-Judah-

…Uzziah the king was a leper unto the day of his death, and lived in a separate house, being a leper; for he was cut off from the house of the LORD: and Jotham* his son was over the king's house, judging the people of the land.

-Amos-

The words of Amos, who was among the herds men of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam II …king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. He said, " ‘This says the LORD; For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment of it; because they have despised the law of the LORD, and have not kept his commandments, and their lies caused them to error, after the way their fathers have walked: But I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.

" ‘This says the LORD; For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment of it; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes…and a man and his father will go in unto the same maid, to profane my holy name.

" ‘And they lay themselves down upon clothes taken in pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god. Yet destroyed I the Amorite 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.

" ‘Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you forty years through the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite. And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites. Is it not even this, O you children of Israel? Says the LORD. But you gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying, "prophesy not". Look, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves.

" ‘Hear this word that the LORD has spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your sins. Can two walk together, except they are agreed?

" ‘Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he reveals his secret unto his servants the prophets.

" ‘Publish in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria, and behold the great tumults in the midst of it, and the oppressed in the midst of it. For they know not to do right, says the LORD, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces.

" ‘Therefore this says the Lord GOD; an adversary there shall be even round about the land; and he shall bring down your strength from you, and your palaces shall be destroyed.

" ‘Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to their masters, "Bring, and let us drink." The Lord GOD has sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you that he will take you away….

" ‘And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have you not returned unto me, says the LORD. And also I have withheld 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…. So two or three cities wandered unto one city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied: yet have you not returned unto me, says the LORD.

" ‘I have stricken you with blight and mildew: when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmerworm devoured them: yet you have not returned unto me, says the LORD.

" ‘I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses; and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils: yet have you not returned unto me, says the LORD.

"‘I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have you not returned unto me, says the LORD.

" ‘Therefore this will I do unto you, O Israel: and because I will do this unto you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel. For this says the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek...me, and you shall live: Seek the LORD, and you shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel.

" ‘Seek good, and not evil, that you may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as you have spoken. Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.

" ‘For, lo, he that formed the mountains, and created the wind, and declared unto man what is his thought, that made the morning darkness, and walked upon the high places of the earth, The LORD, The God of hosts, is his name.

" ‘Seek him that made the seven stars and Orion, and turned the shadow of death into the morning, and made the day dark with night: that called for the waters of the sea, and poured them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name.

" ‘Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord, says this; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, "Alas! Alas!" And they shall call the plowman to mourning, and such as are skillful of lamentation to wailing. And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through you, says the LORD.

" ‘Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, says the LORD, whose name is The God of hosts.’ "

-Israel-

Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam II king of Israel, saying, "Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words. For this Amos says, ‘Jeroboam II shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land.’" Also Amaziah said unto Amos, "O you seer, go, flee…away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there: But prophesy not again any more at Bethel: for it is the king's chapel, and it is the king's court."

Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah…,"This has the Lord GOD showed unto me…. ‘The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.

" ‘Look, the days come, says the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.

" ‘For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth. All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, "The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us."

" ‘Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; except…I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, says the LORD.

" ‘In that day will I raise up the house of David that is fallen, and close up the broken walls of it and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old.

" ‘And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the desolate cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine of it; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, says the LORD your God."

* co-regent

REFERENCES

2 Chronicles 26: 21; Amos 1:1; Amos 2:4-13; Amos 3:1-3, 7, 9-11; Amos 4:1a, 2b, 6-12; Amos 5:4, 6, 14-15; Amos 4:13; Amos 5:8, 16-17, 27; Amos 7:10-14a; Amos 8:1a, 2b, 11-12; Amos 9:9-10; Amos 9:8, 11, 14-15.

CHAPTER 40