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“Hear the word of the Lord, you young men of Basanite” (Amos 4:1), that is, well-fed and fat. The prophet calls the Israeli wives the Bashan (Vasanite) youths: either because they were from Bashan, a pagan country, or because in their shamelessness they were likened to the fierce Bashan youths (heifers). “And you will be cast away to Mount Remman” (Amos 4:3). Instead of houses made of ivory, you will be torn up into high mountains, into the dwellings of beasts. The prophet means the Armenian mountains. “And your requirements shall be brought in the morning, at the season of your tithes” (Amos 4:4). With all this zeal for service, your gods are not able to give you help. “I will set your teeth on edge” (Amos 4:6), because you ate good things, but you did not give thanks for this good deed, and you did not glorify the Giver. “And I withheld the rain from you before the three months of the harvest” (Amos 4:7), in order to punish the three-day tithe offering with a three-month drought. “I sent death against you on the way of Egypt, and beat your young men with weapons, and took your horses captive” (Am. 4:10). The Jews reasoned and said: “On light camels, that is, on light camels, we will be riders” (Is. 30:16). The Lord says through the prophet that they, like their fathers, will be punished, both themselves and their horses will be cut out of their land. I did that “the stench of your rottenness has entered your mouth” (Am. 4:10). God speaks of graves in desert, and about those who were struck there. So the stench of their rottenness will blow on the faces of those who will go with them to Egypt. “Create morning and darkness.” The meaning of these words is this: the Lord is urging the Israelites to repent. For “He who makes the winds” and who commands them to blow and be still, who commands the mountains so that they shake, “who proclaims his glory among men,” this God will turn the dawn into darkness for you. “He rises on the high earth,” that is, on the dust of the earth, tramples both the high and the lowly, “His name is the Lord God Almighty” (Am. 4:13). Such a definition, as the prophet says, was spoken to them by the Lord Almighty, and was fulfilled in the revelation of our Lord. He is the majestic dawn, which illuminated all creation with His light. But the Jews turned this dawn into deep darkness for themselves and did not recognize Christ. “He... is the Lord God Almighty... ascending on high. land." He, the Lord of the universe, condescended to the poor pagans, walked with them, to raise them from the dust and seat them with the princes of His people, with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and drove out the Jews. You might be interested in: