Prophet Pearls #9 – Vayeishev (Amos 2:6-3:8)

Prophet Pearls Vayeishev (Amos 2:6-3:8)In this week's episode of Prophet Pearls, Vayeishev (Amos 2:6-3:8), with seven rhetorical questions and a very straight stick, the shepherd prophet draws an unwavering line between cause and effect. Amos’s rebuke of those who “sell the righteous for silver” provides the connection to the Torah portion. But could the sins of Joseph’s older brothers have reaped a 20th century whirlwind? Nehemia Gordon explains this controversial theory related to ancestral sin. Gordon and Johnson also take a look at Amos’s question of two people walking together. An accurate translation of “agreed” confirms the value of common ground while a faulty translation leads to rampant denominationalism. With cause and effect so tightly woven, we’re reminded that it is a sobering calling to minister the counsel of Adonai Yehovah to the world.

"A lion has roared! Who will not fear?  Lord Yehovah has spoken! Who can but prophesy?" (Amos 3:8)

I look forward to reading your comments!

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Prophet Pearls #9 - Vayeishev (Amos 2:6-3:8)

You are listening to Prophet Pearls with Nehemia Gordon and Keith Johnson. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon's Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.

Keith: Shalom chaverim shelanu! That means “Peace to you, our friends,” in Hebrew. This is Keith Johnson with Nehemia Gordon, ready to take another peek into the Prophets to not only see, but we are sure we’re going to find some pearls to share with you. I normally say, Shalom chaver sheli, ata muchan? Are you ready? But I know he’s ready because he’s got his little cup of coffee. And he’s converted me, folks. I’m actually sitting here with Nehemia…

Nehemia: Wait. Keith has been converted? Whoo!

Keith: I’m not drinking coffee. I actually have this chai tea. It’s warm, and I got it. You’ve got your coffee. I’ve got my tea. So I will ask you, ata muchan? Are you ready?

Nehemia: Ani muchan, Keith. I am ready. And actually, I have a confession to make. I’m not drinking Nescafe anymore, now I’m drinking Folgers decaf out of a Starbucks mug that says on it…?

Keith: Changsha.

Nehemia: Changsha, the city in China where I lived for a year.

Keith: Yes. And we are hoping that Folgers will send something to nehemiaswall.com, bfainternational.com for that commercial. May it be.

Nehemia: May it be. Amen.

Keith: Hey, we’re going to get started, Nehemia. We’re actually in the Book of Amos. I’ve been looking forward to this for a while because I love anytime we do a section where I can actually say I’ve been to the place. And you talk a lot about this, but Amos being from Tekoa, which is, I don’t know, 12-13 miles from Jerusalem.

Nehemia: It’s a lot less than that. I think it’s kilometers.

Keith: Yes, 12-13 kilometers, actually, you’re right. But what’s interesting about it is we normally go right to the section, folks are listening to Torah Pearls, which is the section in the Torah. We did The Original Torah Pearls program, and the Prophets section, which is connected. And as much as I would like to be able to say we can go through the entire book of Amos because we could do seriously a series on this book and it would take us…

Nehemia: Yes, for sure. I could spend the whole time just in one verse.

Keith: Absolutely. We could. But what’s interesting about it is a little context, if I can. Having been there, and when you open up Amos and you look at the first verse, you hear about Amos, who was a shepherd. And the reason I want to start with this is because I think it’s really kind of related. It says in Amos chapter 1. Folks, we’re going to be going to Amos chapter 2 verse 6, but to just start out a little bit in this first verse, it says, “The words of Amos, one of the shepherds of Tekoa. What he saw concerning Israel two years before the earthquake,” and then it goes on to say the actual time. So it actually gives us the context of when he was prophesying, where he was prophesying, and not only that, the life circumstance he was in. He, it says, was a shepherd. Now, here’s the thing that people can go back and forth, but I think what’s amazing about it is that God can choose whoever He wants, whenever He wants to give them the ability for them to see and to hear, and to speak through him. I just think it’s really interesting, and we’ll talk about this later, that the person that’s prophesying, it’s clearly saying that he was a shepherd.

Nehemia: Yes, absolutely. And part of the point of him being a shepherd is that he’s not a professional prophet, and that comes up later in chapter 7. Now, first of all, let’s just give some more perspective. Israel’s not that big of a country. I remember I used to sit in my classes at Mount Scopus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which is the northeastern corner of modern-day Jerusalem. And I could look out my window in one direction of the classroom, and I would see Herodion, which was a summer palace built by Herod. And that palace is right next to Tekoa, meaning when you’re seeing Herodion, you’re essentially seeing Tekoa, where Amos was from. And in the other direction, I could look out and I could see King Hussein’s palace. He was the king of Jordan who built the palace there just before the Six Day War and never finished it, so it was left as a skeleton. And that is the biblical site of Gibeah, where Saul was from.

So imagine, Saul is in Benjamin and I can see that in one direction. In the other direction, I can look and I can see what is the heart of Judea, the heart of the tribe of Judah, which is Tekoa. And I look out in a third direction and I can see Transjordan, which is the area of the tribe of Gad, and today the Kingdom of Jordan. So you get in a strategic location like that, like Mount Scopus, and you can really see the geography and really appreciate it.

And here’s the interesting thing; he was from the south. He was a southerner. He was a southern boy. But he went and he was the opposite of the Prophet we spoke about last week, Hoshea, who was a northern prophet and mainly prophesied to the north. Amos was from the south but also prophesied to the north. And that’s what comes out in Amos chapter 7.

There’s this encounter with this false prophet named Amatziah, Amaziah, and his name means “Yah strengthens me,” or “Yehovah make me a brave.” But he was a false prophet in the name of Yehovah. And it’s in verse 12, “And Amaziah said to Amos, ‘Seer, go and flee you to the land of Judah! And eat there, and prophesy there. But don’t come any more to prophesy in Beit El.’” Now, why Beit El? Beit El was at the southern end of the kingdom of Israel. Remember there were two kingdoms, ten tribes in the north, and two tribes in the south. And the southern end of the kingdom, the main sanctuary in the south of the northern kingdom was Bethel. And he’s saying, “Look, go and prophesy in your kingdom. We don’t need you here, you foreigner. Get out of here.” “And Amos answered and said to Amaziah, ‘I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet; but I am a cow herder and a gatherer of sycamores.’” I love that verse, one of the greatest verses in the Bible. And his point is, “I didn’t come here to eat, I came here to speak the Word of God.”

Keith: Amen. And so that’s who we’re talking about. There are so many wonderful verses that we could spend our time with, but we are limited by both time and context that the Prophet Pearls section starts in Amos chapter 2 verse 6. But there’s no way that we can actually do what we’re doing without making some reference back and forth throughout the book. I mean that’s always going to be the case.

So let me go ahead and start reading if it’s okay in 2:6. And I’m reading from the NASB right now. I sometimes use the NIV, sometimes the NASB. Sometimes I look at my Hebrew, I actually have my Hebrew Bible, my NIV, my NASB. And look, Nehemia’s not the only one with a computer right now, but he’s the fastest tapper in all of the kingdom of computer tapping. He’s amazing how fast he can find stuff.

Nehemia: Now you said I converted you, but you didn’t tell the people the truth about how I lost you. You’ve gone over to Macintosh.

Keith: That is another discussion, folks. I have had a computer crisis. In fact, it’s taken a long time to be able to even get to this place. Let’s get into the Bible study if we can. “Thus sayeth the LORD,” or Yehovah, “For three transgressions of Israel and for four I will not revoke its punishment,” it’s an italicized word here, Nehemia. And then it says why. “Because they sell the righteous for money and the needy for a pair of sandals.” When I looked at the phrase, the thing that hit me right away was just to ask the question, “Where do we see that phrase?” And it’s interesting you can go…

Nehemia: What phrase?

Keith: “For three transgressions of Israel and for four,” one of the things that hit me, if I can just share this very quickly, is that if we look ahead of time, there’s this phrase that He keeps using, “For three transgressions and for four.” And then he does this, this is actually starting in one verse two, first, he hits with Damascus, then he hits with Gaza, then Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab. And then by the time we get to chapter 2 verse 6, it kind of switches. So I want to give context before you comment on this. So he’s talking to these people. So how does he get their attention? First, he says, “Hey, for those people in Damascus and those people in this place and for those people in that place.” So they’re like, “Yes! For those people, yes, that’s just what’s going to happen. Yes, that’s what going to happen.” And then he says, “Now, for Israel.”

Nehemia: Right. And really what it is, it’s human psychology. It’s so much easier to see somebody else’s problems.

Keith: Exactly.

Nehemia: So first he gives a long list of this is what these people did and what those people did, and the Israelites hearing are like, “Yes! Those people! Oh, wait, us? Oh.”

Keith: Yes. And that’s where we’re getting to. And so what I liked, and I just want to share this very quickly, and then you can comment, I was just looking at the idea of the phrase. And so when I looked at the phrase, it’s verse number 6, just a really quick thing in - in Proverbs 30:15 it says, “The leech has two daughters, ‘Give, give.’ There are three things that will not be satisfied, four that will not say, ‘Enough.’” And then Proverbs 30:21, “Under three things the earth quakes, under four it cannot bear up.” And if you remember a couple of times ago, we were talking about this sort of…?

Nehemia: Yes, in the story of Solomon and Adoniyahu… Adoniyahu was the third son and then Solomon was the fourth son. So this is a way of Hebrew thinking. It’s called the graduated numbers. In Hebrew, we call it mispar medurag, and it’s often 3-4. But it also can be 1-2, 6-7, 1,000-10,000. Let me just give you an example of 1-2, which if you don’t know, people come up with all kinds of bizarre interpretations because they don’t understand this Hebrew way of thinking.

This is in Psalm Chapter 62 verse 11 in the English, 12 in the Hebrew, “God has spoken once, twice I have heard this - that power belongs to God.” And people come along and they say, “Wait a minute, did he speak once or twice?” So they’ll say, “He spoke once, but He had two different meanings.”

No! This is the graduated number. It simply is the Hebrew way of expressing two in a sort of poetic way. And again, Job 33:14, “For God may speak in one way or in another,” it says in English, “Yet man does not perceive it.” In Hebrew, it says, “God speaks in one way, and in two, man does not perceive it.” So there it’s really two.

This is throughout Hebrew literature, this kind of structure. One of the really famous ones that people get so confused by, and they come up with all kinds of bizarre theories, is in Deuteronomy 16. I’m sure we talked about it in the original Torah Pearls, but I’ll just reiterate it here real quick. It’s talking about Chag Hamatzot, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which we know from a whole bunch of other passages is seven days. And then here in Deuteronomy 16, it says, “Six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a sacred assembly to Yehovah your God.” And so some people have come along and said, “Oh, you only eat unleavened bread for six days and the seventh is this feast. But what’s going on here? It’s seven in other places.” This is just the Hebrew way of expressing seven. It’s the graduated number 6-7, 3-4. So if you ask how many of these sins does Israel have? The answer is four.

Keith: And that’s actually what we see - when we go through the section – again, those that are interested, I hope that you will look at the context for Amos, and you’ll read those. But when we get to this one, the first one that comes up, and check me on this, so the first one that comes up, it says, “What are the four things?” It says, “Because they sell the righteous for money and the needy for a pair of sandals.”

Now, when I read that verse, I’m thinking there’s got to be something to this that’s not just here with Amos. You, for example - and I bring this as context, Nehemia, I taunt you about this all the time. How many years did you spend in the synagogue listening to the prophet portions connected to the Torah portion?

Nehemia: Oh, quite a number.

Keith: You mean a lot of years?

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: To the point even when you were young when you were a young teenager, could you start to be able to…?

Nehemia: So actually, it was even more than that, because what would happen is there would be these… Shabbat morning, Saturday morning, there’d be like these two-hour prayer services. And in that two-hour prayer service, they’d do a bunch of things, most of it was prayers. But it would include reading from the Torah and reading from the Prophets. And I won’t lie, I was really bored by the prayers, and so I would crack open the little reader, and I would be reading the sections in the Torah and the Prophets because the prayers, I’m like, well, that’s not the Word of God. And what’s the point of me reciting the same thing week after week after week? That’s at least how I felt. And so I preferred to read the Word of God than to recite the words of men. So I spent a lot of time studying these things.

Keith: Well, here’s the thing. No matter how you want to interpret it, would you agree that this is a phrase that’s dealing with the oppression of the poor?

Nehemia: Oh, absolutely. And every time I read this I learn new things.

Keith: Yes. So for me, when I read this, there’s a theme that goes throughout the Bible regarding the oppression of the poor.

Nehemia: Absolutely. That’s a central theme.

Keith: And that’s a central theme that he’s bringing up here, which I think is really interesting because I just get this concept in my mind that God is not up in heaven unaware of what’s happening. In fact, it’s the exact opposite. He is aware of what’s happening at every level of society, from those that have been set aside, like the orphan, or the widow, or the person who doesn’t have food. We’re going to talk about this in this passage, but it actually is encouraging to me that the God that we serve, and I can say this, it’s not just… here’s the word of the Lord for what’s coming the day of the Lord, but rather here’s the word of the Lord for what’s happening right in your own community or right in your own situation. That’s what Amos, obviously, is dealing with here. Now, the next verse…

Nehemia: Whoa. The next verse? No, we should to spend the whole time on this verse.

Keith: Go ahead.

Nehemia: This is a really important verse. So we always have to ask the question, sometimes maybe we forget. We always have to ask the question why did the people - and again, it’s tradition - but why did the people who established the tradition choose this section for the Torah portion? Do you have an answer, Keith?

Keith: Give us an answer. I mean, when I read the story and I’m hearing about Joseph and I’m hearing about all these things…

Nehemia: Yes! Genesis 37:1 through 40:23 is Vayeishev, the Torah portion for this week, and it’s about a righteous man being sold, and he’s being sold to the Egyptians. And that’s exactly why they chose this section, really because of this one phrase, “For three transgressions of Israel, for four, I will not revoke it: Because they have sold for silver those whose cause was just,” that’s in the JPS.

King James, “Because they sold the righteous for silver,” and in Hebrew it says, tzadik. “They sold the righteous man for silver.” And so the rabbis read this, or ancient Jews read this, and they said, “We’re not allowed to read from the Torah portion because the Greeks will kill us if we do. So if we read this section, everyone will remember the Torah portion because it mentions a righteous man being sold for silver.” And obviously, in the original context of Amos, the righteous man is whoever the poor was in the land at the time. It wasn’t a specific righteous man. It’s what we call the collective singular. But in their minds, using the principle of association, they said that righteous man was Joseph.

Keith: You have to read the story of Joseph. When you read the story of Joseph and you get a chance to see…

Nehemia: Now, here’s something really interesting to me, which is selling a righteous man for silver. It’s almost like a footnote in the history of Israel. But Jewish tradition has taken this to be a really big deal. So much so, that there were these 10 rabbis who were put to death by the Romans during the Hadrianic persecutions, roughly around the time of Bar Kokhba, 132-135 AD, and it ended in 138 with the death of Hadrian. So these 10 rabbis were put to death.

And some of the rabbis came along and said, “Well, why did they die? They were perfectly righteous men. They shouldn’t have died.” And the answer they gave shocks many people to this very day. And I’m not saying this is true, I’m just saying it makes you think. It makes me think - why did the 10 rabbis die according to this tradition? Because the 10 brothers sold Joseph into slavery, and this was the punishment thousands of years later for that ancestral sin.

And some rabbis, which here I kind of get off the train and say I can’t agree with this, but at least I’m aware of the idea. They’ll say, not only was selling Joseph into slavery resulting in the death of these 10 rabbis, but some rabbis have come along in the 20th century and said the Holocaust in the 20th century was a result of selling a righteous man into slavery. Which even in rabbinical circles is very controversial and people have gotten very upset by that. But I think it’s interesting, the point is we gloss over this, “Yes, they sold him into slavery. We’re done with that.” But it’s kind of a big deal.

Keith: Kind of? It’s a major deal. So let’s move on, if that’s okay?

Nehemia: Sure.

Keith: So it says here, “These who pant after the very dust of the earth on the head of the helpless and turn aside the way of the humble.” And I want to stop there before we go to the next phrase. What image do you get when you see that? I mean that’s what it’s talking about, but is there something that you think of? When I read that I just think, “Are we talking about the poor? Or are we talking about the people that oppress the poor?” Obviously, we’re talking about the poor. Would you agree?

Nehemia: Well, the oppressors are stomping on the poor.

Keith: Exactly. Right. And they’re “panting after the very dust of the earth on the head of the helpless.” I mean, when I read that I was like, “That seems almost a little confusing.” “Also turn aside the way of the humble.” And so these people - and again, I’m using the NASB, feel free to…

Nehemia: Yes, I’ve got to stop you.

Keith: Yes. Give it to us.

Nehemia: So that’s one way of translating it. The way I would translate this, and this a little controversial, but this word “sho’afim,” which can mean panting or blowing wind, can also mean trampling, but only in two of these verses in Amos. This one and on in the later chapter. So then you get with the translation, “Those who trample the dust of the earth, the heads of the of the poor.” In other words, they’re just grinding them into the ground, stomping on them. And then they pervert the way of the meek. And really, it’s another word for poor - what we say is meek or humble, in this context it’s actually poor. So they’re perverting the way of the poor.

So think about what that means. So the poor often are under the influence and control of these rich people, and may want to do the righteous thing, but might be forced in some ways to do evil. And so they’re not just perverting themselves, sinning themselves, they’re causing other people to sin through this economic power they have.

Keith: Can you keep reading this verse, Nehemia, to the end? Because I thought this was something that made me kind of slow down. Would you read the next section?

Nehemia: It says, “And a man and his father will go to the to the girl in order to desecrate My holy name.”

Keith: And when I read that in my NASB it said… and actually, there was an assumption that I made when I read it first, and then when I looked in the Hebrew I saw something different, and you just basically shared what the difference was. It says, “And a man and his father resort to the same girl in order to profane My holy name.” But if I look at, I think it is in Amos in the NIV, something else comes up. Here’s what it says in the NIV, which actually caused my confusion. It says, “Father and son use the same girl and so profane My holy name.” And so when I think of that, there’s sort of an image that comes into my mind that it’s like specifically talking about a father-son. I went back to thinking, “Oh, what’s the Torah admonition on that, etc.?” But when I was looking at it further, something else came out, and I just want to throw this out. It’s something to discuss. Speaking of the father and the son going to the same girl. If we’re thinking in terms of what’s happening…

Nehemia: Can we stop using euphemisms? What’s going on?

Keith: No, I’m saying here…

Nehemia: Tell the people what it really says.

Keith: No, it’s not a euphemism. I’m actually saying what the Hebrew says. “Going to the same girl,” when I’m thinking of that. I thought immediately of, again, in the Torah, Deuteronomy 23:17 - if you can go to that?

Nehemia: Okay.

Keith: It says here, “None of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, nor shall any of the sons of Israel be a cult prostitute.” Now, in terms of what was happening at that time, the Baal worship, all the things that were going on at that time, the father and the son don’t represent... It’s not like a father and a son going in and being with the girl. But rather, the father and the son representing both men and boys, fathers and sons together going to this place where this is actually taking place. So when Deuteronomy…

Nehemia: I would think it literally means the father and son are having relations with the same woman. Because that’s referred to in Leviticus 18 and 20, and in those chapters, there’s this idea of desecrating the name.

Keith: Absolutely.

Nehemia: And so he’s basically taking this concept from Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20.

Keith: Okay. But the idea… what I’m saying is that the father and the son - in other words, in the men of the community, whether it’s father and son literally, or father and son, meaning it’s like talking about what happened in Sodom and Gomorrah - the men of the community. If you had used the phrase, “The father and the son, X”. What would that represent? So in the bigger picture, what’s happening is, collectively, this is what the men are doing. And I mean the next phrase actually goes even further.

Nehemia: Well, just to give people an exact verse… And you’re saying it’s prostitution, and it may be, but it doesn’t have to be. Meaning, it could be even like a father marries a woman, then he dies, and then the son goes and marries the same woman. That also is forbidden in the Torah. Leviticus 18 verse 7 says, “The nakedness of your father or the nakedness of your mother you shall not uncover. She is your mother; you shall not uncover her nakedness.”

Then it says in verse 8, “The nakedness of your father’s wife you shall not uncover; it is your father’s nakedness.” Meaning even after your father’s dead you cannot marry your father’s widow. And vice versa, he can’t come and marry his daughter-in-law, which is what the Canaanites would do. They’d say, “My son died and there’s this girl who…” And we actually have the example of Judah with Tamar, and there, there was an issue of prostitution. She’s was like, “Well, who’s going to marry me? Your son died, another son died.” And finally, she’s like, “I’m going to go for the father in law.” And that’s actually a sin according to Leviticus 18, Leviticus 20. And that’s what I think he’s referring to here in Amos.

Keith: Okay. So 2:8 says - can I go on?

Nehemia: Yes, please.

Keith: “On garments taken as pledges they stretch out beside every altar, and in the house of their God they drink the wine of those who have been fined.” “Who have been fined,” when you look at that, I say, “Okay. So now again…” This is kind of what’s been fun. We did the Torah Pearls.

Nehemia: Which Torah Pearls?

Keith: And when we did the Torah Pearls, we had to read literally every verse. And that’s why sometimes it would take us two hours or two and a half hours. But the blessing of that was to hear the Torah so that when you then hear something that sounds like or that is related to it, your mind goes back. At last for me, my mind goes back. So that’s the question that I would ask is, “Okay, here’s this shepherd who’s hearing the Word of God. “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man to change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Promise and not fulfill?” Numbers 23, whatever that is, something... The point is, He’s not going to change. When He speaks, He’s going to be speaking His word. And even though that might be something fresh for that day, oftentimes it’ll be relating back to what He already said. And so that’s again, when we look at these verses talking about garments taken as pledges, we can look there, the verse is… we might have it right there. Let me just see…

Nehemia: Can we talk about the garments for a minute?

Keith: Absolutely.

Nehemia: And I’m sure we’ve spoken about this in the Original Torah Pearls and other contexts. So the people were really poor, and there’s a commandment in Deuteronomy, it talks about if you take someone’s garment…

Keith: Exodus 22:26, “If you ever take your neighbor’s cloak as a pledge, you are to return it to him before the sun sets.”

Nehemia: Wonderful. Okay. And what they would do is they… and the reason is because he doesn’t have another one. And so they would take the cloak, basically…

Keith: Isn’t this amazing, though? Think about that. So here you’ve taken the cloak, okay, you can do that. But give it back at night.

Nehemia: Right. And that’s because he’s cold. I mean, literally. They didn’t have anything else to sleep with. And what’s really cool, it says… Yes, Exodus 22:26 in the Hebrew. It says, “In what else shall he sleep? Therefore, if he cries out to Me, I will pay heed, for I am compassionate.” And there’s this great ancient Hebrew inscription where it talks about this guy who owed money and the debtor came – and this is written in Paleo-Hebrew from the 7th century B.C. - and he writes this letter to the magistrate saying, “I owed this debt and the guy came and he took my cloak and I need it back; please return my coat cloak.” And maybe he rightfully owes the cloak because it’s collateral, but he doesn’t have the right to keep it. That’s the point. And if we apply that to modern concepts, I mean think about that. Our modern concept of banking and collateral and things like that. It’s a different story.

Keith: Oh, it’s definitely a different story.

Nehemia: And it’s not biblical, that’s for sure.

Keith: Absolutely. Well, it goes further. It says, “On the garments taken as pledges they stretch out beside every altar.” Now, I’m going to tell you, Nehemia, why I’m going back to the previous verse, and we can discuss this.

Nehemia Yes.

Keith: So the next in context it says, “On the garments taken as pledges they stretch out beside every altar.” Now, what does it say in Hebrew in verse 8?

Nehemia: Verse 8 says, “Upon pledged garments, they stretch by every altar. And the wine of fines they drink in the house of their gods.”

Keith: “In the house of their gods,” does it say?

Nehemia: Yes. Or it could be translated, “The house of their god.”

Keith: Let me ask this question, just from practicality. Is he speaking about the house of God at that time that they’re going to be in Jerusalem? Or are they talking about something else?

Nehemia: Oh, definitely not.

Keith: Or are they talking about something else?

Nehemia: When it says, “by every altar,” presumably it’s referring to the high places, which were all over. Dan and Bethel were the two major ones, but on top of every hill and under every leafy tree, they had one of these high places.

Keith: Okay, so I want to throw this out. We don’t usually get into any conflict. We just have a little bit of back and forth. But again, when I’m reading it in context, I’m thinking, “Okay, we’re talking about these garments that are taken. We’re talking about the poor. We’re talking about them doing these things at these altars. We’re talking about them going to the house of their god, which is not the house of God.”

And so in the middle of talking about the poor and what they do with the poor, there’s this phrase, again back to the father and the son. So the issue was, what I was looking at was the fact that, “Okay, so what’s the connection between what it is that’s happening?” The cult prostitute, whatever they’re doing with Baal worship, etc. That’s why I kind of focus on it. And I completely agree in terms of the fathers and the son doing what they’re doing as far as against the Torah. But also in the context, what is actually happening at that time? And what is Amos calling these people to? And we’re going to get to that. But it was kind of like one of those deals where you see a sentence or a phrase sandwiched in between two other phrases.

So here’s the first phrase. The first phrase is, let me see here. Let me just do this. The first phrase is speaking of the poor. This is what’s going on with the poor. This is what’s going on with the humble. Then it says, “A man and his father resort to the same girl,” is what it says in the NASB, “In order to profane My name.” And then it continues, "On garments taken as pledges they stretch out beside every altar.” What altars? Where are these altars? "And in the house of their god they drink the wine of those who have been fined." Meaning, here’s the person that’s lost their materials, their physical things, and they’re continuing to do it. So that’s why I just wanted to throw that out.

Nehemia: And there’s definitely a contrast here between the downtrodden poor and the rich, who are…

Keith: Doing what they’re doing.

Nehemia: Who are living it up at the expense of the poor in an unrighteous way.

Keith: Exactly. Having their way, doing their thing, partying and drinking their wine, and reveling with whoever and however.

Nehemia: And there’s nothing wrong with that in and of itself, except that they’re doing it at the expense of the poor and not taking care of the poor at the same time. Not only are they not taking care of the poor, they’re crushing the poor and extorting their money.

Keith: Now, can I go to verse 9? Verse 9 catches my attention. Why? Because we talked about it before. Whenever I see this introduction when… He says this little phrase, He says, “ve’anochi,” I can’t help but think about, again, the introduction when He uses that phrase. Now, again, we also see “ani,” I am. He uses the word “anochi,” and He does it at the beginning of verse 9 and He does it at the beginning of verse 10. And by the way, a question. Is this also the same 9 and 10 in the Hebrew text? Are they off at all?

Nehemia: Yes, same verses.

Keith: Awesome. So let’s just go to this. “Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them,” Would you be willing to do this? Give us an elevator answer. This is the elevator answer - if you get in an elevator and you’re going up to the 10th floor, and I say to you, “Hey, Nehemia, I was reading in Amos and it says something about he did something to the Amorite. What does that mean, the Amorite? What was this story about?”

Nehemia: The Amorites were one of the main Canaanite tribes. God took Israel out of Egypt, took them through the desert, and then brought them into the land of the Canaanites who had sinned. And we’re actually told in Genesis 15 that the Amorites… that it wasn’t time for Abraham to get the land because the Amorites were in the land and their sin hadn’t been completed yet. And He wasn’t going to unjustly, unrighteously take the land away from the Amorites. But after 400 years, He told them their sin will be complete. I know the future. And then you’ll get their land.

Keith: That is something. It‘s one of the verses that I just have to tell you, it’s like I see God with this clock, and He’s got like, this is when this is going to happen. He knows exactly when it’s going to happen, and every once in a while, He gives us a little hint that in fact, He’s looking at this clock. And so He says their sin is not yet reached its… you know?

Nehemia: Yes, Genesis 15:16

Keith: 15:16, which is an amazing verse, like, “Oh, so you mean there’s something that actually has to happen before the next thing happens? I mean I don’t know. There’s a lot about that.

Nehemia: Right. God’s got a plan.

Keith: Come on with that. But then in the next verse He says, “anochi,” “I’m the one who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” Now you can’t read that and not think about Exodus chapter 20 because what does he say? “I am the LORD your God,” in English, “who brought you from the land of Egypt.” You see this phrase here, and again, it says, “I am the LORD who brought you from Egypt.” Now, I just want to do something. In 2:10, I just noticed this, in my NIV, it says, “I brought you up out of Egypt and led you 40 years in the desert to give you the land of the Amorites.” Referring back to what you just said.

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: But in 2 – oh, man, I cannot find it – a different phrase that they use, I don’t know if it’s the King James version or if it’s the JPS. If you read it in English, it doesn’t immediately remind you of what He says in Exodus chapter 20. But I’m not going to hold us on that. Do you have anything you want to say about that?

Nehemia: No. I always find it really interesting when the prophets are referring back to ancient history of Israel.

Keith: Well, the next part we will have something to say and we’re going to fight to see who gets to talk about it. Okay?

Nehemia: Okay.

Keith: So in the next verse, in 2:11 He says, “Then I raised up some of your sons to be prophets.” He says, “I raised up some of your sons to be prophets.”

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: “‘And some of your young men to be Nazirites. Is this not so, O sons of Israel?’ declares Yehovah.” When I read that, I was like, “Man.” So just from timing, you’ve got Amos speaking about this. But in biblical terms - and you can check this on your computer - but if I’m wrong then I’m going to have to be rebuked on our podcast.

Nehemia: All right. Let’s do that.

Keith: Let’s rebuke me. But I think, Nehemia, just from reading, that you don’t really hear much about the word Nazirite or Nazirites from like Judges, when you’re dealing with Samson, literally, from the time of Samson, after that, between that and the time of Amos, let me know if you can find it in another...

Nehemia: The word Nazirite?

Keith: Yes, Nazirite. Because what the point is that what this showed me - and check before I go too far because it could be embarrassing.

Nehemia: No, you’re right.

Keith: That the idea is that you’ve got this process going, and we hear this wonderful story, amazing story about Samson. And Samson - I’m not going to go into great detail, you can read it for yourself in Judges…

Nehemia: 13 and 16.

Keith: 13 and 16, where God is going to say there’s going to be this young man that is going to grow up and don’t let his hair be cut. He will not drink wine. He’s going to be a Nazirite.

Nehemia: Right.

Keith: And then we see the story, which is such a powerful story. Is it in any of the Prophet Pearls? Do we get to do that one at all, any time?

Nehemia: Oh, yes. I think that one is in there somewhere. I’m not sure.

Keith: Okay. Awesome. Well, what’s interesting is you see that story, and at the end of that story, we don’t hear about another Nazirite until Amos. And that doesn’t mean they didn’t exist.

Nehemia: Right.

Keith: So what He’s saying here is, “And some of the young men to be…” so in other words, it was still happening. It’s just that we haven’t heard the story.

Nehemia: It probably wasn’t a very common thing.

Keith: It wasn’t a very common thing. But I just think it’s interesting that there’s such a big gap. How many years that is?

Nehemia: A whole bunch.

Keith: That’s a bunch of years.

Nehemia: 500-600, something like that.

Keith: So when he said it, it wasn’t like they didn’t know he was talking about.

Nehemia: Well, because it’s in the Torah.

Keith: Absolutely.

Nehemia: It’s in Numbers, is it chapter 6? Yes, chapter 6 for those who want to find the Original Torah Pearls.

Keith: The Original Torah Pearls. So what did they do with these Nazirites, and what they did do with these prophets? Two things, you can talk about this verse, verse 12. They made the Nazirite do what?

Nehemia: Drink wine.

Keith: The opposite of what it was that he was supposed to do. What’s the purpose of the prophet? To prophesy.

Nehemia: To prophesy, yes.

Keith: And he says, “You shall not prophesy!” Now, you brought the verse in Amos chapter 7 where Amos…

Nehemia: He literally said to him, get out of here.

Keith: He says, “Look, I don’t want to hear this. This is not acceptable.”

Nehemia: He actually said, “Go prophesy somewhere else!” Not here.

Keith: Yes, think about that. Now, I just want to stop for a second. Stop me. Is there ever a time where people say, “I just don’t want to hear the Word of God?” Is there a time?

Nehemia: Doesn’t it happen every day?

Keith: I’m just saying. I mean think about that.

Nehemia: Can I share a really controversial story?

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: And this actually happened here in Charlotte, if I’m not mistaken. Somebody told us this story about how she was involved in this church, and it was like, I guess what we call Episcopalian. They’d brought a man all the way from Kenya to preach at the church. He was like the archbishop there of a denomination.

Keith: Yes. I remember the story.

Nehemia: And he’s in Charlotte, he’s at the hotel, they’re about to pick him up and drive him over to the church to speak on a Sunday morning. And they said, “Well, there’s been an emergency meeting of the church council, or whatever it is, and we can only let you speak on one condition - that you promise not to read from the Bible.” Because there was a certain passage that he wanted - that they don’t know whether he was going to read it or not, but they were afraid he could read a certain passage from the Bible. So they said, “You can preach but as long as it’s not from the Bible.” And I heard that I’m like, “How can this even be?”

Keith: Can I go a little further?

Nehemia: Sure.

Keith: There are actually people now, it’s my understanding, that if you read certain passages from the Bible, you can be considered to be at risk in terms of your standing in the community, there are certainly many denominations. I happen to come from a denomination that presently is considered a bit liberal. They’re so liberal they don’t bother me.

Nehemia: You’re from a liberal denomination? What?

Keith: And people say, well, Keith, why are you still a Methodist? I’m still waiting for them to decide if they’re going to kick me out. The blessing for me is I worked extremely hard. Can I just tell you how hard I worked? You know I went to high school…

Nehemia: Now, just understand, you’re a Methodist Elder, and you’re like a layman they appointed.

Keith: No, listen.

Nehemia: Isn’t that what an elder means in some churches?

Keith: No. That might be that, but not…

Nehemia: Okay, but not for Methodist.

Keith: So the United Methodists, I know some people are cringing, why does he got to talk about them? I’m still trying to reach the Methodists, are kidding me? So three years of high school, four years of college, three years of graduate work, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School - I should say it like you say Hebrew University. [imitating Nehemia] I went to the Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.

Nehemia: I don’t say it like that.

Keith: You do say, “I went to the Hebrew University!”

Nehemia: “The Hebrew University of Jerusalem!”

Keith: No, three years there, and then from there, it’s another two years in the process. What I appreciate about the United Methodist process is that there’s accountability. What I don’t appreciate about the United Methodist denomination is they focus more on the book of discipline than on the book, the Word of God.

Nehemia: And the book of discipline is not the Bible.

Keith: No, it’s not the Bible.

Nehemia: It’s some book they wrote.

Keith: In fact, they talk about the rules and the regulations. But again, this idea to tell someone, “Do not speak the Word of God.” And I’m concerned presently, as I see in many denominations, there are fewer and fewer pastors that are opening up the Word of God and preaching the Word of God. They’re being political, they’re having to do all these other things and jump through all these hoops. And there are entire denominations that are saying, “No matter what, make sure that you don’t share these particular things because they’re out of context; it’s old...”

Nehemia: And I heard that if you read, in certain countries, if you publicly… even if you’re an ordained pastor, especially, if you publicly read certain passages from the Bible then you could be prosecuted for a hate crime. And I’m not talking about Saudi Arabia, I’m talking about Canada.

Keith: Really?

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: Wow. Well, in the situation back then they were telling the Nazirites, “Break your vow,” and they were telling the prophets, “Don’t prophesy.”

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: And then He says…

Nehemia: To this very day.

Keith: To this very day. "Behold, I am weighted down beneath you as a wagon is weighted down when filled with sheaves." Who’s weighted down? Who is He speaking about here? What’s going on here, Nehemia?

Nehemia: Let me read you the JPS.

Keith: Okay.

Nehemia: “I will slow your movements as a wagon is slowed when it is full of cut grain.”

Keith: Boy, that’s exciting.

Nehemia: And here is the difference, is it that Yehovah is weighted down? Or is it that He’s going to weigh us down?

Keith: Yes. Exactly.

Nehemia: You’re going to tell my prophets and my Nazirites to defy what they’ve been called to do? Then you’re going to have a hard time.

Keith: Man, oh, man.

Nehemia: And that actually fits the next verse. Meaning, the way you read it makes no sense in the context.

Keith: Read it. Read the next verse.

Nehemia: “‘Flight shall fail the swift, the strong shall find no strength, and the warrior shall not save his life. The bowman shall not hold his ground, and the fleet-footed shall not escape, nor the horseman save his life. Even the most stouthearted warrior shall run away unarmed that day,’ declares Yehovah.” So you’re going to defy My prophets and give drink to My Nazirites - actually, in the Hebrew it says, forced them to drink - then I’m going to remove My protection from you.

Keith: Man, oh, man. Well, there’s a shift here in 3:1. He says in 3:1, “Hear this word which Yehovah has spoken against you, sons of Israel, against the entire family which He brought up from the land of Egypt.” And this is connected, so you can definitely respond to this. But when you hear these words, “The entire family,” and then He says, “You only have I chosen among all the families of the earth.” What do you think of when you hear “families of the earth”? What do you think of?

Nehemia: Well, I think of Genesis 10:11, after the flood where the nations are separated out into 70 different nations, and one of those is the family that eventually becomes Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And that’s actually an image that I grew up with that, it’s really interesting, it’s tradition; it’s not historical. But it’s an interesting image based on this - that before God chose Israel for Mount Sinai, He went to all the other nations of the world and offered them and they rejected it. And as far as we know that actually didn’t happen, but it brings up the point, okay, there’s all these nations… Why wasn’t it the Yanomami of Brazil, of the Amazon rainforest? Why wasn’t the Han of China? Why was it Jacob from Israel, this small little family of shepherds, why was it? And what we’re told in Scripture is because of God’s relationship with Abraham. That there was this covenant He made with Abraham.

Keith: I mean we could go on.

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: People, make sure that you go and listen to where we spoke for like I think it was an hour and a half in the Original Torah Pearls. Because I want to say, Nehemia, and I actually want to take a break if we can, right now before we go into these last six verses, is that one of the things that’s been really interesting is just to see the journey that you and I have been on. And now we’re at this place where we’re doing this, we’re committed right now to doing this for an entire year. But during that year, what do you have going on?

Nehemia: Oh, my.

Keith: In other words, so people are going to listen to you, and I guess I want people to understand this, and I don’t want to make too much of a bigger deal than it is, but it really takes time, it takes effort, it takes energy, it takes resources to do what we’re doing. But this isn’t the only thing that we’re doing. So what else are you doing?

Nehemia: Yes. So I’ve got my ministry, Makor Hebrew Foundation, and the main website is nehemiaswall.com, and we’re doing a lot on that. We’ve got teachings coming out, written teachings and audio teachings, podcasts; a lot of things coming out. We’re doing the monthly Q&A for the trumpeters who are standing with me on the wall. We have what we call the Support Team Studies. And we’re just putting out a lot of information.

One of the things we’re doing is really developing the website, getting the information out there, and it’s pretty much like a full-time job. It’s actually… You know it’s funny, I was talking to someone who has a 9-5 job, and he’s like, “You can work whenever you want.” And I’m like, “Yes, from the moment I wake up in the night to the moment I go to sleep at night, literally.”

Keith: Yes. It’s funny because I’m here with you. For those who don’t know, we’re actually recording this in advance because we’re about to go our separate ways. I’m going to be on the other side of the earth, and Nehemia is going to be we don’t know where. He’s the Wandering Jew. What city will it be next?

Nehemia: I don’t know.

Keith: But we’re here, and we do get to see what we’re doing, and I do get to watch you do. One thing I really appreciate, Nehemia, about what you do, is that you’ve got all this information and you’re finding vehicles by which people can actually encounter the information. So this is not a Ministry Minute, I want you to talk a little bit, if you can, also about the platform by which people can interact with what you’re doing.

