against Yahrushalom to battle;
and the city will be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished.
Half of the city will go out into captivity, but the remnant of the people
will not be cut off from the city.
Half of the city: possibly the Old City, which, as before 1967, is indeed
cut off from the rest of the city by the deep valley of the sons of Hinnom
and is where the Temple Mount—YaHuWaH’s most treasured property
and therefore that which His enemies want--lies.
Hinnom Valley
All of the rubbish from the entire city of Yahrushalom was dumped and
burnt here.
All of the rubbish from the entire city of Yahrushalom was dumped and
burnt here. Otherwise called "the valley of the son of Hinnom," or "the
valley of Benhinnom"; a deep and narrow ravine with steep, rocky sides
to the S and W of Jerusalem, separating Mt. Zion to the N from the "Hill
of Evil Counsel," and the sloping rocky plateau of the "valley of Rephaim"
to the S. The earliest mention of the valley of Hinnom is in Josh 15:8;
18:16, where the boundary line between the tribes of Judah and
Benjamin is described as passing along the bed of the ravine. On the
southern brow, overlooking the valley at its eastern extremity, Solomon
erected high places for Molech (1 Kings 11:7), whose horrid rites were
revived from time to time in the same vicinity by the later idolatrous
kings. Ahaz and Manasseh made their children "pass through the fire" in
this valley (2 Kings 16:3; 2 Chron 28:3; 33:6), and the fiendish custom
of infant sacrifice to the fire-gods seems to have been kept up in
Topheth at its southeast extremity for a considerable period (Jer 7:31; 2
Kings 23:10). To put an end to these abominations the place was
polluted by Josiah, who rendered it ceremonially unclean by spreading
over it human bones and other corruptions (2 Kings 23:10,13-14; 2
Chron 34:3-5). From that time it appears to have become the common
cesspool of the city, into which its sewage was conducted to be carried
off by the waters of the Kidron, as well as a laystall, where all its solid
filth was collected. From its ceremonial defilement and from the detested
and abominable fire of Molech, if not from the supposed ever burning
funeral piles, the later Jews applied the name of this valley Ge Hinnom,
"Gehenna," to denote the place of eternal torment. The name by which
it is now known is Wadi Jehennam, or Wadi er Rubeb. See Gehenna;
Hell.
THE VALLEY OF HINNOM (GEHENNA)
Its interesting to note that Aceldama (Field of Blood) was here in this
valley.
YirmeYahuw 1:15
"For, behold, I shall call all the families of the kingdoms of the north,”
says YaHuWaH; “and they shall come, and they shall each set his throne
at the entrance of the gates of Yahrushalom, and against all its walls all
around, and against all the cities of Yahuwdah."
Zech 14:3
Then YaHuWaH will go forth and fight against those nations, as when
He fought in the day of battle.
From where will He go forth? From the Bridegroom’s canopy
Teh. 19:5,
which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, like a strong man
rejoicing to run his course.
as YaHuWSHuWaH (who embodies/is YaHuWaH’s feet, v. 4) completes
the seven days in the chamber with His bride and comes with her to
reconquer His rightful throne. When YaHuWaH went before Y’ISCHRa’EL
to battle in the past, not a man was lost.
Zech 14:4
His feet will stand in That Day on the Mount of Olives, which is before
Yahrushalom on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split open
down the middle, from east to west, making a very great valley. Half of
the mountain will move toward the north, and half of it toward the
south.
He leads a united Y’ISCHRa’EL back into the Land together in a raid to
rescue the remnant in the city and retake it as YaHuWSCHuA did. When
a present-day hotel was being built for tourists on the Mount of Olives, it
had to be redesigned because a fault line was found running directly
through the initially-planned site.
Yahuw'El 2:32
It will happen that whosoever shall call on the Name of YaHuWaH shall
be delivered (saved); for in Mount Tsiyown and in Yahrushalom there
shall be those who escape [are delivered], as YaHuWaH has said, and in
the remnant, those whom YaHuWaH shall call.
Zech 14:5
You shall flee by the valley of My Mountains; for the valley of the
mountains shall reach to Atsel; yes, you shall flee, just like you fled from
before the earthquake in the days of UzziYahuw sovereign of Yahuwdah.
YaHuWaH my Aluahiym will come and all the Set-apart ones with You.
Yosephus links the earthquake to UzziYahuw’s sin of coveting the role of
the priests, which earned him the punishment common to such sins,
leprosy.
2 Chron. 26:16-23
But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up, so that he did corruptly,
and he trespassed against YaHuWaH his Aluahiym; for he went into the
Hekal of YaHuWaH to burn incense on the altar of incense. Azariah the
priest went in after him and with him eighty priests of YaHuWaH, who
were valiant men: and they resisted UzziYahuw the king, and said to
him, “It isn’t for you, UzziYahuw, to burn incense to YaHuWaH, but for
the priests the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Go
out of the Set-apart Place; for you have trespassed; neither shall it be
for your honor from YaHuWaH Aluahiym. Then UzziYahuw was angry;
and he had a censer in his hand to burn incense; and while he was
angry with the priests, the leprosy broke forth in his forehead before the
priests in the House of YaHuWaH, beside the altar of incense. Azariah
the chief priest, and all the priests, looked on him, and behold, he was
leprous in his forehead, and they thrust him out quickly from there; yes,
himself hurried also to go out, because YaHuWaH had struck him.
UzziYahuw the king was a leper to the day of his death, and lived in a
separate house, being a leper; for he was cut off from the House of
YaHuWaH: and Yotham his son was over the king’s house, judging the
people of the land. Now the rest of the acts of UzziYahuw, first and last,
did YashaYahuw the prophet, the son of Amows write. So UzziYahuw
slept with his fathers; and they buried him with his fathers in the field of
burial which belonged to the kings; for they said, “He is a leper.” Yotham
his son reigned in his place.
The word for earthquake actually means “shaking”, which is also the root
for “head” and “beginning”, so as at creation, YaHuWaH was bringing
something new out of the chaos and destruction being prophesied here.
Indeed, YashaYahuw vision of YaHuWaH as exalted (YashaYahuw. 6)
came at his time of disillusionment at the death of UzziYahuw, once one
of YaHuWaH’s finest kings.
Zech 14:6-7
It will happen in that Day, that there will be no light. The lights will
diminish. And that will be one Day known to YaHuWaH; not day, and
not night; but it will come to pass, that at evening time there will be
light.
One day: an allusion to “day one” when YaHuWaH said “Let there come
to be light”—a return to B'Rayshiyth 1, for Eden will return to earth as
this “city which is coupled together in unity” is manifested physically
once again and the river that divides rather than merging
B'Rayshiyth. 2:10
A river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it was
parted, and became four heads.
The imagery of four heads shows up often in Scripture: notably the
appearance of the heavenly beings called kh’ruvim, which first appear in
chapter 3. (Yechezqe’l 1:6; 10:14; Rev. 4:7). Note that the garden is not
in Eden, but the river flows from it into the garden. A river that divides
rather than converging is an example of how it formed a reverse “mirror
image” of how things on earth operate—or rather; the earthly is really
the mirror of the heavenly. Hebrew tradition says Eden hovered directly
over Yahrushalom, based on the wording in Teh122:3, which says it is a
“city joined together”. Here it is said that heaven and earth--the “waters
above” and the “waters below”--meet. This is substantiated in verse 13
below. Yechezqe’l 44 tells us that a river will one day again flow from
the Mashiyach's throne—where else but in Yahrushalom?--and divide
into two flows, eastward and westward. In the Time of the Restoration
of All Things, the original heaven and original earth will again meet here.
will be reopened, a sign that the Kingdom has been realized “on earth as
it is in Heaven:
Amows 1:2
He said:
“YaHuWaH will roar from Tsiyown, and utter His Voice from
Yahrushalom; and the pastures of the shepherds will mourn, and the top
of Karmel will wither.”
Top (head) of Karmel: a mountain range roughly paralleling the northern
coast of Y’ISCHRa’EL, which meets the Mediterranean at present-day
Haifa, an area that rarely experiences drought. (David Levy) Alt., best of
the fertile fields.
