two legs, or the tip of the ear: so shall thelleven to the captivity of your horses: and I children of Israel be taken out that dwell made the stench of your camp to come up in Samaria, in a piece of a bed, and in the into your nostrils: yet you returned not to couch of Damascus. me, saith the Lord. 13 Hear ye and testify in the house of Jacob, saith the Lord the God of hosts: 14 That in the day when I shall begin to visit the transgressions of Israel, I will visit upon him, and upon the altars of Bethel : and the horns of the altars shall be cut off, and shall fall to the ground. 15 And I will strike the winter-house with the summer house: and the houses of ivory shall perish; and many houses shall be destroyed, saith the Lord. CHAP. IV. 11 I destroyed some of you, as God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrha; and you were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet you returned not to me, saith the Lord. 12 Therefore I will do these things to thee, O Israel: and after I shall have done these things to thee, be prepared to meet thy God, O Israel. 13 For behold, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth his word to man, he that maketh the morning mist, and walketh upon the high places of the earth: the Lord the God of The Israelites are reproved for their oppress-hosts is his name. CHAP. V. HEAR this word, ye samaria: you that oppress the needy, and crush the poor; return to God. EAR ye this word, which I take up concerning you for a lamentation. The house of Israel is fallen, and it shall rise no 2 The Lord God hath sworn by his holi-more. ness, that lo, the days shall come upon you 2 The virgin of Israel is cast down upon when they shall lift you up on pikes, and her land, there is none to raise her up. what shall remain of you in boiling pots. 3 For thus saith the Lord God: The city, 3 And you shall go out at the breaches out of which came forth a thousand, there one over-against the other: and you shall be cast forth into Armon,† saith the Lord. 4 Come ye to Bethel, and do wickedly to Galgal, and multiply transgressions: and bring in the morning your victims, your tithes in three days, shall be left in it a hundred: and out of which there came a hundred, there shall be left in it ten, in the house of Israel. 4 For thus saith the Lord to the house of Israel: Seek ye me, and you shall live. 5 But seek not Bethel, and go not into 5 And offer a sacrifice of praise with Galgal; neither shall you pass over to Berleaven and call free-offerings, and pro-sabee: for Galgal shall go into captivity; claim it for so you would do, O children and Bethel shall be unprofitable. of Israel, saith the Lord God. 6 Seek ye the Lord, and live: lest the 6 Whereupon I also have given you dul-house of Joseph be burnt with fire, and it ness of teeth in all your cities, and want of shall devour, and there shall be none to bread in all your places: yet you have not quench Bethel. returned to me, saith the Lord. 7 I also have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest; and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon and the piece whereupon I rained not, withered. 7 You that turn judgment into worm. wood, and forsake justice in the land, 8 Seek him that maketh Arcturus and Orion, and that turneth darkness into morning, and that changeth day into night; that calleth the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The Lord is his name. 8 And two and three cities went to one 9 He that with a smile bringeth destruccity to drink water, and were not filled:tion upon the strong, and waste upon the yet you returned not to me, saith the Lord.mighty. 9 I struck you with a burning wind, and 10 They have hated him that rebuketh with mildew: the palmer-worm hath eaten in the gate: and have abhorred him that up your many gardens, and your vineyards, speaketh perfectly. your olive-groves, and fig-groves: yet you 11 Therefore because you robbed the poor, returned not to me, saith the Lord. 10 I sent death upon you in the way of Egypt: Islew your young men with the sword, * Fat kine. He means the great ones that lived in plenty and wealth. † Armon. A foreign country: some understand it of Armenia. + Bethel, Galgal,-Bersabee. The places where they worshipped their idols. § Arcturus and Orion. Arcturus is a bright star in the north; Orion a beautiful constellation in the south. With a smile. That is, with all ease, lland without making any effort. and took the choice prey from him; youffvity beyond Damascus, saith the Lord, the shall build houses with square stone, and God of hosts is his name. shall not dwell in them: you shall plant CHAP. VI. most delightful vineyards, and shall not The desolation of Israel for their pride and drink the wine of them. luxury. 12 Because I know your manifold crimes, W to you that are wealthy in Sion, and and your grievous sins: enemies of the just, to that have confidence in the taking bribes, and oppressing the poor in mountain of Samaria; ye great men, heads the gate. of the people, that go in with state into the 13 Therefore the prudent shall keep si-house of Israel. lence at that time; for it is in an evil time. 2 Pass ye over to Chalane, and see; and 14 Seek ye good, and not evil, that you go from thence into Emath the great; and may live and the Lord the God of hosts go down into Geth of the Philistines, and to will be with you, as you have said. all the best kingdoms of these; if their border be larger than your border: 15 Hate evil, and love good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be the Lord the God of hosts may have mercy on the remnant of Joseph. 3 You that are separated unto the evil day; and that approach to the throne of iniquity: 16 Therefore thus saith the Lord the God 4 You that sleep upon beds of ivory, and of hosts the sovereign Lord: In every street are wanton on your couches; that eat the there shall be wailing; and in all places that lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of are without, they shall say: Alas, alas! and the midst of the herd: they shall call the husbandman to mourning, 5 You that sing to the sound of the psaland such as are skilful in lamentation to la-tery: they have thought themselves to have instruments of music like David: ment. 17 And in all vineyards there shall be wailing because I will pass through in the midst of thee, saith the Lord. 18 Wo to them that desire the day of the Lord to what end is it for you? the day of the Lord is darkness, and not light. 19 As if a man should flee from the face of a lion, and a bear should meet him: or enter into the house, and lean with his hand upon the wall, and a serpent should bite him. 20 Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light: and obscurity, and no brightness in it. 21 I hate, and have rejected your festivities: and I will not receive the odour of your assemblies. 22 And if you offer me holocausts, and your gifts, I will not receive them; neither will I regard the vows of your fat beasts. 23 Take away from me the tumult of thy songs: and I will not hear the canticles of thy harp. 6 That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the best ointments: and they are not concerned for the affliction of Joseph. 7 Wherefore now they shall go captive at the head of them that go into captivity: and the faction of the luxurious ones shall be taken away. 8 The Lord God hath sworn by his own soul, saith the Lord the God of hosts: I detest the pride of Jacob; and I hate his houses; and I will deliver up the city with the inhabitants thereof. 9 And if there remain ten men in one house, they also shall die. 10 And a man's kinsman shall take him up, and shall burn him, that he may carry the bones out of the house: and he shall say to him that is in the inner rooms of the house: Is there yet any with thee? 11 And he shall answer: There is an end. And he shall say to him: Hold thy peace, 24 But judgment shall be revealed as wa-and mention not the name of the Lord. ter, and justice as a mighty torrent. 12 For behold, the Lord hath command25 Did you offer* victims and sacrifices ed; and he will strike the greater house to me in the desert for forty years, O house with breaches, and the lesser house with of Israel? clefts. 26 But you carried a tabernaclet for your 13 Can horses run upon the rocks, or can Moloch, and the image of your idols, the star any one plough with buffles; for you have of your god, which you made to yourselves. turned judgment into bitterness, and the 27 And I will cause you to go into capti-fruit of justice into wormwood? 14 You that rejoice in a thing of naught: Did you offer, &c. Except the sacri-you that say: Have we not taken unto us fices that were offered at the first, in the horns by our own strength? dedication of the tabernacle, the Israelites offered no sacrifices in the desert. 15 But behold, I will raise up a nation against you, O house of Israel, saith the A tabernacle, &c. All this alludes to Lord the God of hosts: and they shall dethe idolatry which they committed, when stroy you from the entrance of Emath, even they were drawn away by the daughters of to the torrent of the desert. Moab to the worship of their gods. Numb. XXV. CHAP. VII. The prophet sees, in three visions, evils com ing upon Israel; he is accused of treason of a prophet: but I am a herdsman plucking by the false priest of Bethel. wild figs. THESE things the Lord God shewed to 15 And the Lord took me when I followed me: and behold, the locust* was form-the flock: and the Lord said to me: Go, ed in the beginning of the shooting up of prophesy to my people Israel. the latter rain: and lo, it was the latter rain 16 And now hear thou the word of the after the king's mowing. Lord: Thou sayest: Thou shalt not prophe 2 And it came to pass, that when they sy against Israel: and thou shalt not drop had made an end of eating the grass of the thy word upon the house of the idol.§ land, I said O Lord God, be merciful, I be- 17 Therefore thus saith the Lord: Thy seech thee: who shall raise up Jacob, for he wife shall play the harlot in the city: and is very little? thy sons, and thy daughters shall fall by the 3 The Lord had pity upon this: It shall sword: and thy land shall be measured by a not be, said the Lord. line: and thou shalt die in a polluted land; 4 These things the Lord God shewed to and Israel shall go into captivity out of their me: and behold, the Lord called for judg-land. ment unto fire; and it devoured the great deep, and ate up a part at the same time. 5 And I said: O Lord God, cease, I beseech thee: who shall raise up Jacob, for he is a little one? 6 The Lord had pity upon this: Yea this also shall not be, said the Lord God. CHAP. VIII. Under the figure of a hook which bringeth down the fruit, the approaching desolation of Israel is foreshewed for their avarice and injustices. 7 These things the Lord shewed to me: and behold, the Lord was standing upon a fruit. trowel. plastered wall, and in his hand a mason's 2 And he said: What seest thou, Amos? And I said: A hook to draw down fruit. 8 And the Lord said to me: What seest And the Lord said to me: The end is come thou, Amos? And I said: A mason's trowel. upon my people Israel: I will not again pass And the Lord said: Behold, I will lay down by them any more. I will plaster them over no more. the trowel in the midst of my people Israel : 3 And the hinges of the temple shall screak in that day, saith the Lord God: many shall die: silence shall be cast in every place. 9 And the high places of the idol shall be thrown down, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste: and I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword. 4 Hear this, you that crush the poor, and make the needy of the land to fail, 10 And Amasias the priest of Bethel sent 5 Saying: When will the month be over, to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying: Amos and we shall sell our wares; and the sabhath rebelled against thee in the midst of bath, and we shall open the corn: that we the house of Israel: the land is not able to may lessen the measure, and increase the bear all his words. sickle, and may convey in deceitful balances, 11 For thus saith Amos: Jeroboam shall 6 That we may possess the needy for modie by the sword:† and Israel shall be car-ney, and the poor for a pair of shoes; and ried away captive out of their own land. may sell the refuse of the corn? 12 And Amasias said to Amos: Thou seer, go, flee away into the land of Juda: and eat bread there, and prophesy there. 13 But prophesy not again any more in Bethel because it is the king's sanctuary; and it is the house of the kingdom. 7 The Lord hath sworn against the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget all their works. 8 Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein; and rise up altogether as a river, and be cast 14 And Amos answered, and said to Ama-out, and run down as the river of Egypt? sias: I am not a prophet;‡ nor am I the son 9 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that the sun shall go The locust, &c. These judgments by down at mid-day; and I will make the earth locusts and fire, which, by the prophet's in- dark in the day of light: tercession, were moderated, signify the for- 10 And I will turn your feasts into mournmer invasions of the Assyrians under Phuling, and all your songs into lamentation: and Teglathphalasar, before the utter deso- and I will bring up sackloth upon every back lation of Israel by Salmanasar. of yours, and baldness upon every head: Jeroboam shall die by the sword. The prophet did not say this; but that the Lord a prophet by education: nor is prophesying would rise up against the house of Jeroboam my calling or profession: but I am a herdswith the sword: which was verified, when man, whom God was pleased to send hither Zacharias the son and successor of Jeroboam to prophesy to Israel. was slain by the sword, 4 Kings, xv. 10. The house of the idol, viz. of the calf, * I am not a prophet. That is, I am not worshipped in Bethel. and I will make it as the mourning of anfven, and hath founded his bundle upon the only son, and the latter end thereof as a earth: who calleth the waters of the sea, bitter day. and poureth them out upon the face of the 11 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord: earth; the Lord is his name. and I will send forth a famine into the land 7 Are not you as the children of the Ethinot a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water,opianst unto me, O children of Israel, saith but of hearing the word of the Lord. the Lord? did not I bring up Israel out of 12 And they shall move from sea to sea, the land of Egypt; and the Palestines out and from the north to the east: they shall of Cappadocia, and the Syrians out of Cygo about seeking the word of the Lord, and rene? shall not find it. 8 Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are 13 In that day the fair virgins and the upon the sinful kingdom: and I will destroy young men shall faint for thirst. it from the face of the earth: but yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the Lord." 14 They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say: Thy God, O Dan, liveth: and the way of Bersabee liveth: and they shall fall, and shall rise no more. CHAP. IX. The certainty of the desolation of Israel: the restoring of the tabernacle of David: and the conversion of the Gentiles to the church, which shall flourish for ever. 9 For behold, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, as corn is sifted in a sieve: and there shall not little stone fall to the ground. a 10 All the sinners of my people shall fall by the sword: who say: The evils shall not approach, and shall not come upon us. SAW the Lord standing upon the altar: 11 In that day I will raise up the taberand he said: Strike the hinges, and let nacle of David, that is fallen: and I will the lintels be shook: for there is covetous- close up the breaches of the walls thereof, ness in the head of them all; and I will slay and repair what was fallen: and I will rethe last of them with the sword: there build it as in the days of old: shall be no flight for them; they shall flee; 12 That they may possess the remnant of and he that shall flee of them shall not be Edom, and all nations, because my name is delivered. invoked upon them; saith the Lord that doeth these things. 2 Though they go down even to hell, thence shall my hand bring them out: and though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down. 13 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when the ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that 3 And though they be hid in the top of soweth seed: and the mountains shall drop Carmel, I will search, and take them away sweetness, and every hill shall be tilled. from thence and though they hide them- 14 And I will bring back the captivity of selves from my eyes in the depth of the my people Israel: and they shall build the sea, there will I command the serpent, and abandoned cities, and inhabit them and he shall bite them. they shall plant vineyards, and drink the 4 And if they go into captivity before wine of them; and shall make gardens, and their enemies, there will I command the eat the fruits of them. And I will plant sword, and it shall kill them. And I will them upon their own land: and I will no set my eyes upon them for evil, and not for more pluck them out of their land, which I good. have given them, saith the Lord thy God. 5 And the Lord the God of hosts is he who toucheth the earth, and it shall melt and all that dwell therein shall mourn: and it shall rise up as a river, and shall run down as the river of Egypt. 6 He that buildeth his ascension in hea * His ascension. That is, his high throne. His bundle. That is, his church, bound up together by the bands of one faith and communion. † As the children of the Ethiopians. That is, as black as they, by your iniquities. + Shall overtake, &c. By this is meant the great abundance of spiritual blessings; which, as it were, by a constant succession shall enrich the church of Christ. 365 PROPHECY OF Abdias, whose name is interpreted the servant|gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem; thou of the Lord, is believed to have prophesied also wast as one of them. about the same time as Osee, Joel, and|| 12 But thou shalt not look on in the day Amos: though some of the Hebrews, who be-of thy brother, in the day of his leaving his lieve him to be the same with Achab's stew-country: and thou shalt not rejoice over ard, make him much more ancient. His the children of Juda, in the day of their prophecy is the shortest of any in number of destruction: and thou shalt not magnify thy words; but yields to none, says St. Jerom, mouth in the day of distress. in the sublimity of mysteries. It contains but one chapter. 13 Neither shalt thou enter into the gate of my people in the day of their ruin: neither shalt thou also look on in his evils in The destruction of Edom for their pride, and the day of his calamity: and thou shalt not the wrongs they did to Jacob: the salva-be sent out against his army in the day of his desolation. tion and victory of Israel. 14 Neither shalt thou stand in the HE vision Abdias. Thus saith : Lord God of Adomas we have the ways to kill them that flet, and the cross not shut up them that remain of him in the day of tribulation. rumour from the Lord: and he hath sent an 3 The pride of thy heart hath lifted thee up, who dwellest in the clefts of the rocks, and settest up thy throne on high: who sayest in thy heart: Who shall bring me down to the ground? 4 Though thou be exalted as an eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars; thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord. upon 15 For the day of the Lord is at hand be done to thee: he will turn thy reward all nations: as thou hast done, so shall upon thy own head. it 16 For as you have drunk upon my holy mountain, so all nations shall drink continually: and they shall drink and sup up: and they shall be as though they were not. 17 And in mount Sion shall be salvation, and it shall be holy: and the house of Ja cob shall possess those that possessed them. 18 And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau stubble: and they shall be 5 If thieves had gone in to thee, if rob-kindled in them: and shall devour them: bers by night, how wouldst thou have held and there shall be no remains of the house thy peace? would they not have stolen till of Esau; for the Lord hath spoken it. they had enough? if the grape-gatherers 19 And they that are toward the south, had come in to thee, would they not have shall inherit the mount of Esau; and they left thee at the least a cluster? 6 How have they searched Esau, how have they sought out his hidden things? 7 They have sent thee out even to the border: all the men of thy confederacy have deceived thee: the men of thy peace have prevailed against thee: they that eat with thee, shall lay snares under thee there is no wisdom in him. 8 Shall not I in that day, saith the Lord, destroy the wise out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau ? 9 And thy valiant men of the south shall be afraid, that man may be cut off from the mount of Esau. that are in the plains, the Philistines: and they shall possess the country of Ephraim, and the country of Samaria: and Benjamin shall possess Galaad. 20 And the captivity of this host of the children of Israel, all the places of the Chananites even to Sarepta: and the captivity of Jerusalem that is in Bosphorus, shall possess the cities of the south. 21 And saviours shall come up into mount Sion, to judge the mount of Esau: and the kingdom shall be for the Lord. *Thou shalt not look, &c. or thou shouldst not, &c. It is a reprehension for what they 10 For the slaughter, and for the iniqui- had done, and at the same time a declaraty against thy brother Jacob, confusion shall tion that these things should not pass uncover thee; and thou shalt perish for ever. punished. Thou shalt not magnify thy mouth. 11 In the day when thou stoodest against That is, thou shalt not speak arrogantly ahim, when strangers carried away his army gainst the children of Juda as insulting them captive, and foreigners entered into his in their distress. |