Nehemia: And by the platform, you mean the website?

Keith: Yes, not just the website. It’s podcasts…

Nehemia: Yes. Oh, one of the things we have is iTunes, and we’re now putting out this audio blog. And one of the things I do ask people is to go to iTunes and give us ratings and reviews because that really helps get the message out in front of other people. Us recording, and audio no one listening to it, that’s only half of the ministry; the other half is actually getting this message out.

Keith: Well, it’s interesting. There’s a lot of people listening, Nehemia. I think between our website bfainternational.com, and with nehemiaswall.com, we’re at thousands of people that are actually listening. We’re really appreciative. I want to challenge those that are listening to consider something. We’re actually four weeks away from the end of this calendar year, and I’ve made a really big decision in BFA, and that is that I’m not going to chase the train. What does chasing the train mean? Chasing the train means you establish ahead of time what you’re going to do, and then later you try to find out how to pay for it. So we have been doing that.

Nehemia: Like me.

Keith: Yes. We’ve been doing that for this year, and it’s brought amazing results. I want to thank all the people who stepped in to support us through projects that we’ve been doing. The last one of this year, after we’ve done Scripture Bytes, after we’re in the midst of Prophet Pearls, which you and I are doing, obviously, for the next year, is the Hanukkah project, which is actually a few days away - if all goes according to plan - a few days away from being released for everyone to watch. It’s in the spirit of the Christmas special we did last year.

Nehemia: You did a Christmas special last year?

Keith: We did a Christmas special last year. It was huge. Thousands of people saw it.

Nehemia: Really?

Keith: So we believe the same thing for Hanukkah. But I will say something, we did this project, we started doing it without knowing exactly how it all would be taken care of. We are doing it by faith. So I’m actually challenging people, if you would consider this as we end this year, to go to bfainternational.com. If you are a free member, I want to challenge you just to pray about potentially becoming a part of the Premium Content Library. That is a minimum of $9.99 a month that does two things. One, you’re going to get access to everything we have, and there’s now over 50 things going on. But two, it’s going to help us prepare for this upcoming year, where we have some things in the queue, as I call it, that are even more amazing than anything I’ve done before, that we’ve done.

So those that are already free members, consider that. If you’re not a member of bfainternational.com, go to the Academy, you’ll see a little button that says, “Enter the Academy.” And when you enter the Academy, there’s going to be two options. One, you can be a free member. If you’re unable to do anything, please become a free member, because you’re going to get a chance to get email updates and see a whole bunch of things. But if you have the ability to do it, I am sincerely asking you to consider becoming a part of the Premium Content Library, because that’s going to help us help you. It’s going to help us do the things that we’re doing right now, reaching people around the world with good information, inspiration, and revelation; inspiring people to build a biblical foundation for their faith. That is what the website is about, and you can help us do that in this upcoming year.

So let’s do it. My goal is very simple - 300 people. We’ve got thousands of people listening. If 300 people will become Premium Content Library folks, we could start producing something that’s going to be amazing in 2015, while I continue to work with you on Prophet Pearls. So that is my Ministry Minute. Can we continue?

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: Here we go, guys. We’re in Amos 3 verse 1. Can you read it, Nehemia? We just talked about the entire family. The thing that you talked about in terms of being the family God chose, but He chose a small little group and He’s doing this amazing thing. When I read this, I think about, what does the family do? The family ends up being the picture of what God wants for the world, and so how He deals with that family and how that family interacts with the world. The idea is that they would actually be able to reach others, people around the world, with them with that message.

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: But it says here, then this is the hard part, “You only have I chosen among all the families of the earth.” With that choosing comes a great accountability. “Therefore,” and this just seems like a downer. It seems like a downer. “You’re my family. I’ve picked you as My family. I’m going to punish you.” When I read that I’m like, “Wow, maybe...”

Nehemia: Yes, it’s not all roses.

Keith: It’s not.

Nehemia: And it reminds me, this brings me back to Leviticus chapter 10 verse 3, and this is just after the two sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, brought this strange fire, and they were immediately burned up on the spot. And it’s like, what? Wait a minute. We’re the holy Kohanim, we’re the holy priests. Why did this happen? And here’s the answer. It says, “Then Moses said to Aaron, ‘This is what Yehovah meant when He said, Through those near to Me I show Myself holy, and gain glory before all the people.’” So if you want to be holy, you want to be a Kohen, you want to be a nation of priests, there are going to be consequences. You have to glorify God and everything that you do, and if you don’t, then there will be consequences to what you do.

Keith: Oh, man. I’ll tell you something… what do you call it, sobering?

Nehemia: Well, in Deuteronomy and Leviticus, they both have these large sections, which aren’t just the blessing; the Torah is not just the blessing. It’s the blessing and the curse. If you follow it, here’s the blessing; if you don’t, here’s the curse. And so on the one hand, Israel has been chosen to be this light to the nations we talked about in Isaiah.

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: And to be a nation of priests, to minister to the world and teach them about God’s covenant and God’s Torah. At the same time, there’s this awesome responsibility; this very heavy responsibility.

Keith: Amen. This next verse actually, Nehemia, is the key verse for… at least, this is the verse that - how can I say, we’ve preached this verse around the world.

Nehemia: Yes, literally.

Keith: And I actually want to challenge you to help people do something. We’re going to pick the Word of the Week. And this is not an easy Word of the Week. It’s not a simple Shalom, shin lamed mem, it’s Shalom. It’s a little bit more complicated.

Nehemia: Shalom also has a vav.

Keith: The three-letter root. I was giving the three-letter root.

Nehemia: Oh, okay.

Keith: He always corrects me.

Nehemia: Well, there’s a three-letter root here.

Keith: Okay, but it’s not as easy. I want to read the verse if I can.

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: In Amos 3:3 it says, and I want to read it from the NIV if it’s all right. Amos 3:3. I got a phone call from some folks that brought this verse and they challenged me, and it says, “Do two walk together unless” - and they said to me, “Do two walk together unless they have agreed?” And they said to me, “How can you walk with this guy, Nehemia Gordon? He doesn’t think like you. He doesn’t act like you. He doesn’t…” Well, I shouldn’t say that. He doesn’t think like you. Well, actually, you do think… “He doesn’t believe like you.” And they start finding all these things that were different about us, and they challenged me. And you actually had some people challenge you, and I said here’s the verse they’re bringing, Nehemia, “How can we walk together unless we agree?” And you did a radical thing here, you said - and you didn’t even know the answer ahead of time. You in humility said, well…

Nehemia: Let’s just look in the Hebrew and see what it says.

Keith: Let’s look at the verse and see what it says. So could you do two things? One, read the verse. And two, bring the Word of the Week.

Nehemia: Sure. So it says, “hayelchu shnayim yachdav,” can two walk together, “bilti im no’adu.” Literally, without them having met one another. That’s what it literally says, “without having met one another.” And the Word of the Week is no’adu, nun, vav, ayin, dalet, vav. Very easy, Keith, only six letters. Wait, five letters, sorry.

Keith: Five letters.

Nehemia: Nun, vav, ayin, dalet, vav, no’adu. And the root there is yaad, yud, ayin, dalet. Now you know this root. You know it from the word “mo’adim,” mo’ed is an appointed time. And what does an appointed time really mean? It’s a time that you’re set to meet with someone. And then you also have ohel mo’ed, the Tent of Meeting.

Keith: Yes sir.

Nehemia: Which is the same word mo’ed, from the same root, yud, ayin, dalet. So no’adu is the nifal form, for those who know Hebrew grammar, and it’s where you do one to another. No’adu means they met one another. That’s one of the meanings of nifal. It’s like “nilcham,” to enter into battle with someone. So no’adu is they met one another. So now that they know the Word of the Week, what’s the message of this?

Keith: Well, for me, I’ll tell you what happened, for me.

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: First of all, I want to back up and tell you thanks for giving that information to people. There are so many people, more and more people, Nehemia, have been sending notes and messages saying that they want to learn the language. They want to have access to the language. One of the reasons that people have said this is that we’re in week nine of Scripture Bytes, and every single week in Scripture Bytes - if you haven’t heard Scripture Bytes, you go to the front page, you watch it, and what it does it gives you a chance to interact with the actual Hebrew language.

