Amos 8 · The Lantern

The Basket of Summer Fruit

Thus has the Lord GOD showed to me: and look a basket of summer fruit.

And he said, Amos, what do you see? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the LORD to me, The end has come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.

And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, says the Lord GOD: there shall be many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them forth with silence.

Hear this, O you that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail,

Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell grain? and the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?

That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yes, and sell the refuse of the wheat?

The LORD has sworn by the excellence of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works.

Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwells therein? and it shall rise up wholly as a flood; and it shall be cast out and drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.

And it shall happen in that day, says the Lord GOD, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day:

And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and its end as a bitter day.

Let us keep [the Feast of Annunciation] with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. From ancient times Israel kept their festival, but then it was with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, of which the prophet says, "I will turn their feasts into afflictions and lamentation and their joy into shame." But our afflictions our Lord has assured us he will turn into joy by the fruits o…

Suspended, then, and fastened to his cross Christ cried out to God the Father in a loud voice and willingly laid down his life. In that same hour there was an earthquake, and the veil of the temple that separated the two tabernacles was cut in two, and the sun was suddenly withdrawn, and from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness.

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:

It is prophesied, "Their young men will die by the sword, and their sons and daughters will perish in famine." Those who hindered Jesus from teaching have not simply perished by the sword. But now, after the advent of the Lord, a more profound famine has come upon them.

We harm both soul and body if we are guilty of lack of moderation to them both by fattening one beyond need or by causing them to waste away from starvation.… The Lord of all once admonished the Jewish people … by way of extreme indignation in the words, "I will deal you not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the Word of the Lord," to teach us tha…

(Verse 11, 12) Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will send forth (Vulgate: send) a famine upon the land: not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the word 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.

And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run back and forth to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.

In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.

They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Your god, O Dan, lives; and, The manner of Beersheba lives; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.

Amos8

The Basket of Summer Fruit