Amos 1:1-3 The words of Amos, who was among the herdmen 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 will roar from Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem and the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn and the top of Carmel shall wither. Thus says God; For three transgressions of Damascus and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron.

Amos 1:13 Thus says God: For three transgressions of the children of Ammon and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because they have ripped up the women with child of Gilead, that they might enlarge their border.

Ravaged as they went through other nations, killing all who may be in their way, all in order to expand their territory and steal lands of others. Some of the ancient peoples way back then were cruel and got crueler with subsequent generations:.Jeremiah 16:12.

Amos 2:6-8 Thus says God; 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. They pant after the dust of the Earth on the head of the poor. They turn aside the way of the meek and a man and his father will go in unto the same maid, to profane my holy name. And they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their God.

Amos 2:6-8 Thus says God; For three transgressions of Israel.(who is Israel today?).and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof.(God doesn't punish one personally, the automatic law God has set up, that of reaping what one has sown does that; showing here that this is not a way of God, not the way of  high consciousness), because they sold the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of shoes.(they, being slaves to selfishness, abuse others by making them slaves; today, monetary slavery {Amos 8:4-7} and back then, selling them for whatever they can get once they have finished with them; more on the poor amongst us:.John 12:8); Barnes Notes:."The thief who could not repay what he stole was to be sold for his theft {Exodus 22:2,3}, but the law gave no power to sell an insolvent debtor. It grew up in practice. The sons and daughters of the debtor {Nehemiah 5:5-15} or his wife and children {Matthew 18:23-35} and even the sons of a deceased debtor were sold:.2Kings 4:1."). They pant after the dust of the Earth on the head of the poor and turn aside the way of the meek.(Barnes Notes:."Oppression of the poor, wronging the righteous, perverting the way of the meek, laid the soul open for any abomination.".Comprised with.Barnes Notes:.And so, they pant or gasp with desire, not being content with having taken from others any little property they had. These greed filled creditors grudged him even into the dust. Covetousness (*), when it has nothing to feed it, craves for what is absurd or impossible. What was Naboth's vineyard to a king of Israel with his 'ivory palace'? What was Mordecai's refusal to bow to one in honor like Haman? What a trivial gain to a millionaire? People covet things in proportion, not to their worth, but to their worthlessness. No one covets what he much needs. Covetousness is the sin, mostly not of those who have not, but of those who have. It grows with its gains, is the less satisfied, the more it has to satisfy it and attests its own unreasonableness by the uselessness of the things it craves for).and a man and his father will go in unto the same maid.(both having sex with the same young woman;.Clarke's Commentary:."They were licentious to the uttermost abomination, for in their idol feasts, where young women prostituted themselves publicly in honour of Astarte, the father and son entered into impure connections with the same female."), to profane my holy name. And they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar.(hypocrites they are, bringing clothes to the church to be given to the poor, while they initiate and/or support policies to grab more from the poor to be used on themselves:.Psalms 53:1, but:.Psalms 10:2).and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their God.

Their God is selfishness, they have yet to learn the lesson of life is to always do good:.Ecclesiastes 3:12.(as from the original)."Know good; rejoice and be glad and do good in your life."

Matthew Poole's Commentary:."To complete their wickedness, they offer their drink offerings in wine which they bought with the fines and pecuniary.mulcts laid on the innocent and guiltless and thus rejoice in their violence, whilst God hates robbery for a burnt-offering."..Amos 5:12.

Amos 2:9 Yet destroyed I the Amorite.(Genesis 15:16).before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars and he was strong as the oaks, yet I destroyed his fruit from above and his roots from beneath.

See on giants.

Amos 3:3 Can two walk together except they be agreed?

Original denotes 'to meet mentally'. Not that every point between you and someone else has to fit with both of you. It simply means to have an underlying.harmony. How?

Amos 3:6 Shall a trumpet be blown in the city and the people not be afraid?.(Jeremiah 6:1).Shall there be evil in a city and the Lord has not done it?.(*)

Amos 3:7 Surely God will do nothing but he reveals his secret unto his servants the prophets.

Amos 3:10 For they know not to do right, says God, who stores up violence and robbery in their palaces.

Why? Because the set up multiversal law is that one reaps what he has sown, unless it's wiped away in Christ, leaving perhaps only a degree remaining in order for something to be learned.

Amos 3:11 Therefore thus says God, An adversary there shall be even round about the land and he shall bring down your strength from you and your palaces shall be spoiled.

Amos 4:1 Hear this word, you kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to their masters, Bring.and let us drink.

Amos 4:1 Hear this word, you kine of Bashan.(Barnes Notes:."fat and wanton cattle such as the rich pasture of Bashan provided in the east of Jordan between Hermon and Gilead and was famed for:.Deuteronomy 32:14; Ezekiel 39:18; figurative for those luxurious.nobles mentioned here; the original word 'kine' or cows, is in the feminine, not bulls, expresses their effeminacy."), that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to their masters, Bring.(bring some wine).and let us drink.

Comprised with Barnes Notes: the word expresses that they habitually oppressed and crushed the poor. They did it not directly, perhaps not knowing that it was being done by the controllers whom they were in league with. They sought only that their own thirst for luxury and self-indulgence should be gratified and knew not, as those at ease often know not now, that their luxuries are continually watered by the tears of the poor, tears shed, almost unknown except by the Maker of both, but He counts willful ignorance no excuse.."He who does through another, does it himself".says a pagan proverb. They were continually oppressing those in low estate and crushing the poor. They crushed them through the continual demand of pleasures of sense, reckless how they were procured, 'bring and let us drink'. They didn't care about others, only themselves.

Amos 4:2 God has sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that he will take you away with hooks and your posterity with fishhooks.

Amos 4:2 The God has sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that he will take you away with hooks and your posterity with fishhooks.

Here we see that they will reap the results of previous actions.

Amos 4:3 And you shall go out at the breaches, every cow at that which is before her and you shall cast them into the palace, saith the Lord.

Amos 4:4 Come to Bethel and transgress and at Gilgal multiply transgression and bring your sacrifices every morning and your tithes after three years.

The writer speaks in irony.

Amos 4:5 And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven and proclaim and publish the free offerings.(original is 'freewill offerings), for this you like to do, O you children of Israel, says God.

Amos 4:6-8 And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities and want of bread in all your places.(no food), yet have you not returned unto me, says God. 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 and one piece of land was rained upon and the piece whereupon it rained not withered. So two or three cities wandered unto one city to drink water, but they were not satisfied. Yet have you not returned unto me, says God. 

Amos 4:9 I have smitten you with blasting and mildew. When your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmerworm.(caterpillar).devoured them, yet have you not returned unto me, says God.

Amos 4:10-12 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 you not returned unto me, says God. I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.(Jude 1:7).and you were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning, yet have you not returned unto me, says the Lord. Therefore thus will I do unto you, O Israel.(who's Israel today?).and because I will do this unto you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel.

Amos 4:13 For lo, he that forms the mountains and created the wind and declares unto man what is his thought.(*), that makes the morning darkness and treads upon the high places of the Earth, God of hosts.(*).is his name.

Amos 5:4-6 For this says God unto the house of Israel, Seek me and you shall live. But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal and pass not to Beersheba, for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity and Bethel shall come to nought. Seek God and you shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph and devour it and there be none in Bethel to quench it.

House of Joseph refers to nation of ancient Israel turning from God to their own ways. God is against those he loves in such a way aas to correct them.

Amos 5:7 You who turn judgment to wormwood and leave off righteousness in the Earth,

Amos 5:8 Seek him that makes the seven stars and Orion and turns the shadow of death into the morning.(Lamentations 3:21-38).and makes the day dark with night, that calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the face of the Earth. God is his name.(*).

Amos 5:9 That strengthens the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.

Amos 5:10 They hate him that rebukes in the gate.(no one likes rebukes, especially those who are smug:.Isaiah 29:21).and they abhor him that speaks uprightly.

Amos 5:11 Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor and you take from him burdens of wheat, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not dwell in them. You have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink wine of them.

Amos 5:12 For I know your manifold.transgressions and your mighty sins. They afflict the just. They take a bribe and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.

Those in control, the authorities you trust, use money to pay lawyers and politicians who have written laws that delay, dissuade, subjugate, entangle and/or repress concerns of the poor:.Amos 2:6-8.

More on the poor amongst you:.John 12:8.

Amos 5:13 Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time, for it is an evil time.

Not wise to fight corrupt authority and, authority that's not corrupt does not need to be fought:.Habakkuk 2:20. Good though to kindly let them know your concerns. Stand up for what rights you do have.

Amos 5:14 Seek good and not evil.(what's evil?).that you may live. And so the God of hosts.(what's this?).shall be with you, as you have spoken.

Amos 5:15 Hate the evil.(*).and love the good.(what's good?).and establish judgment in the gate. It may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.

Amos 5:18 Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! To what end is it for you? The day of the Lord is darkness and not light.

Amos 5:21 I hate, I despise your feast days and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.

'Not smell' refers to (Genesis 8:21; Leviticus 26:31), about God taking no delight in the sacrifices they were offering (which were often burnt and therefore smelled), as they were to many Gods (small 'g', also written as God, all capitals; proper is God). They set up their own feast days which had nothing to do with the feast days God set up. In their assemblies, their feast days were not acknowledged by the true God and are of human, not divine institution:.Isaiah 1:13-15.

Amos 5:22 Though you offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them.

Amos 5:25 Have you offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?

No, they didn't. Their mind was one of constant complaining during those years.

Amos 5:26 But you have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun.(Acts 7:43).your images, the star of your God, which you made to yourselves.