And there’s a thing called Grammar Alert. And Grammar Alert comes up and people say, “Oh, what’s that?” What you just did when you brought that up, it made me say, “What does the word mean, and what does it mean for me?” So the idea of having met one another has me thinking, how do I meet Nehemia? I just call him up and say let’s have a meeting? Or do I try to find that the place of commonality, the common ground where we can meet one another? And that’s exactly what you and I decided. We said, “Okay, there are some differences. There are some different ways that we think, different ways that we believe, but what are the things that are common?” And there’s one thing, 100 percent, no questions asked, that you and I both understand to be important that we’re calling, and that is on the Word of God in its language and its history and its context. And that’s what this entire program is about.

Nehemia: Amen. Now, let’s go back and look back at the King James version, which is what caused your people the most trouble, where it says, “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” So the translator has kind of paraphrased it, and really, what they were getting at is, they can’t walk together unless first they agree to walk with one another.

Keith: Exactly.

Nehemia: Whereas, the way this has been taken in the church that you come from, and by many, is that if you don’t have theological agreement with someone, you can’t spiritually walk with somebody unless you agree with them on matters of doctrine. And the result is 33,000 different Christian denominations based on not only this verse, but the mentality that went into misinterpreting this verse. And really, what it’s about is the exact opposite. So in the context, what Amos is talking about, as we’ll read on we’ll see, is there’s no such thing as a coincidence; that things happen for a reason. You can’t have two people walk together unless they first meet, then they’ll walk together. And he goes and he brings a series of things…

Keith: Tell us what those are.

Nehemia: All right, so let’s go through them. So it’s a series of things where you may look at that and say “There’s nothing to that.” But he’s saying, no, if two people walk together, obviously, it’s because they met. It says, “Will a lion roar in the forest and he does not have any prey? Will the young lion cry out with the voice from his den if he has not captured something?” Meaning if you hear a lion roaring, that’s because there’s some food involved. It’s roaring over the food.

Keith: In other words, if people are walking there’s a reason, they’ve come together and agreed.

Nehemia: They’ve come together on the common ground, and they started walking with each other. It wasn’t a coincidence. And it’s not for no reason that the lion is roaring. The lion’s roaring for a reason. Then it says, “Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where…” the King James says, “where no gin is for him?” I don’t even know what that is. I’m going to read it in Hebrew. “Can a bird fall in a trap upon the earth, and there is no snare?” And the way they would trap birds is they would have these very thin strings and then the bird would stick its leg in there and get caught with the spring of the tree. So it’s saying if the bird’s caught it’s because there’s a snare. Let’s see, where are we now?

Keith: Six.

Nehemia: Yes. “Does a trap spring up from the ground unless it has caught something?” So these things aren’t random events, they’re happening for a reason. Then it says, “When a shofar is blown in the city.”

Keith: Wait a minute, Nehemia. It doesn’t say that. It says, “When a trumpet is blown in a city.”

Nehemia: It does?

Keith: That’s what it says.

Nehemia: In Hebrew, it says shofar.

Keith: So trumpet means shofar?

Nehemia: Not always. There’s also hatzotzra, which is a silver trumpet. It’s a different type in Numbers chapter 10.

Keith: Come on, I’m giving you a softball here. It says a trumpet is blown…

Nehemia: Oh, okay. And there’s also a different type, a yovel, which is like a kudu shofar.

Keith: I love that.

Nehemia: “When a shofar is blown in the city, shall a people not tremble?” What that means is, we think of the shofar as this theological thing, and it is. Meaning, at Mount Sinai, when they heard the voice and they heard the shofar blowing… so it has theological or religious significance. But it also had a very practical significance - when the enemy came you blew the shofar to warn them. And the modern equivalent… it’s funny, in modern Israel, in southern Israel, the equivalent of the shofar, it’s not even a siren. It’s this announcement over the loudspeaker, “tzeva adom tzeva adom.” It’s a very calm kind of thing. But when you hear that you have about 15 seconds till a rocket falls. And there’s a great story I was…

Keith: Tell them what “tzeva adom” is.

Nehemia: Oh, “Color red, color red.”

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: And that’s because, in southern Israel they have been under bombardment from Gaza since 2005, and possibly even 2004. At first, they would have these air raid sirens, and they were on all hours of the day, in the middle of the night, and people were getting very, very…

Keith: Irritated.

Nehemia: Not just irritated, they were getting traumatized by it. And they said, “Look, we’ve got to warn the people, but it doesn’t have to be in a way that traumatizes them. Let it be something calm, and when they hear it they know they’ve got to immediately go to their bomb shelters.”

I was driving through Sderot, which is a city in southern Israel under constant attack from Gaza, even now during this so-called cease-fire, they’re firing rockets on our cities. I was driving through Sderot, and I was telling this to this guy I was with about this “tzeva adom,” and we had the windows down. It was in the spring. It was nice and cool. And he said, “You mean like that?" And I said, “Ha ha, very funny.” He said, “No, I’m serious.” And I stopped talking, because sometimes I can’t hear other things when I’m talking.

Keith: Hello?

Nehemia: And I heard them saying, “tzeva adom.” And I immediately stopped the car, didn’t even take the keys out, put it in park and ran into a bomb shelter, which was a bus stop, which are like reinforced with concrete. It was full of people, and the air raid happened and the missiles fell. The point is that if you hear “tzeva adom” you run to the bomb shelter. It’s an inevitable response.

And so it’s not the shofar here in the sense, in this context. It is and it isn’t. Meaning he wants you to think about the shofar that warns you to repent, which is something throughout the Tanakh. But he also is speaking in the sense of the shofar of, there’s a warning here. Of course, you’re going to tremble because that means the enemy’s coming. And if there’s evil in the city is it not Yehovah who did it?

Keith: Well, here’s the thing, before you get to that last phrase. I can’t believe we’re at the last phrase. When they’re talking about these phrases, it’s like, “I agree.” “I agree.” “I agree.” “I agree.” Last phrase? Eh.

Nehemia: Right. Well, in all these other things, they’re statements that… they’re obviously not coincidences. Like common sense says they’re not.

Keith: Exactly.

Nehemia: And so finally with the last one, right, this is the tie-in.

Keith: This is the culmination...

Nehemia: It says, “im tiheye hara’ah ba’ir,” if there will be evil in the city, “va’Yehovah lo asa?” “And Yehovah didn’t do it?”

Keith: And I’m telling you that’s the part that, for me, when I was reading it, you kind of say, of course. If it’s okay I’m going to read this in the NASB. It says, “Do two men walk together unless…” Of course. “Does a lion…” Of course. “Does a young lion…” Of course. “Does a bird fall…” Of course. “If a trumpet is blown…” Of course. “If a calamity occurs…” and of course, they use the word calamity.

Nehemia: Calamity? Like Calamity Jane?

Keith: Yes. It’s a little bit easier to swallow, the idea that if it’s a calamity.

Nehemia: What does it say in the note? Let’s see this little note you have there.

Keith: Actually, that’s not acceptable as a note. You can’t… This is a different deal here.

Nehemia: You can’t click on the note?

Keith: Not going to click on the note, no. But if you go to the Hebrew, again, I want you to say what it says. Say what it says.

Nehemia: Yes. It says, “ra’ah,” evil. It’s the word for evil.

Keith: Is there another verse, Nehemia, you could bring? Normally, you should have that right there…

Nehemia: Yes, Isaiah 45 if you want?

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: And actually, we talk about both of these things. This verse and the verse were about to bring. Meaning, “The two walked together,” we talk about that in our book, A Prayer to Our Father: Hebrew Origins of the Lord’s Prayer. And then this other verse, we also bring in that same book, which is Isaiah 45. And here it’s talking about…

Here, I’ll start in verse 5, it says, “I am Yehovah, there is none else, besides me there is no God. I engird you, though you have not known Me,” And here he’s speaking to Cyrus. He’s saying I put this armor on you, but you don’t know Me, you’re a Zoroastrian and Zoroastrians believe in two gods. He’s saying, I’m the only one. And it says in verse 6, “So they may know from east to west that there is none but Me. I am Yehovah, and there is none else; I form light and create darkness.” And then this is the JPS, “I make weal and create woe.” But in Hebrew, it says, “I make peace and create evil. I Yehovah do all these things.”