Amows 1:3
Thus says YaHuWaH :
“For three transgressions of Dammeseq, yes, for four I will not turn
away its punishment; [3+4=7 completeness] because they have
threshed Gil'ad with threshing instruments of iron;
Three…four: Some interpret this to add up to seven, the number of
completeness—i.e., the cup of guilt is full, and judgment must fall. In
most cases only the “last straw”--what triggered the end of YaHuWaH’s
patience--is listed. (Levy) Violations: specifically denotes rebelliously
crossing a boundary. They would be responsible only to the Noachide
covenant, but had broken even that by shedding innocent blood. (Levy)
Dammeseq means “silent is the weaver of sackcloth”—an arrogant name
that said, “We will never mourn!”, since sackcloth is the garb of
mourning. Yet this is the first place YaHuWaH’s judgment descends.
Trampled Gil’ad: a rocky, mountainous region, which only iron could
thresh. While YHWH had initially sent them to chastise this region for the
Northern Kingdom’s sins (2 Kings 10:32-33, 13:3-7), they were taking a
perverse joy in doing so, overstepping what YHWH intended.
Amows 1:4
but I will send a fire into the house of Chaz'el, and it will devour the
palaces of Ben Hadad.
Khaza’el’s name means, “He has beheld Aloha.” He had been sent by his
master, King Ben-hadad, to the prophet Elisha, to seek a remedy for
Ben-hadad’s leprosy (2 Kings 8:8ff); he later killed Ben-hadad, assumed
the throne, and soon became engaged in a war with the kings of Yehuda
and Y’ISCHRa’EL for the possession of the city of Ramoth-gilead. (1
Kings 19) Hadad was also the deity of the Syrians, and YaHuWaH was
making war on him as well, showing that the lesser aloha had no
strength when it was time for His wrath to fall.
Amows 1:5
I will break the bar of Dammeseq, and cut off the inhabitant from the
valley of Awen, and him who holds the scepter from the Bayit Eden; and
the people of Aram shall go into captivity to Qiyr,”says YaHuWaH.
The bar: probably that which held the city gates shut. Aram: i.e., Syria,
of which Damaseq is still the capital. Qir: in Mesopotamia.
Amows 1:6
Thus says YaHuWaH: “For three transgressions of Azza,(Gaza) yes, for
four,I will not turn away its punishment; because they carried away
captive a whole population, to deliver them up to Edom;
Gaza: a center for slave trade due to its location on the Mediterranean
coast.
Amows 1:7
but I will send a fire on the wall of Azza, and it will devour its palaces.
Gaza was the chief city of the Filistines, as it now is for the people who
have taken on the same name again (the Palestinians, which in Arabic is
pronounced Filistiin). In 743 B.C., the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III
attacked Gaza, making it a vassal city. Only after Babylon conquered
Assyria were the Filistines as a people totally destroyed.
Amows 1:8
I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdowd, and him who holds the
scepter from Ashqelown; and I will turn my hand against Eqrown; and
the remnant of the Pelishtiym will perish, ”says YaHuWaH Aluahiym.
The repeated patterns in this chapter are a clear example of the
common practice of prophets singing or chanting out their prophecies in
their own unique style. (Joseph Good)
Amows 1:9
Thus says YaHuWaH: “For three transgressions of Tsor, yes, for four, I
will not turn away its punishment; because they delivered up a whole
community to Edom, and didn’t remember the brotherly covenant;
He moves on to a second recipient of YaHuWaH’s wrath. “Judgment on
the Gentiles is not listed according to geographical location, but
according to the severity of their persecution of [YaHuWaH]’s people.”
These exiles were probably a group of Y’ISCHRa’EL’ites bought by the
“Phoenicians”, then sold at great profit. (David Levy) Tzur (often called
Tyre) was a major power on the coast of Levanon. Treaty of kinship: or
simply, “brotherly covenant”—probably that made between King Shlomo
and Tzur’s King Hiram (1 Kings 5:2-6; 9:11-14), or alternately between
Ahav and Hiram (1 Kings 16:29-31).
Amows 1:10
but I will send a fire on the wall of Tsor, and it will devour its palaces.”
Alexander the Great indeed destroyed this city by fire in 332 B.C. after a
long siege of seven months (due to it being on a nearly-impregnable
island). 6,000 were killed and 30,000 sold into slavery.
Amows 1:11
Thus says YaHuWaH: “For three transgressions by Edom, yes, for four, I
will not turn away its punishment; because he pursued his brother with
the sword, and cast off all pity, and his anger raged continually, and he
kept his wrath forever;
This is the only case in which four wrongs are actually listed. Ruined his
tender affections: or, corrupted the wombs belonging to him.
Extravagance: from the word for “crossing over”, meaning any kind of
excess from overflowing anger and outbursts of rage to arrogance
(having too high a view of himself).
Amows 1:12
but I will send a fire on Teyman, and it will devour the palaces of
Botsrah.”
These were Edom’s chief cities. The nation of Edom was subjugated by
the Assyrians prior to 700 B.C. and made a wasteland in the 5th century
B.C., later to be taken over by the Nabateans.
Amows 1:13
Thus says YaHuWaH: “For three transgressions by the children of
Ammown, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment;because they
have ripped open the pregnant women of Gil'ad, that they may enlarge
their border.
Again Gil’ad, the “land of Y’ISCHRa’EL outside the Land proper” is the
prize many nations were seeking for themselves. It is a beautiful,
mountainous fertile land that stretches from the Sea of Galilee into what
today is northwestern Jordan, in the area around the city of Irbid.
Amows 1:14
But I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it will devour its
palaces, with shouting in the day of battle, with a storm in the day of the
whirlwind;
Rabbah: short for Rabbat-Ammon, the capital of the Ammonite kingdom,
descendants of Lot’s son Ben-Ammi, which today has become the city of
Amman, Jordan. Strom: from the word for “bringing to an end”.
Amows 1:15
and their king will go into captivity ,he and his princes together,” says
YaHuWaH.
Tiglath-Pileser destroyed Ammon in 734 B.C.
Amows 2:1
Thus says YaHuWaH: “For three transgressions by Mow'ab, yes, for four
,I will not turn away its punishment;because he burned the bones of the
king of Edom into lime;
Amows 2:2
but I will send a fire on Mow'ab, and it will devour the palaces of
Qeriyowth; and Mow'ab will die with tumult, with shouting, and with the
sound of the shofar;
Amows 2:3
and I will cut off the judge from their midst, and will kill all its princes
with him,”says YaHuWaH.
Amows 2:4
Thus says YaHuWaH: “For three transgressions of Yahuwdah, yes, for
four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have rejected
YaHuWaH’s Torah, and have not kept His statutes, and their lies have
led them astray,
Instruction: Heb., torah. Deceitful things: often a term referring to idols.
Amos has been moving progressively closer to home, and by now those
who might have cheered at the punishments to come upon their enemy
neighbors should be starting to feel uncomfortable. Yehuda is right next
door, and is their brother, so if YaHuWaH is chiding even them, there is
no way Y’ISCHRa’EL will be exempt either. after which their fathers
walked;
Amows 2:5
But I will send a fire on Yahuwdah, and it will devour the palaces of
Yahrushalom.”
Amows 2:6
Thus says YaHuWaH: “For three transgressions of Y’ISCHRa’EL, yes, for
four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have sold the
righteous One for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals;
Selling the righteous one for silver: Though Yahuwdah appeared to have
been responsible for YaHuWSHuWaH death, it was really on account of
the Northern Kingdom (Y’ISCHRa’EL)’s sins that He came and died.
Mat. 15:24
But He answered, “I was not sent except to the sheep which went astray
from the House of Y’ISCHRa’EL.”
Amows 2:7
They trample on the dust of the earth, on the head of the poor, and
deny justice to the oppressed; and a man and his father use the same
maiden, to profane My Set-apart Name;
Amows 2:8
and they lay themselves down beside every altar on clothes taken in
pledge; and in the house of their mighty one they drink the wine of
those who have been fined.