Comprised with.Barnes Notes: God does not say that they did not offer sacrifice at all, but that they did not offer unto 'Him'. The 'unto Me' is emphatic. If God is not served wholly and alone, He is not served at all. He regards not the offering, but the will of the offerer. Some sacrifices were offered during the 38 years and a half, after God had rejected that generation and left them to die in the wilderness; is God cruel?

Amos 5:27 Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus.(and this happened with king Pekah of Israel and king Rezin of Syria taking captives to their respective cities of Samaria & Damascus), saith the Lord, whose name is The God of hosts.

Amos 6:13 You which rejoice in a thing of nought, which say, Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength?

The ego demands that we be the greatest.

Amos 6:14 But, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, saith the Lord the God of hosts and they shall afflict you from the entering in of Hemath unto the river of the wilderness.

Amos 7:2 And it came to pass, that when they had made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, O God, forgive, I beseech thee. By whom shall Jacob arise? For he is small.

Amos 7:5,6 Then said I, O God, cease, I beseech thee. By whom shall Jacob arise? For he is small. The Lord repented.(means to change).for this. This also shall not be, says God.

Amos 7:9 And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.

Amos 7:10 Then Amaziah the priest of.Bethel.sent to Jeroboam II king of Israel, saying, Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words.

Amos 7:10 Then Amaziah.(this was a false prophet individual, not the king of Judah with the same name).the priest of.Bethel.(once a proud city of sacredness 12 miles north of Jerusalem {Genesis 28:19}, today identified with Beitin, 31° 56' N, 35° 14' E, {map}. After Solomon it had turned into a seat of gross.idolatry. Jeroboam I {lived over 100 years before Jeroboam II} chose it as the place for one of his golden calves and his corrupt lying lackey priests:.1Kings 12:29-31; Bethel was originally the royal Canaanite city of Luz:.Genesis 28:19).sent to Jeroboam II king of Israel, saying, Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words.

Bethel was the place God spoke to Jacob at two different times:.Genesis 35:15.

Amos 7:11 For thus Amos said, Jeroboam II shall die by the sword and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land.

2Chronicles 36:10.

Amos 7:12,13 Also Amaziah.(just above).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 Bethel, for it is the king's chapel and it is the king's court.

Amos 7:14 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 sycomore fruit.(a fig tree and it can't stand frost:.Psalms 78:47).

Amos 7:15-17 And God took me as I followed the flock and the Lord said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel; now therefore hear thou the word of the Lord. You say prophesy not against Israel and drop not thy word against the house of Isaac.(you tell me to not do this). Therefore.(but here's what God says).thus says God; Your wife shall be an harlot in the city and your sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword and your land shall be divided by line and you shall die in a polluted land and Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his land.

Amos 8:4 Hear this, O you that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail,

More on the poor amongst you:.John 12:8.

Amos 8:5-7 Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small and the shekel great.(used to be a pound of coffee and a quart of liquid, but now it's in smaller sizes for even more money; truly, there is no end to man's imagination when it comes to devious ways used in fooling the unwary).and falsifying the balances by deceit?.(we can hardly wait to get to our business of cheating others to our gain).That we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea and sell the refuse of the wheat.(give them worthless 'food')? God has sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works.

Amos 8:11 Behold, the days come says 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 God.(because you don't hearken to them anyway:.Jeremiah 44:16,17).

Amos 8:12 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 God and shall not find it.

Amos 8:14 They that swear by the sin of Samaria.(the increasingly corrupt ego pathway, which back in those days involved worshipping their idols, stupidly believing what the nonsensical things their false religious leaders had told them, that of, the idols actually having power of the Gods the idols represented, but of course they were wrong:.1Kings 17:17-24).and say, Your God O Dan lives and The manner of Beersheba lives. Even they shall fall and never rise up again.

Amos 9:2,3 Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them. Though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down. And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel.(a mountain), I will search and take them out thence and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent and he shall bite them.

Amos 9:7 Are you not as children of the Ethiopians.(Genesis 10:6).unto me, O children of Israel? said God. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Syrians from Kir?.(it's God who sets the boundaries)

Amos 9:10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword which say, the evil shall not overtake nor prevent us.

The verse is saying that the evil ones believe that 'nothing will happen to us to prevent us from living as we please':.Jeremiah 44:16,17; 2Peter 3:4; Revelation 3:17; Isaiah 30:10. They have caused people to err. How? They will reap what they have sown.

Amos 9:11,12 In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen and close up the breaches thereof and I will raise up his ruins and I will build it as in the days of old; That they may possess the remnant of Edom and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, says God that does this..(Acts 15:15-17)

Amos 9:14,15 And I will bring again.(means 'to bring out of').the captivity of my people of Israel.(who is Israel today?).and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them and they shall plant vineyards and drink the wine thereof. They shall also make gardens and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, says your God.

....next Old Testament book is Obadiah