How does the lament join seeking God with judgment in the gate?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The lament combines accusations, possible mercy and announced darkness and captivity.

Chapter breakdown

The heading presents a lament for Israel and a call to return. Amos announces that Israel’s house has fallen and will rise no more; the cast-down virgin has no one to raise her. A city sending out a thousand will retain a hundred, and one sending a hundred will retain ten. The call is to seek God and live, rather than Bethel, Galgal or Bersabee. The edition identifies these as idol-worship sites. Galgal faces captivity and Bethel becomes unprofitable; fire threatens Joseph’s house with none to quench Bethel.

Judgment has become wormwood and justice has been forsaken. The maker of Arcturus and Orion changes darkness into morning and day into night, calling sea waters upon the earth. The edition describes Arcturus as a northern bright star and Orion as a southern constellation; it explains destruction “with a smile” as effortless. Those rebuking in the gate or speaking perfectly are hated. Robbing the poor and taking their choice prey brings houses of square stone without habitation and vineyards without drinking their wine. God names crimes, bribes and oppression in the gate. The prudent keep silence in an evil time. Seeking good, hating evil and establishing judgment accompany the possibility—not an assurance—of mercy for Joseph’s remnant.

Wailing fills streets and vineyards as God passes among them; husbandmen and skilled lamenters are summoned. The desired day of the Lord is darkness, pictured by escape from a lion into a bear, or entry into a house where a serpent bites the hand resting on the wall. God rejects festivities, assemblies, holocausts, gifts, vows of fat beasts, songs and harp canticles. Judgment is to be revealed as water and justice as a mighty torrent.

The wilderness sacrifice question concerns forty years. The edition says no sacrifices were offered there except at the tabernacle’s initial dedication. The text names a tabernacle for Moloch, idol images and a self-made god’s star; the edition connects these with the Moabite episode in Numbers 25. God announces captivity beyond Damascus.

The story inside

The remnant’s mercy remains a possibility. Rejected songs precede judgment as water. The edition preserves a wilderness-sacrifice exception.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The remnant’s mercy remains a possibility.
2
Rejected songs precede judgment as water.
3
The edition preserves a wilderness-sacrifice exception.

Test your recall

What destination is named for captivity?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 100724–100732
5:4. For thus saith the Lord to the house of Israel: Seek ye me, and you shall live. 5:5. But seek not Bethel, and go not into Galgal, neither shall you pass over to Bersabee: for Galgal shall go into captivity, and Bethel shall be unprofitable. Bethel,—Galgal,—Bersabee.... The places where they worshipped their idols.
Lines 100740–100751
5:8. Seek him that maketh Arcturus, and Orion, and that turneth darkness into morning, and that changeth day into night: that calleth the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The Lord is his name. Arcturus and Orion.... Arcturus is a bright star in the north: Orion a beautiful constellation in the south. 5:9. He that with a smile bringeth destruction upon the strong, and waste upon the mighty. With a smile.... That is, with all ease, and without making any effort.
Lines 100756–100766
5:11. Therefore because you robbed the poor, and took the choice prey from him: you shall build houses with square stone, and shall not dwell in them: you shall plant most delightful vineyards, and shall not drink the wine of them. 5:12. Because I know your manifold crimes, and your grievous sins: enemies of the just, taking bribes, and oppressing the poor in the gate. 5:13. Therefore the prudent shall keep silence at that time, for it is an evil time.
Lines 100794–100804
5:21. I hate, and have rejected your festivities: and I will not receive the odour of your assemblies. 5:22. And if you offer me holocausts, and your gifts, I will not receive them: neither will I regard the vows of your fat beasts. 5:23. Take away from me the tumult of thy songs: and I will not hear the canticles of thy harp. 5:24. But judgment shall be revealed as water, and justice as a mighty torrent.
Lines 100806–100818
5:25. Did you offer victims and sacrifices to me in the desert for forty years, O house of Israel? Did you offer, etc.... Except the sacrifices that were offered at the first, in the dedication of the tabernacle, the Israelites offered no sacrifices in the desert. 5:26.But you carried a tabernacle for your Moloch, and the image of your idols, the star of your god, which you made to yourselves. A tabernacle, etc.... All this alludes to the idolatry which they committed, when they were drawn away by the daughters of Moab to the worship of their gods. Num. 25.