Garments taken in pledge: meant to only be held as collateral for a short
time, not used by those holding them. (Ex. 22:26) They clearly did not
intend to give these back. Y’ISCHRa’EL is charged with very different
wrongs than Yehuda was. Every one of these sins is against one’s
brother. Though they are clearly involved in idolatry, as every other
prophet(and even this context) bears out, He is more concerned about
how they treat one another—a root sin that will bring havoc on all her
neighbors as well. What Y’ISCHRa’EL does affects all the nations that
have had significant contact with her (many even intermarrying with
her). Nations like Egypt are not even mentioned, only her Semitic
brothers. The salt of the earth, she is still refusing to let YHWH pulverize
her into usefulness, and the whole region must therefore suffer. They
have not fallen upon the rock, so it must be dropped upon them. (Luke
20:18)
Amows 2:9
Yet I destroyed the Emoriy before them, whose height was like the
height of the cedars and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his
fruit from above, and his roots from beneath.
Amows 2:10
Also I brought you up out of the land of Mitsrayim, and led you forty
years in the wilderness, to possess the land of the Emoriy.
Amows 2:11
I raised up some of your sons for prophets, and some of your young
men for Naziyr. Isn’t this true, you children of Y’ISCHRa’EL?” says
YaHuWaH.
Amows 2:12
“But you gave the Naziyr wine to drink,and commanded the prophets,
saying, ‘Don’t prophesy!’
Naziyr: men consecrated to YHWH whether permanently or temporarily,
identified by their uncut hair and abstinence from wine. His people did
not want any such blatant reminders that He had set them apart, nor did
they wish to hear reproof. Will we, their descendants, make reparation
for their error?
Amows 2:13
Behold, I will crush you in your place, as a cart crushes that is full of
grain.
Amows 2:14
Flight will perish from the swift; and the strong won’t strengthen his
force; neither shall the mighty deliver himself;
Amows 2:15
neither shall he stand who handles the bow; and he who is swift of foot
won’t escape; neither shall he who rides the horse deliver himself;
Amows 2:16
and he who is courageous among the mighty will flee away naked on
That Day,” says YaHuWaH.
Amows 3:1
Hear this Word that YaHuWaH has spoken against you, children of
Y’ISCHRa’EL, against the whole family which I brought up out of the land
of Mitsrayim, and I quote:
Amows 3:2
“You only have I chosen of all the families of the earth. Therefore I will
punish you for all of your crookedness.”
YHWH’s family is held to a higher standard of judgment (compare Luke
12:48) as teachers are (Yaaqov 3:1), since all of Y’ISCHRa’EL is called to
be a teaching people—a light to the nations. The rewards for doing so
are greater than others will receive, but the consequences for not doing
so are also far greater. Y’ISCHRa’EL of all people should understand
what pleases Him. Because they did not seem to care, all who are in her
family will pay as well, but especially Y’ISCHRa’EL. Guilt: based on a root
word meaning to twist, distort, pervert, or corrupt. It is not sin per se
(which is defined as missing the target), but is staying near the target,
but moving it slightly so that it will appear that what we are actually
doing met the standard after all. He will turn on them the very things
they used against Him.
Amows 3:3
Do two walk together, unless they have agreed?
In agreement: sometimes even used of betrothal. I.e., they walk
together “down the aisle”. In this immediate context, it fits. If we and
YHWH cannot even agree on the terms of the contract, it is already
broken. Alt., without having met. Much of this generation has never even
met YHWH as He really is, because of our forefathers’ twisting and
stretching of the truth for so long.
Amows 3:4
Will a lion roar in the thicket, when he has no prey? Does a young lion
cry out of his den, if he has caught nothing?
[I.e., would I be saying these things if I were not about to do something
severe to you? It is too late to keep it from taking place.]
Amows 3:5
Can a bird fall in a trap on the earth, where no snare is set for him?
Does a snare spring up from the ground, when there is nothing to catch?
These rhetorical questions are a mere setup for the real ones:
Amows 3:6
If a shofar is sounded in a city, won't the people tremble with fear? If
there is a calamity in a city, shall not YaHuWaH have done it?
Sounded: the particular term used refers to short, staccato notes that
signified an alarm due to an impending attack. Isn’t it YHWH…?
Especially in Y’ISCHRa’EL, where He has promised that no one would
even covet our Land if His people are walking in His ways (Ex. 34:24),
anything that went wrong had to have at least come through the filter of
His permission, if not originating in His will. (Iyov/Job 1:12-2:7) There
are no accidents.
Amows 3:7
Surely YaHuWaH Aluahiym will do nothing, unless He reveals His secret
(yod) to His servants the prophets.
Yod: i.e., His plans to which only a few are privy to the reasons for, yet
He promises that some will indeed be forewarned of His intimate
purposes, as Avraham was. There is nothing He has not foreseen.
Amows 3:8
The lion has roared. Who will not fear? YaHuWaH Aluahiym has spoken.
Who can but prophesy?
Amows 3:9
Proclaim in the palaces at Ashdowd, and in the palaces in the land of
Mitsrayim, and say, “Assemble yourselves on the mountains of
Shomerown, and see the great disturbances within her, and the
exploitation being perpetrated in her innermost sectors.”
Shomron: or Samaria, the final capital of the Northern Kingdom of
Y’ISCHRa’EL. Disturbances: confusion, disquieting, panic, trouble, or
turmoil. Exploitation: specifically, defrauding or extortion—pressing for
unjust gain.
Amows 3:10
“Indeed they don’t know to do right,” says YaHuWaH, “Who hoard
plunder and loot in their palaces.”
Right: literally, what is straight. (Compare His accusation in v. 2 that
they are “crooked”.) Storing up: He gives back to us from what we have
given to Him, with interest. As the computer adage goes, if we put
garbage in, we will get garbage out. When our resources run out and He
opens the “root cellar” into which we’ve put our rations for the hard
times, if we have put the worst quality food there, it is all we will have.
By calling on pagan substitute names like “G-d” or “Fortune”, we will
reap whatever these demons wish to perpetrate, for that is what they
are. Having stored up the wrong things instead of learning Torah inside
out, we will find ourselvces without any true wisdom, discernment, or
maturity when the real tests come.
Amows 3:11
Therefore thus says YaHuWaH Aluahiym: “An adversary will overrun the
land; and he will bring down your ability to prevail, and your palaces will
be plundered.”
Ability to prevail: the current status in Y’ISCHRa’EL; they were counting
on things remaining that way, and letting down their guard.
Amows 3:12
Thus says YaHuWaH“As the shepherd rescues out of the mouth of the
lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so shall the children of Y’ISCHRa’EL
be rescued who sit in Shomerown on the corner of a bed, and on the
edge of a couch.”
An animal that is torn like this is useless, for its remains are not even to
be eaten (Ex. 22:31); they can only be thrown to the dogs, and that is
exactly what YHWH did to our ancestors at this point, because “dogs” is
an idiom for Gentiles, and they wanted to belong to the pagan world
anyway. Recover: possibly so the lion would not be strengthened any
further, but Yahahshua, the “Beneficent Shepherd” (Yoch. 10), was able
to salvage a small amount of the ability to hear from YHWH and a
hobbled halakhah (way of walking out our faith), and was able to rebuild
the nation from this, for it was the Shema’ (the command to listen to the
fact that YHWH is one) and the festivals (called “legs” in Ex. 23:14) by
which He began drawing us back to the Torah in our own day. Corner of
a coffin: There will not even be enough remains to fill a fraction of it. On
a couch in Damaseq: left alone in their lover’s bed, for they were no
longer welcome in YHWH’s.
Amows 3:13
“Listen, and testify against the House of Ya'aqob,” says Sovereign
YaHuWaH, the Aluahiym Master of Armies.
Aluahiym of Armies: When He begins to use this language, it is clear that
He is serious about judgment.
Amows 3:14
“For in the day that I visit the transgressions of Y’ISCHRa’EL on him, I
will also visit the altars of Bayith 'Al; [translated as: House of Aloha] and
the horns of the altar will be cut off, and fall to the ground.
Beyth-El: the illegitimate substitute worship site set up by King
Yarav’am I to keep his subjects from going to Yerushalayim, now his
political rival, to worship. (1 Kings 12:29) Compare how many call
churches the “House of G-d”—one way of translating Beyth-El, for the
Church is the same type of compromise.
Amows 3:15
I will strike the winter house with the summer house; and the houses of
ivory will perish, and the great houses will have an end,” says YaHuWaH.
He has moved on from addressing the general populace to the kings and
priests, the leaders, for they had built a substitute priesthood out of a
few apostate Levites, and kings were doing what they had no right to
do.
Amows 4:1
Listen to this word, you cows [kine] of Bashan, who are on the mountain
of Shomerown, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who are
saying to their masters, “Bring wine, let us drink!”
Cows of Bashan: i.e., those who are well-to-do and fat. Bashan (the
Golan Heights) is still some of the best pastureland in Y’ISCHRa’EL.
Though the best-fed of any people, they were still oppressing others to
get more.
[Ashaq (h6231) aw-shak'; a prim. root (comp. 6229); to press upon, i. e.
oppress, defraud, violate, overflow: - get deceitfully, deceive, defraud,
drink up, (use) oppress ([-ion], -or), to violence (wrong).]
Amows 4:2
YaHuWaH Aluahiym has sworn by His righteousness that behold, “The
days shall come on you that they will take you away with hooks, and the
last of you with fish hooks.
Lift you up: or, take you away.
Amows 4:3
You will go out at the breaks in the wall, each woman before her; and
you will be cast out toward Harmown,” says YaHuWaH.
High tower: a fortress with impenetrable walls—seemingly protection;
after all, we have constitional rights! But it belongs to our enemies, who
have “freed” us from the Torah, the Sabbath, and the significance of our
Land! And it means no one will be able to rescue us from there until
YHWH decides to free us. The term literally means “great harem”—being
the lover of another, but only one of many, not an exclusive bride as we
were to YHWH. (3:2)
Amows 4:4
“Come to Bayith 'Al, and sin; [translated as: House of Aloha] to Gilgal,
and sin more. Bring your slaughterings every morning, your tithes every
three days,
Sin: or transgress, overstep your boundaries. Three days: perhaps the
times Yarav’am had substituted for YaHuWaH’s three pilgrimage festivals
meant to be taken to Yerushalayim. (1 Kings 12:32) He sarcastically says
they might as well go ahead and fill up their cup of judgment. It will be
easier for YHWH not to think about the fact that these are Avraham’s
descendants if they do things so evil.
Amows 4:5
offer a offering of thanksgiving of that which is leavened, and proclaim
free will offerings and brag about them: for this pleases you, you
children of Y’ISCHRa’EL,” says YaHuWaH Aluahiym.
A thank-offering that is leavened: specifically forbidden in Lev. 2:11.
Free-will offerings…heard about: All of these are still characteristics of
the exiled northern Kingdom, especially as seen in the churches, where
freedom and recognition are so longed for, and the truth of what YHWH
wants is mingled with other ideas.
Amows 4:6
“I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of
bread in all your places; (temples-places of worship) yet you haven’t
returned to Me,” says YaHuWaH.
Cleanness of teeth: not shiny ones, well-polished from excellent
preventive care, but disuse due to famine or the withholding of food by a
besieging enemy. Dwelling places: or simply, places, often a euphemism
for temples.
Amows 4:7
“I also have withheld the rain from you, when there were yet three
months to the harvest; and I caused it to rain on one city, and caused it
not to rain on another city.
They were deliberately inequitable toward their fellow Y’ISCHRa’ELites,
and YaHuWaH considers this as done to Him. (Luke 12:21) So He
deliberately treats them unequally in return.
One place was rained on, and the piece where it didn’t rain withered.
Amows 4:8
So two or three cities staggered to one city to drink water, and were not
satisfied: yet you haven’t returned to Me,” says YaHuWaH.
Amows 4:9
“I struck you with blight and mildew many times in your gardens and
your vineyards; and your fig trees and your olive trees have the
swarming locust devoured: yet you haven’t returned to Me,” says
YaHuWaH.
Locust: or cankerworm
Amows 4:10
“I sent plagues among you like I did Mitsrayim.I have slain your young
men with the sword, and have carried away your horses;and I filled your
nostrils with the stench of your camp, yet you haven’t returned to Me,”
says YaHuWaH.
Amows 4:11
“I have overthrown some of you, as when Aluahiym overthrew Sedom
and Amorah, and you were like a burning stick plucked out of the fire;
yet you haven’t returned to Me,” says YaHuWaH. (Zech. 3:1)
Like a firebrand: The same is said of Y’shua the high priest. (Zech. 3:2)
He used his second “chance” profitably, but at this point Y’ISCHRa’EL
had been given many openings to repent, and had not. (vv. 6-10)
Amows 4:12
“Therefore thus will I do to you, Y’ISCHRa’EL; because I will do this to
you, prepare to meet your Aluahiym, O Y’ISCHRa’EL!
As a consequence of this: or, on the heels of this. Meet your Aloha: but
not in the way they might wish to.
Amows 4:13
For, behold, I brought the thunder, and I made the wind, and declares
to man what is his thought; for He produces the dawn and the fog, and
treads on the high places of the Earth: YaHuWaH the Aluahiym Master of
Armies is His Name.”
What His complaint is: or, alternately, what his [man’s] thought is.
Amows 5:1
Listen to this word which I take up for a lamentation over you, O House
of Y’ISCHRa’EL.
Amows 5:2
“The virgin of Y’ISCHRa’EL has fallen; She shall rise no more. She is cast
down on her Land; there is no one to raise her up.”
Not… again: at the time being spoken of here.
Amows 5:3
For thus says the Sovereign YaHuWaH: “The city that went forth a
thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went forth one
hundred shall have ten left to the House of Y’ISCHRa’EL.” [a tithe]
They would quite literally be decimated. Yaaqov had promised to give
YaHuWaH ten percent of all that he had. (Gen. 28:22) This includes his
descendants. He promised He would always leave a remnant (2 Chron.
30:6), but it appears that Y’ISCHRa’EL had fallen to such a low condition
that all YHWH would spare was the tithe that already belonged to Him.
Amows 5:4
For thus says YaHuWaH to the House of Y’ISCHRa’EL: “Seek Me, and
you will live;
Seek: or, resort to. This is being spoken only to the ten-percent remnant
(v. 3). So the salient question is “HOW do we seek Him?” Throughout
Scripture He tells us how He wants to be sought: by loving knowledge,
choosing to fear YHWH, not despising His rebuke, listening to Him, and
taking His advice (Prov. 1:28-33); loving Him and seeking Him with
diligent commitment (Prov. 8:17); drawing near to Him TOGETHER,
leaving Gentile lifestyles behind (Yeshayahu 45:19-20); search for Him
with a whole heart, begging Him for mercy (Yirm. 29:10); acknowledging
our guilt without excuses (Hos. 5:15); seeking the place He chooses and
going there (Deut. 12:5); arising and rebuilding His sanctuary (1 Chron.
22:19); making His deeds known, singing to Him, rejoicing,
remembering His marvelous works and judgments, giving thanks (back)
to Him, and calling on His Name (1 Chron. 8:16); seeking out all of His
commandments, knowing the Elohim of our fathers and serving Him with
a willing mind (1 Chron. 28:8-9); removing pagan images from His Land
and preparing our hearts to seek Him (2 Chron. 19:3); seeking Him while
He is near, forsaking our wicked ways, and returning to Him (Yeshayahu
55:6). Survive: or, be revived, restored to life. Later in the book we will
see how Y’ISCHRa’EL can rise again after all of this.
Amows 5:5
but don’t seek Bayith 'Al, nor enter into Gilgal, and don’t pass to Be'er
Sheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bayith 'Al shall come
to nothing.
Gilgal: Here, not the first place Yehoshua camped after crossing into the
Promised Land, but a dwelling place of prophets about 4 km. from both
Beyth-El and Shiloh within the borders of the Northern Kingdom. These
are a picture of the “Church”, which tries to worship YaHuWaH but under
different names and in a different way than He specified. Cross over:
because Be’er-Sheva was in the territory of Yehudah, not Y’ISCHRa’EL.
This represents rabbinically-based Judaism, which also bears some
resemblance to the ancient Torah-based lifestyle, yet is not all He
intended; it was only Yerushalayim in which YHWH allowed His altar to
stand.
Amows 5:6
Seek YaHuWaH, and you will live; lest He break out like fire in the House
of Yowseph, and it devour, and there be no one to quench it in Bethel.
Amows 5:7
You who turn justice to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the
earth:
Hemlock: or wormwood; i.e., poison. Alt., turn justice into hemlock and
cast righteousness down to the earth.
