Глава 5

“The house of Israel is fallen, and no one will rise” (Amos 5:1). The kingdom of Israel has fallen, and there is no one to restore it, because the kingdoms are held by military forces, and they are not there. “Even though... from a city where thousands come forth, there will not remain in it an hundred” (Amos 5:3). “Seek the Lord and live” (Amos 5:6). Seek me, your Savior, and you will live. They abandoned the One “Who created Arcturus 1 and Orion” (Am. 5:8), and served gods worthy of disgust, as Jeremiah says: “The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth, let them perish” (Jer. 10:11). “And they turned the shadow of death into the morning” (Am. 5:8), or oppression into freedom, or weeping into joy. “He who gives dominion to the weak over the strong, and exalts the lowly over the high” (Am. 5:9), that is, Hezekiah and his humble and humble people exalt over the arrogant and proud Assyrian king. “The houses are decorated, fellow citizens, and do not move into them.” In the decorated houses that you have built for yourselves for your own pleasure, you will not dwell because of your wickedness, because their thresholds are not blessed by the feet of the poor. The Prophet says this to the princes of the people for oppressing the poor. He repeats the same thing to them when he says: “For this reason he will remain silent at that time” ( Am. 5:11, 13 ); He will free himself from planting (stringing pearls) and creating (malicious intentions), but will gain his soul through repentance, and reward (recreate) himself with alms. “Seek what is good... and the Lord will... be with you” (Amos 5:14). So that they do not say that God hates the world, the prophet cries out: “Love good, and the Lord will be with you.” And also, so that the same thing that was said in mockery of the prophets would not be repeated: “let them quickly draw near... and let the counsel of the Holy One come” (Is. 5:19); where is the anger that was threatened? Amos adds: “Alas, woe to those who desire the day of the Lord,” that is, those who say that the threats of the prophets are in vain, because the word is not fulfilled in practice! “And the day of the Lord ... is darkness and not light” (Am. 5:18), because on this day disasters that you did not expect will meet you for the joy of your holidays, “which I rejected ... and do not smell the sacrifices” ( Am.5:20–21), that is, your offerings and drink offerings. “Take away the voice of your songs from Me” (Amos 5:23). Since the Jews rejected the sacrifices and feasts of the Lord, God rejects their hymns at the festivals, wants, as he says, to silence the voice of the hymns, because with these hymns they organized holidays for their idols. “Have you brought the food of slaughter and the demands of Mi in the desert for forty years?” ( Am.5:25 ) The Lord makes it clear that it was not because of their sacrifices that He squandered blessings on them in the wilderness. They were not even grateful to Him for this, but “took the tabernacle of Moloch” (Amos 5:26), and the tabernacle of their idol Chiun. “I lifted you up like an eagle’s wing” (Exodus 19:4), and the cloud that ascended from the tabernacle of the Lord guided you; and instead of the tabernacle of the Lord, you built for yourself the tabernacle of Moloch, and behind the pillar of fire you made for yourself the star of your god, and worshiped it. “And I will send you beyond Damascus” (Amos 5:27). Now I will not carry you from camp to camp, as in the desert, but I will move you further than Damascus. Since Damascus was for them a house of hope, the Lord says that He will move them further than this house of hope, carrying them like dust driven by the wind. Arcturus is the main star in the constellation Bootes. You might be interested in: