November 04, 2011

Amos 1-1.5

The words of Amos-- who was among the shepherds of Tekoa-- which he saw, concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah King of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash King of Israel, two years before the earthquake.

And he said:

The Lord roars from Zion
and utters His voice from Jerusalem;
the pastures of the shepherds mourn
and the top of Carmel withers.

Thus says the Lord:
"For three trangressions of Damascus,
and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,
because they have threshed Gilead
with threshing sledges of iron.

"So I will send a fire upon the House of Hazael;
and it shall devour the strongholds of Ben-hadad.
I will break the bar of Damascus
and cut off the inhabitants from the Valley of Aven
and him who holds the scepter from Beth-eden;
and the people of Syria shall go into exile," says the Lord.

2 comments:

JR said...

Straightforward. Direct. Something raw and good and clean about Amos.

forrest said...

Your basic karmic bill collector prophetic motif... You've done your raiding; now it's your turn.


We've read about how Hazael became King of Syria... but he's named his own son Ben-hadad, perhaps a name with some religious significance(?)

Anyway, this was how Jonah would have preferred his story to go... but not a way that leaves us much to talk about.