Amows 5:8
seek Him Who made the Kimah (seven stars) and Kesil (Orion), and
turns the shadow of death into the morning, and makes the day dark
with night; Who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on
the surface of the earth: YaHuWaH is His Name! [Tsunami?]
The Pleiades: Heb.,Kimah. Orion: the western world knows him as a
hunter, but in Hebrew, its name, Kesil, means “an arrogant simpleton”.
What hunter would this apply to, if not to Esau, and earlier, Nimrod?
YaHuWaH is thus emphasizing that He is superior to the one many
worshipped, since He created him.
Amows 5:9
He causes devastation to burst forth upon the fierce, so that devastation
comes upon the stronghold.
Amows 5:10
They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who
speaks blamelessly.
The gate: the ancient equivalent of the civic courtroom.
Amows 5:11
Forasmuch therefore as you trample on the poor, and take taxes from
him of wheat: You have built houses of cut stone, but you will not dwell
in them. You have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink
their wine.
Trampling: or, imposing heavy rent upon. Contributions: or, grain
taxes. The treatment of the poor is the scriptural litmus test of true
justice—neither oppressing nor unduly favoring them. (Lev. 19:15; Deut.
15:11)
Amows 5:12
For I know how many are your offenses, and how great are your sins—
you who afflict the just, who take a bribe, and who turn aside the needy
in the courts.
Amows 5:13
Therefore a prudent person keeps silent in such a time, for it is an evil
time.
Prudent: one who keeps his eyes on what is going on all around him.
Even one who has noticed the trends and prepared for them will be
unable to keep up with the sudden changes that overwhelm the Land.
Amows 5:14
Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so YaHuWaH, the
Aluahiym Master of Armies, will be with you, as you say.
Amows 5:15
Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the courts. It may be that
YaHuWaH, the Aluahiym Master of Armies, will be gracious to the
remnant of Yowseph.”
Hate evil: not just stay away from it, but actively and aggressively
oppose it. Love: be committed to. When our courts are righteous, we will
regain His favor. It may be: Some of the listeners must have responded
appropriately, for He is restoring Yoseyf. Yet we have no Torah-based
courts yet. This is one of the foremost orders of our day.
Amows 5:16
Therefore YaHuWaH, the Aluahiym Master of Armies, YaHuWaH, said
this: “Wailing will be in all the broad ways; and they will say in all the
streets, ‘Alas! Alas!’ and they will call the farmer to mourning, and those
who are skillful in lamentation to wailing.
There will be so few left that anyone left will be called to fulfill the role
usually assigned to professional leaders of mourning rites.
Amows 5:17
In all vineyards there will be wailing; for I will pass through the midst of
you,” says YaHuWaH.
Pass through your midst: i.e., as He did in Egypt through the messenger
of death.
Amows 5:18
“Woe to you who desire the Day of YaHuWaH! For what good is the Day
of YaHuWaH to you? It will be darkness, and not light.
Be careful what you ask for! This is very much like many today who are
expecting the Kingdom to be a time of peace and glory for themselves,
but are mistaken about where they stand with YaHuWaH, since they do
not walk in His Torah.
Amows 5:19
As if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him; Or he went into the
house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a snake bit him.
Just when they thought they were safe, a worse thing befell them. The
house…snake: The counterfeit HaMachiyach is present both within
Judaism and Christianity.
Amows 5:20
Won’t the Day of YaHuWaH be darkness, and not light? Even very dark,
and no brightness in it?
Amows 5:21
I hate, I despise your feasts, and I can’t stand your solemn assemblies.
Your festivals: not His, but the ones they have substituted for His, or the
way they have changed His to suit their own purposes. This is not His
abdication of the validity of the festivals He had prescribed, for Yahshua
and Paul both reaffirmed that. (Luke 22:15; 1 Cor. 5:8; Acts 18:21)
Amows 5:22
Yes, though you offer Me your burnt offerings and meal offerings, I will
not accept them; neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat
animals.
Amows 5:23
Take away from me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the
music of your harps.
Amows 5:24
But let justice roll on like rivers, and righteousness like a mighty stream.
Evenly: i.e., with equity; the Hebrew term emphasizes constancy and
reliability.
Amows 5:25
“You brought me slaughterings and meal offerings in the wilderness for
forty years, O House of Y’ISCHRa’EL,
Amows 5:26
but took up Sikkut you sovereign and Kiyyun [saturn], your idols, your
astral mighty ones, which you made for yourselves.
Woven covering: or a proper name, Sikut, a Babylonian deity also known
as Molekh, a bloodthirsty deity renamed Zeus and Jupiter in the West.
Image: Heb., Kiyun, an Assyro-Babylonian deity later adopted by
Hinduism and identical to the Western world’s Saturn. Star of your
Elohim: possibly the HaMachiyach (Num. 24:17), but refashioned
according to their own whims, and thus a counterfeit, foreshadowed by
Bar Kochba (the “son of the star”, whose actual name was Ben Kosiba).
Amows 5:27
Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Dammeseq,” says
YaHuWaH, Whose Name is the Aluahiym Master of Armies.
Dammeseq: YISCHRaEL’s “paramour” (3:12), but close enough to home,
where they still felt some sense of being in control. YHWH says He will
fling them far beyond there, into being full-scale Gentiles. Yet,
interestingly enough, it was one of the first places where the returning
“lost sheep of the House of Y’ISCHRa’EL” regathered, as Paul considered
the destruction of the Messianic believers there very strategic. (Acts 9)
Amows 6:1
Woe to those who are at ease in Tsiyown, and to those who are trusting
in the mountain of Shomerown, the notable men of the chief of the
nations, to whom the House of Y’ISCHRa’EL come!
Rest securely: with the connotation of being arrogant about it. Tzion …
Shomron: the two governments that existed at this time in Y’ISCHRa’EL.
They were also the spiritual and secular seats of the Northern Kingdom,
as if they were saying, “If all else fails, we can fall back on Yerushalayim
and start serving YHWH again.” They were not walking in Torah, but
thought it was there as a safety net. Little has changed. The same sins
still plague the Northern Kingdom, only now they have been made into
doctrines. Today people think that no matter how they live now, they
have a hope in “Zion” (Heaven) or in Shomron (the “great watch”, i.e.,
the Rapture they expect to remove them from the consequences of their
actions). For the House of Yehudah, “Tzion” might refer to the Jewish
heritage many trust will guarantee them a place in the Kingdom. (Mat.
3:9)
Amows 6:2
Go to Kalneh, and see; and from there go to Chamath Rabbah; then go
down to Gath of the Pelishtiym. are they better than these kingdoms? or
is their border greater than your border?
Kalneh: a Babylonian city founded by Nimrod, captured by Assyria in the
8th century B.C.E. Khamath: an important city in the Orontes River
valley of upper Syria. Gath: once the hometown of Golyath.
Amows 6:3
Those who put far away the evil Day, [Day of YaHuWaH] and cause the
seat of violence (Hamas) to come near;
Driving away: or, putting off—i.e., saying the “Day of YHWH’s wrath”
(5:20) is far off, and we need not worry about it. Its negative effects do
not apply to us. Violence: or mistreatment (Heb., Hamas). While the
master is away, the servants are beating their fellows (Luke 12:45),
because they feel like they can get away with them since the Master said
“Judge not…” But He will judge, or He, too, would be mistreating them
like a parent who lets his children get away with too much.
Amows 6:4
Who lie on beds of ivory, and stretch themselves on their couches, and
eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the
stall;
Stall: where the cattle are fattened up, and the best are those meant to
be brought to the Temple. But they are using these for their own
purposes instead.
Amows 6:5
who strum on the strings of a harp; who invent for themselves
instruments of music, like Dawiyd;
Chant: or improvise carelessly or stammer. David wrote songs for
worship in the Temple, but they are using them for their own pleasure
alone or profaning them by playing them for the general public, not only
for those whom YHWH has allowed privy to His set-apart chambers:
Amows 6:6
who drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the best oils;but
they are not grieved for the affliction of Yowseph.
Pitchers: this may merely mean “by the pitcherful”, but in context it
seems to refer to the kind of pitchers called by the same name (mizraq)
meant to be used to toss blood against the altar when sacrifices were
brought; they are using it for common purposes instead. First [rate] oils:
perhaps those from the first pressing of the olives, which were meant to
be given to the Levitical priests to light the menorah in the Temple.
