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politic prince, and God enabled him, for the sake of the race of Jacob, to work great deliverances for Israel, and to restore this kingdom to splendour and

power. We find he took the city of Damascus (which was the capital of Syria) and Hamath, both which formerly belonged to Judah; besides a vast extent of country. The particulars of these valiant exploits are unknown to us, having been written in the annals of the kings of Israel, long since lost.

After the death of Elisha, it pleased the LORD to raise up a succession of prophets in Israel and Judah, to give them instructions and exhortations, and to denounce his threatenings against them upon their persisting in impiety; and these he appointed, not only to warn them by word of mouth (as his former prophets had done), but to commit their admonitions to writing, that posterity might see the ingratitude of his people, and all nations, from their crimes and punishment, learn not to do so wickedly.

Those written prophecies contain much of general instruction.

SECTION LXXXI.

PART OF THE PROPHECY OF AMOS.

From Chap. i, &c.

THE words of Amos, who was among the herdmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel, in the days of Jeroboam king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.

Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof: because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes.

That

That pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek:

Hear this word that the LORD hath 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 iniquities.

Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it? Surely, the LORD God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the LORD Gon hath spoken, who can but prophecy?

Hear ye, and testify in the house of Jacob, saith the LORD GOD, the GOD of hosts, that in the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel upon him, I will also visit the altars of Beth-el and the horns of the altar shall be cut off, and fall to the ground..

And I will smite the winter-house with the summerhouse; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end, saith the LORD.

Come to Beth-el, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tythes after three years: and offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with heaven, and proclaim and publish the free-offerings: for this liketh you, O ye children of Israel, saith the LORD GOD.

And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.

And also I 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 it rained not withered.

So

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So two or three cities wandered unto one city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.

I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: when your gardens and your vineyards, and your fig-trees, and your olive trees increased, the palmer-worm devoured them: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith 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 ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.

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I have overthrown some of you as GOD overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have, ye not returned unto me, saith the LORDÍ 1.

Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel; and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy GOD, O Israel.

For lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth; the LORD the Gop of hosts is his name.

For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live: But seek not Beth-el, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beer-sheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Beth-el shall come to nought.

Seek good, and not evil; that ye may live: and so the LORD the GOD of hosts shall be with you, as ye have spoken.

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Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judg ment in the gate; it may be that the LORD GOD of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.

Then

Then Amaziah the priest of Beth-el sent to Jeroboamr king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words.

For thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall die by the sword and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land.

Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there: eat bread, and prophesy there: but prophesy not again any more at Beth-el; for it is the king's chapel, and it is the king's

court.

Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son ; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit; and the LORD took me as I followed the flock, and the LORD said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel,

Then said the LORD unto me, The end is come upon my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more. Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even tomake the poor of the land to fail.

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

Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth 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 I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation, and 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 the end thereof as a bitter day.

Behold, the days come, saith the LORD GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread,

nor

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.

They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth: and the manner of Beer-sheba liveth: even they shall fall, and never rise up again.

Behold the eyes of the LORD GOD are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the LORD.

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.

And Jeroboam reigned in Samaria forty and one years.

ANNOTATIONS AND REFLECTIONS.

Amos is supposed to have begun to prophesy about six years before the death of Jeroboam the second, king of Israel; in the reign of Uzziah king of Judah.

By these extracts from the predictions of Amos, we learn, that the public crimes, for which the Jews were threatened with public calamities, were forsaking and neglecting the worship of GOD; and being guilty of fraud, deceit, cruelty, and oppression. Every nation, therefore, in which such sins prevail, may justly fear God's judg. ments; for this reason every individual should take warning by the prophetic writings, to contribute his part towards a general reformation of the kingdom he belongs to.

SECTION

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