(Num. 18:12; Lev. 24:2) Some priests were indeed hired by the Northern
kings to officiate in the substitute temples and train non-Levites to be
their priests. They may well have co-opted some of the implements from
YHWH’s true Temple in Yerushalayim.
Amows 6:7
Therefore they will now go captive with the first who go captive; and
the feasting and lounging will end.
Amows 6:8
“ YaHuWaH Aluahiym has sworn by Himself,” says YaHuWaH, the
Aluahiym Master of Armies: “I abhor the pride of Ya'aqob, and detest his
fortresses. Therefore I will deliver up the city with all that is in it.
Hand over: or simply, close off.
Amows 6:9
It will happen, if there remain ten men in one house, that they shall die.
Ten men: symbolic of a whole congregation. Normally, YHWH would
spare a city for only ten righteous (Gen. 18:32), so these men are not
righteous. One house: in the context of the House of Yoseyf (v. 6), this
would indicate that when the time comes (as it soon will) for the two
Houses of Y’ISCHRa’EL to again merge into one (Yehezq’El 37:22ff), to
maintain the distinctive of one or the other (Christianity or Rabbi Akiva’s
brand of Judaism) will keep us from rising to the next step YHWH has for
us. We will have to sacrifice one type of unity for a greater—that of the
House of David, the HaMachiyach’s Kingdom, for which we have been
bought as servants. (Zech. 8:23)
Amows 6:10
“When a man’s relative carries him, even he who burns him, to bring
bodies out of the house, and asks him who is in the innermost parts of
the house, ‘Is there yet any with you?’ And he says, ‘No;’ then he will
say, ‘Hold your tongue! For we dare not mention the Name of
YaHuWaH.’
Uncle: or, beloved. Make mention of: or, remember. Until our own day, it
is indeed few who have remembered it. Yehudah kept it hidden for other
reasons, but they are no longer valid either. Apart from the noble desire
not to profane YaHuWaH’s Name by flippant use, this was the carry-over
from a custom picked up in Babylon of not voicing the name of one’s
deity lest he pay too much attention to them. This seems to be the
scenario here, in that those who know of the curse of v. 9 are in hiding.
The one who has already been detected says no one is with him, and
tells all those in the house to remain silent so they will not be noticed.
Thanks to YHWH, this too is being reversed in our day.
Amows 6:11
“For, behold, YaHuWaH commands, and the great house will be
smashed to pieces, and the little house into bits.
Amows 6:12
Do horses run on the rocky crags? Does one plow there with oxen?But
you have turned justice into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into
bitterness;
Poison: literally, “head”, perhaps since it is derived from the heads of the
plant—a poisonous “fruit”. Therefore, this land is no longer pasture.
Neither house of Y’ISCHRa’EL has been fully in Torah, so the sheep do
not have the best food to eat.
Amows 6:13
you who rejoice in a thing of nothing, who say, ‘Haven’t we taken for
ourselves horns by our own strength?’ [horns - symbol of
power/domination]
Horns: a symbol of domination. Modern Y’ISCHRa’EL leaders have taken
this attitude of assuming that since the nation won the 6-Day War and
the Yom Kippur War, they must be invincible. For nothing: literally, for a
word that is not.
Amows 6:14
For, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, House of Y’ISCHRa’EL,”
says YaHuWaH, the Aluahiym Master of Armies; “and they will afflict you
from the entrance of Chamath to the river of the Arabah (wilderness).”
afflict: or, oppress. The places mentioned here are the northern and
southern limits of the inhabited part of Y’ISCHRa’EL in that day; i.e., no
one will escape this treatment
Amows 7:1
Thus YaHuWaH Aluahiym showed me: and behold, He formed locusts in
the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and behold, it was
the latter growth after the king’s harvest.
[Septuagint Translation of 7:1 reads:
"Thus the YaHuWaH Aluahiym showed me, and behold a swarm of
locusts were coming, and behold, one of the young devastating locusts
was Gog, the King."
--- Yet ---
Proverbs 30:7
reveals that "the locusts have no king,"
---- But in ----
Hisgulas 9:1
The fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from the sky which had fallen
to the earth. The key to the pit of the abyss was given to him.
Hisgulas 9:2
He opened the pit of the abyss, and smoke went up out of the pit, like
the smoke from a burning furnace. The sun and the air were darkened
because of the smoke from the pit.
Hisgulas 9:3
Then out of the smoke came forth locusts on the earth, and power was
given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have power. ..... The sound
of their wings was like the sound of chariots, or of many horses rushing
to war.
Hisgulas 9:10
They have tails like those of scorpions, and stings. In their tails they
have power to harm men for five months.
Hisgulas 9:11
They have over them as king the messenger of the abyss. His name in
Hebrew is “Abaddon,” but in Greek, he has the name “Apollyon.”
Hisgulas 9:12
The first woe is past. Behold, there are still two woes coming after this.]
Amows 7:2
It happened that, when they made an end of eating the grass of the
Land, then I said, “Master Aluahiym, pardon, I beg you! How could
Ya'aqob stand? For he is small.”
This is right around the time when the special season of T’shuvah
(repentance) begins, a month prior to the Feast of the Awakening
Trumpet-blast. Locusts have to be so numerous that they are rubbing up
against each other’s legs before they will swarm like this.
Amows 7:3
YaHuWaH relented concerning this. “It shall not be,” says YaHuWaH.
Amows 7:4
Thus YaHuWaH Aluahiym showed me and behold, YaHuWaH Aluahiym
called for judgment by fire; and it dried up the great deep, and would
have devoured the territory.
Assigned portion: the Land of Y’ISCHRa’EL.
Amows 7:5
Then I said, “Master Aluahiym, stop, I beg you! How could Ya'aqob
stand? For he is small.”
Amows 7:6
YaHuWaH relented concerning this. “This also shall not be,” says
YaHuWaH Aluahiym.
Amows 7:7
Thus he showed me and behold, YaHuWaH stood beside a wall (a
system of beliefs) made by a plumb line, with a plumb line in His hand.
Amows 7:8
YaHuWaH said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” I said, “A plumb line.”
Then YaHuWaH said, “Behold, I will set a plumb line in the midst of My
people Y’ISCHRa’EL. I will not again pass by them any more.
Plumb line: an instrument of judgment, measuring what is and is not
upright. This is how Yaaqov can stand—by restoring right judgments in
his gates (i.e., courts of law). Bypass: as He had at the first Passover
and had done in His mercy since.
Amows 7:9
The high places of Yitschaq will be desolate, the sanctuaries of
Y’ISCHRa’EL will be laid waste; and I will rise against the House of
Yarob'am with the sword.”
Yis’haq’s cultic platforms: probably the alternative worship-site at Be’er-
sheva mentioned in 5:5, since that is where Yis’haq (an alternate spelling
of Yitzhaq, the son of Avraham) lived and built an altar. (Gen. 26:25)
Apparently it came to be used again after Y’ISCHRa’EL had abandoned
YaHuWaH’s command to build Him an altar nowhere but in
Yerushalayim.
Amows 7:10
Then AmatsYahuw the priest of Bayith 'Al (House of G_d) sent to
Yeroboam king of Y’ISCHRa’EL, saying, “Amows has conspired against
you in the midst of the House of Y’ISCHRa’EL. The Land is not able to
bear all his words.
Amows 7:11
For Amows says, ‘Yarob'am will die by the sword, and Y’ISCHRa’EL shall
surely be led away captive out of his land.’”
Amows 7:12
AmatsYahuw also said to Amows, “You seer, goes, flee away into the
land of Yahuwdah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there:
I.e., “You’re a nice boy; I don’t want to have to kill you. Just leave
quietly and we’ll pretend nothing ever happened.”
Amows 7:13
but don’t prophesy again any more at Bayith 'Al [translated as: House of
G_d]; for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a royal house!”
Amows 7:14
Then Amos answered AmazYahuw, “I was no prophet, neither was I a
prophet’s son; but I was a herdsman, and a farmer of sycamore figs;
I.e., “I am not doing this for fun or because it is my profession! I’m not
trained for this at all, but I’m here because this is what YaHuWaH
wanted.” YaHuWaH knew that someone who tended sheep would tend
His human flock faithfully. A herdsman would be an ideal person to tend
sycomore figs, for they are inedible unless someone at the right time
pierces them with a tiny reed and rubs olive oil on them, in which case
they ripen very delicious. He would have the best vantage point to watch
his flocks from such a tree, and could tend to the “figs” at the same
time. The Mashiyach’s title means “anointed” (smeared with oil), and
He, too, was pierced for our iniquities so He oculd be partaken of.
(Yeshayahu 53) So Amos was also faithful in protecting a picture of the
HaMachiyach.
Amows 7:15
and YaHuWaH took me from following the flock, and YaHuWaH said to
me, ‘Go, prophesy to My people Y’ISCHRa’EL.’
[A herdsman would be an ideal person to tend sycamore figs, for they
are inedible unless someone at the right time pierces them with a tiny
reed and rubs olive oil on them, in which case they ripen very delicious.
He would have the best vantage point to watch his flocks from such a
tree, and could tend to the “figs” at the same time. The Mashiyach’s title
means “anointed” (smeared with oil), and He, too, was pierced for our
iniquities so He could be partaken of. (YashaYahuw 53) So Amos was
also faithful in protecting a picture of the Mashiyach.]
Amows 7:16
Now therefore listen to the Word of YaHuWaH: ‘You say, Don’t prophesy
against Y’ISCHRa’EL, and don’t proclaim against the House of
Yitschaq.’(thus Y’ISCHRa’EL = House of Yitschaq)
Amows 7:17
Therefore thus says YaHuWaH: ‘Your wife shall be a prostitute in the
city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your
Land shall be divided by line; and you yourself shall die in a land that is
unclean, and Y’ISCHRa’EL shall surely be led away captive out of his
Land.’”
Prostitute in the city: probably for one of the pagan temples in the place
of her exile. Region: literally, measuring line.
Amows 8:1
Thus YaHuWaH Aluahiym showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit.
Basket: actually based on the word for dog, the most literal meaning is
“dog cage” or “dog trap”. This gives us an indication of how the ancient
Hebrews looked at dogs in contrast to how Western culture does.
Efrayim’s name indicates that it was meant to be fruitful, but instead
YaHuWaH has to treat it like a wild, untamed dog. “Dogs” was a
common Hebrew way of describing Gentiles, and that is exactly what the
Northern Kingdom was acting like.
Amows 8:2
He said, “Amows, what do you see?” I said, “A basket of summer fruit.”
Then YaHuWaH said to me, “The end has come on My people
Y’ISCHRa’EL. I will not again pass by them any more.
The Hebrew word for “end” (extreme limit) is qetz, a play on the word
for summer (fruit), qayitz. Compare Gen. 6:13; Yehezq’El 7:23.
Amows 8:3
The songs of the temple will be wailings in that day,” says YaHuWaH
Aluahiym.“The dead bodies will be many. In every place they will throw
them out with silence.
Songs of the Temple: what they used to love to sing, but not live out.
For many centuries all that was left of even the Temple complex was a
retaining wall called the “wailing wall”.
Amows 8:4
Hear this, you who desire to swallow up the needy, and cause the poor
of the Land to fail,
Amows 8:5
Saying, ‘When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell grain? And
the shabbath, that we may market wheat, making the efah small, and
the shekel large, and dealing falsely with balances of deceit;
New Moon: or simply, month, since a Sabbath is mentioned after it. After
the first month of the Counting of the Omer(from after Passover until
Shavuoth), there are still more sabbaths to count until the seventh. (Lev.
23:14-16) This practice of varying weights and measures was strictly
forbidden in Lev. 9:36; Deut. 25:13; compare Prov. 20:10. But an eyfah
represents a whole congregation, measuring ten omers, each of which is
worth only a half sheqel that is, is the value of an individual person. (Ex.
30:13-15; 38:26) Exaggerating one’s own value to that of a whole sheqel
consequently lowers his esteem for the rest of the congregation. His
priorities are skewed, and what is heavy (important) is treated as light
and what is far less significant is given great weight. This person has not
learned his lessons on functioning as a unified Body, which the Counting
of the Omer emphasizes and depicts. They are not interested in being
Hebrews (those who cross over), but rather want His holy days to pass
(the root word from which the term “Hebrew” is derived) so YHWH will
not let His death angel bypass them (v. 2) this time as He did during the
Passover in Egypt. But we can also tip the scales by overemphasizing
love so that judgment does not take place when it should, or weakening
what commandments really mean by finding loopholes in them, and thus
missing the full value of what YaHuWaH wanted to teach us thereby.
Amows 8:6
that we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes,
and sell the sweepings with the wheat?’”
Residual wheat: from the word for “fallen”--either the worst part of the
crop, the refuse, or (more likely in context) that which was to be left for
the needy to come glean. (Deut. 24:21) No one is to make a profit from
this. Though it grew in your field, this portion belongs to YHWH; it was
never yours.
Amows 8:7
YaHuWaH has sworn by the pride of Ya'aqob [an idiom for the Land of
Y’ISCHRa’EL],“Surely I will never forget any of their works.
Pride of Yaaqov: an idiom for the Land of Y’ISCHRa’EL.
Amows 8:8
Won’t the Land tremble for this, and everyone mourn who dwells in it?
Yes, all of it shall swell like the river; and it will be stirred up and sink
again, like the River of Mitsrayim.
Tremble: be perturbed, upset—i.e., ready to vomit out its inhabitants
who have not kept YHWH’s covenant. (Lev. 20:22) Rise up: alt.,
withdraw or retreat.
Amows 8:9
It will happen in That Day,” says YaHuWaH Aluahiym, “that I will cause
the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day.
Amows 8:10
I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into
lamentation; and I will make you wear sackcloth on all your bodies, and
baldness on every head. I will make it like the mourning for an only son,
and its end like a bitter day.
Burlap: or sackcloth, worn as a sign of mourning. Baldness: another
mourning ritual among the common people, but forbidden for priests
(21:5; compare Deut. 14:1)
this happened when YaHuWSCHuA was on the stake.
Matt. 27:45
Now from the sixth hour (beginning at noon) until the ninth hour (3 pm)
there was darkness over all the Land.] .… and a replay will occur on
"That Day".)
Zech. 12:10
I will pour on the House of Dawiyd, and on the inhabitants of
Yahrushalum, the spirit of favour and of supplication; and they will look
to Me, Aleph Taw, whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for
Him, as one mourns for His only Son, and will grieve bitterly for Him, as
one grieves for His Firstborn.
Amows 8:11
Behold, the Days come,” says YaHuWaH Aluahiym, “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 YaHuWaH .
The days are coming: This therefore chiefly addresses latter-day
Efrayim. Hearing: the Hebrew term includes obedience. Bread
symbolizes community (1 Cor. 10:17) and water, teaching of the Torah.
There is plenty of instruction available, so people think they are well-
watered. There are plenty of congregations to choose from, but there is
no real obedience to YaHuWaH’s commands, so it is all out of context.
Amows 8:12
They will wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east;
they will run back and forth seeking a Word from YaHuWaH, and will not
find it.
Wander: or stagger. North: The Hebrew term also means “hidden”;
Efrayimites today also crave the mysteries of the trinity (based on a
misunderstanding), Kabbalah (real but dangerous and distorted if
outside the context of a thorough knowledge of Torah), or even the
more valid but often obsessive “Bible codes” of messages embedded in
the text at equidistant intervals. Sunrise: or, the east. This immediately
brings to mind eastern religions, breakthroughs of revelation, and
especially Easter sunrise services—pagan at worst, and at best the awe
of Yahshua’s resurrection. But Yahshua downplays the spectacular and
emphasizes the true relationship with YaHuWaH. (Luke 10:20) His word
is not far off or hidden irretrievably on some mountaintop; it is very
simple (Deut. 30:11-14); people just do not wish to obey its plain
demands.
[“And they will wander from sea to sea, and from the north all the way
to the sunrise; they will run to and fro to search for a word [from]
YaHuWaH, but they will not be able to find [one].] [SFWH of Y]
Amows 8:13
In That Day the beautiful virgins and the young men will faint for thirst.
No one will be exempt of have the advantage of immunity to His
judgment
Amows 8:14
Those who swear by the sin of Shomerown, and say, ‘As your Aluahiym
lives, O Dan;’ and, ‘As the way of Be'er Sheba lives;’ they will fall, and
never rise up again.”
Dan and Be’er-sheva: again, alternative worship sites not authorized by
YaHuWaH at this time. The two towns are on the extreme north and
extreme south of the non-desert parts of Y’ISCHRa’EL. The Northern
Kingdom is by and large still swearing by the false altars and golden
calves of security, prosperity, Christian morals, in which they trust
instead of YaHuWaH or use to mask their fear of direct relationship with
Him and one another.
Amows 9:1
I saw YaHuWaH standing beside the altar, and He said, “Strike the tops
of the pillars, that the thresholds may shake; and break them in pieces
on the head of all of them; and I will kill the last of them with the sword:
there shall not one of them flee away, and there shall not one of them
escape.
Thresholds: Ancient edifices, such as the misnamed “Par'oh’s treasury”
at Petra, often had basins cut into the threshold so that libations of wine
or blood could be poured out there to dedicate the building to whatever
deity was being honored thereby. So in the context of Y’ISCHRa’EL this
represents a covenant with someone other than YaHuWaH. The Temple
in Yahrushalom would NOT have such basins. Capital of the pillar: which
upheld the pagan temples, as we see in the account of Shimshon’s
death. (Judges 16:26ff) Again, there were two pillars in front of
Shelomo’s Temple (1 Kings 7:21), but they did not uphold anything, but
were symbolic only.]
Amows 9:2
Though they dig into she'owl, there My hand will take them; and though
they climb up to skys, there I will bring them down.
The skies: Many think they will go to heaven and be exempt from
YaHuWaH’s judgment
Amows 9:3
Though they hide themselves in the top of Karmel, I will search and
take them out there; and though they be hid from My sight in the
bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent, and it will bite
them.
Crevasse: or abyss. This is the one place He does not say He will go
Himself to retrieve us. Perhaps this is because it is symbolic of the place
the condemned demons are held in judgment. (Gen. 1:2; Rev. 9:11;
21:1) Or it could refer to Satan worship; some might think Satan is
strong enough or willing enough to defend them from YaHuWaH’s wrath.
Amows 9:4
Though they go into captivity before their enemies, there I will
command the sword, and it will kill them. I will set My eyes on them for
evil, and not for good.
Amows 9:5
For YaHuWaH, Aluahiym Master of Armies, is He Who touches the earth
and it melts, and all who dwell in it will mourn; and it will rise up wholly
like the river, and will sink again, like the River of Mitsrayim.
Amows 9:6
It is He Who builds His chambers in the heavens, and has founded His
strata in the earth; He Who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours
them out on the surface of the earth; YaHuWaH is His Name.
Amows 9:7
Are you not like the Kuwshiy to Me, children of Y’ISCHRa’EL?” says
YaHuWaH. “Haven’t I brought up Y’ISCHRa’EL out of the land of
Mitsrayim, and the Pelishtiym from Kaphtor, and the Aram from Qiyr?
I.e., “I let these peoples migrates from one land to another just as I did
for you; why should I treat you as special if you do not do the same for
Me?”
Amows 9:8
Behold, the eyes of YaHuWaH Aluahiym are on the sinful kingdom, and I
will destroy it from off the surface of the earth; except that I will not
utterly destroy the House of Ya'aqob,” says YaHuWaH.
Amows 9:9.
“For, behold, I will command, and I will sift the House of Y’ISCHRa’EL
among all the nations, as grain is sifted in a sieve, yet not the least
kernel will fall on the earth.
Not a grain will fall to earth: or, not a parcel of land will fall. YHWH is
concerned even for one lost sheep. (Luke 15:4-6) But alternately, He
determined where the seed would take root and where it would not; He
sowed us in some places for strategic reasons and allowed us to bear
fruit, while others from Y’ISCHRa’EL He allowed to be destroyed,
perhaps because of the seriousness or nature of their particular sins.
Amows 9:10
All the sinners of My people will die by the sword, who say, ‘Evil won’t
overtake nor meet us.’
Amows 9:11
In That Day I will raise up the booth of Dawiyd which has fallen down,
and repair its breaches, and I will raise up its ruins, and I will build it as
in the days of old;
Ancient: or, eternal, as they were ages ago. Sukkah: a temporary
dwelling place such as used during harvest times when to go back and
forth from home would lose too much precious time, or when
Y’ISCHRa’EL dwelt in the wilderness for 40 years, which the feast of
Sukkoth recalls. David: including David’s throne, which belongs to the
HaMashiyach. He has been in “exile” just as we have, and He has chiefly
made His temporary dwelling among the Northern Kingdom, which
accepted Him while Yehudah, for the main part, did not. (Mat. 21:43;
compare Yochanan 11:54) So this is what He would raise back up. As
the Church, it is still crumbling, but as we return to His covenant, He no
longer needs to keep us in a dog cage. As we all come back to
Yerushalayim, He will again establish His permanent dwelling place.
Amows 9:12
that they may possess the remnant of Adam (some have Edom), and all
the nations upon whom My Name is called,” says YaHuWaH Who does
this.
Dispossess: or, seize, occupy, expel. Edom: Without the vowel pointing,
it could also read Adam, i.e., mankind. Anyone left of the human race
will indeed come under the rule of YISCHRaEL’s HaMashiyach during the
coming age.
Amows 9:13
“Behold, the Days come,” says YaHuWaH, “that the plowman shall
overtake the reaper ,and the one treading grapes him who sows seed;
and sweet wine will drip from the mountains, and flow from the hills.
Overtake: i.e., the harvest will be so plentiful that it will take until the
next planting to gather it all in! Also, the climate in Y’ISCHRa’EL may
become so favorable that several additional planting seasons per year
can be added. Distil: or drip down. Soften: perhaps to respond more
favorable to cultivation, being now hard and rocky; alt., melt, dissolve
away.
Amows 9:14
I will bring My people Y’ISCHRa’EL back from captivity, and they will
rebuild the ruined cities, and inhabit them; and they will plant vineyards,
and drink wine from them. They shall also make gardens, and eat the
fruit of them.
This is a direct allusion to the reversal of the curse of building houses
that conquerors would inhabit and planting vineyards whose grapes
worms would devour. (Deut. 28:30, 39)
Amows 9:15
I will plant them on their Land, and they will no more be plucked up out
of their Land which I have given them,” says YaHuWaH your Aluahiym.
And now brothers and sisters
Come out of the secret place bearing light!
who see it from afar. The Secret Place, here, shines a bit of light so
many can see from afar. The topics we have chosen are addressed to
Jew and Gentile together. We do this because that is what the Bible
does. This opens the window to make more sense of what Scripture tells
us!
In the secret place is plain language, something simple to read. This is a
mere starting place for deeper consideration.
shalom
YaHuWSCHuA
ALuaHiYM YaHuWSCHuA haMaSHiYaCH
In His Name
Blessed be, in His name
'YaHuWaH be with you.' and they answered him, 'YaHuWaH bless you.' "
Be not blind to the truth
And, hinnei, two blind men sitting by the way side, when they heard that
YaHuWSCHuA passed by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O YaHuWaH,
[thou] Ben David. An YaHuWSCHuA stood still, and called them, and said,
what will ye that I shall do unto you they say unto Him, YaHuWaH, that our
eyes may be opened. So YaHuWSCHuA had compassion [on them], and touched
their eyes: and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him.
His servant and yours
shalowm in Righteousness
by the GRACE of YaHuWaH
keiYAH
nätzräya
Remember me and pray for me that YaHuWaH will be gracious unto me and be
merciful unto my sins which I have sinned against him. Peace be to them that
read and that hear these things and to their servants:
Amein and Amein
Freely ye have received, freely give
A rule necessary, and of great extent. A servant in the Gospel Vineyard, though
worthy of his Comfortable support while in the work. Should never preach for
hire, or make a secular traffic of the Ruwach (spiritual work): what a scandal is
it for a man to traffic with gifts which he pretends, at least, to have received
from the Ruwach HaQodesh, of which he is not the master, but the dispenser. He
who preaches to get a living, or make a fortune, is guilty of the most infamous
sacrilege