Now, do any of the translations - I don’t remember? Yes, here King James. Here I give credit to King James. “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace and create evil. I the LORD do all these things.” King James version, so they got it right.

Keith: Well, I’ll tell you what I like, actually, people that get confused about, I actually lean into it as I like to say. I actually get excited about the fact that the God that I serve, the Almighty, the one and only, the Creator of the universe, is pretty darn amazing. I mean, there’s no competition. There’s no battle with Him, like some days He wins and some days He loses. The God that we serve is all-powerful.

And that’s why when the prophet comes and hears the shepherd who gets this vision, and he’s bringing this information… Again, you’ve got to read the whole book Amos is an amazing book. But this is just another reminder of who God is. And He’s amazing.

Nehemia: Right. So this is really a heavy statement. And what’s the point of the prophet? His point is, “Look, if evil happens you have to stop and ask, why did this happen? If there’s some national disaster we’ve got to ask, why did this happen? And if all these other things are obvious, it should be obvious to you that Yehovah was involved in this.” And that was the point of saying before, “Look, for those who are close to me, I will be sanctified.” And in this family, there are going to be consequences for your actions.

And then verse 7 is one of the most important verses of the Bible, one of my favorite verses of the Bible, my favorite 500. It says, “Ki lo ya’aseh Adonai Yehovah davar,” “Lord Yehovah will not do a matter,” “ki im gala sodo el avadav nevi’im,” “unless He has revealed His counsel to His servants the prophets.”

Keith: Yes, that’s it.

Nehemia: And we’ve got to talk about the counsel. I know we’re running out of time.

Keith: No, read those. This is very important.

Nehemia: Okay. This is a huge thing. So this is the word in Hebrew “sod,” maybe that should have been the Word of the Week. We’ll have two. “Sod, samech, vav, dalet. In Modern Hebrew and in later Hebrew, “sod” meant secret, a secret. And there are people who will look at the Bible and say, “There are these secrets in the Bible. There’s the plain meaning on the surface, but if you look deeper you can find the secret meanings.”

But “sod” in the Tanakh doesn’t mean secret, it means something completely different. It’s the image that appears in Isaiah 6, in 1 Kings 22:19-21, and in many other passages, Daniel... let me read Daniel 7:9-10. Daniel says, “As I looked, thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took His seat. His garment was like white snow, and the hair of His head was like lamb’s wool. His throne was tongues of flame; its wheels were blazing fire. A river of fire streamed forth before Him; thousands upon thousands served Him; myriads upon myriads attended Him; the court sat and the books were opened.” And this is the image that we see in many passages in the Bible, speaking about what was referred to as the heavenly court; the Bible doesn’t call it that, although I guess it did use that word in Daniel. 1 Kings 22:19-21.

Keith: I have to tell you before you read that in 1 Kings 22, that is by far, definitely in the top three stories for me.

Nehemia: Oh, yes?

Keith: Just the idea that…

Nehemia: That’s your favorite passage in the Bible.

Keith: I can’t say that - that’s your shtick. But when he says and he looks and he sees and I saw this meeting taking place, where God is there, and the angels around they’re having a discussion in Heaven about what’s happening on Earth. And He brings the prophet in there and He lets the prophet see. You talked about this again last week that the prophets get a chance to be in that place where they can see this is what God is saying and then how they know what to say.

Nehemia: Yes, and I want to invite people because we are running out of time and we want to try to finish soon. So please go read 1 Kings 22 after you’ve read Amos 2:6 to 3:8, read the whole chapter 1 Kings 22. It’s a powerful chapter. It’s amazing what it says there. And then share your comments. Go to bfainternational.com and my website, nehemiaswall.com. And also, I want to remind people to share this on Facebook. We need people to stand with us to share this on Facebook, to post it on Twitter, to get the message out of these Prophet Pearls.

Keith: You know what’s interesting about that Nehemia? Is that you said this a lot about the other ideas that are out there, and the other issues that are out there, and the conversations that are out there.

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: We’re talking about the Word of God, a full hour on the Word of God, bringing language, history, and context. Let’s share it with people.

Nehemia: Right. And this, I will tell you, is 100 percent marketing what I’m doing right now. We are in the marketplace of ideas. And out there on Facebook what you have is God is dead, the world is billions of years old, and all kinds of other nonsense out there floating, and you know there’s these pictures of cats and puppies - which I happen to love.

Keith: Which I think are absolutely…

Nehemia: No, I don’t understand. They’re adorable. Put your BB gun away.

Keith: We need pictures of this.

Nehemia: No. So this is the marketplace of ideas and information that we’re competing with, and we need to get this information in front of people. This is crucial.

Keith: Let’s share it out.

Nehemia: The shofar is being blown and the people aren’t even hearing it. We’ve got to get this to them. So 1 Kings 22:19-22, “But Micaiah said, ‘I call upon you to hear the word of Yehovah! I saw Yehovah seated upon His throne, with all the host of heaven standing in attendance to the right and to the left of Him. Yehovah asked, Who will entice Ahab so that he will march and fall at Ramoth-Gilead? Then one said thus, and another said thus, until a certain spirit came forward and stood before Yehovah and said, I will entice him. How? Yehovah asked.’”

Next verse 22, he goes on, this is important. “And he replied, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. Then He said, You will entice and you will prevail. Go out and do it.’ So Yehovah has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours; for Yehovah has declared disaster upon you.” And the point of this passage is that these 400 false prophets - you can read it 1 King 22 - that they were prophesying through this false spirit, and Micaiah wasn’t prophesying through his spirit. He was standing in the throne room and heard Yehovah speaking with his own two ears, speaking to the hosts of heaven.

And Jeremiah makes reference to this when he challenges the false prophet, he really kind of taunts them, is Jeremiah 23 starting in verse 18. Now, I’ll make this quick. This is an important passage. He says, “But he who has stood in the council of Yehovah,” and the word there is sod. Just as Amos said, Yehovah reveals his sod to his servants, the prophets. So here this sod is this counsel. It says, “But he who has stood in the sod of Yehovah,” the counsel. “And seen and heard His word— He who has listened to His word must obey.”

He goes on, and I’ll skip ahead to verse 22, “If they have stood in My counsel, let them announce My words to My people and make them turn back from their evil ways and wicked acts.” And he’s speaking there of the false prophets, because what the false prophets were doing is they’re saying, “I had a dream, and I received a word.” And Jeremiah is saying, “That’s not what happened with me. I heard Yehovah speak in his counsel to the angels, to the hosts of heaven. I heard it with my own two ears. If you’ve done that, let’s hear it from you.” And they weren’t able to do that, they weren’t able to give that kind of information.

And let’s go back to Amos now. It’s really amazing what he’s saying here. He’s saying, “Look, if bad things happen then it’s because this is part of Yehovah’s plan, and He’s revealed those things to His servants, the Prophets. So these things aren’t just a coincidence, it’s not just that two people happen to be walking on the same path in the middle of nowhere. They agreed to walk on that path together. They met one another first. And it’s not just the bird happens to fall. No, there was a snare. And this isn’t a coincidence, either. This is Yehovah and his plan.”

Keith: Hopefully, you all are going to do what Nehemia asked and read the entire passage for yourself. The interesting thing is that the actual section ends with how Amos begins. It says here, “The lion has roared— who will not fear? The Sovereign Lord,” in the English, “has spoken— who can but prophesy?” And then, of course, if you go back to Amos chapter 1, it says, “The Lord Yehovah roars from Zion and thunders from Jerusalem.” He’s the one that’s playing the role of the lion. He’s the one that’s roaring. Though I have to say, sometimes you turn on the television, you hear it roaring, you hear the message of the day roar. But it does not compare to when Yehovah himself roars. He’s the ultimate lion that’s going to roar. So that is the section, I don’t know if you have anything else…

Nehemia: Well, I just want to say real quick that I actually wrote my master’s thesis on this verse and an ancient commentary on this verse, and one of the things that this ancient commentary asks…

Keith: Which exact verse?

Nehemia: This one, Amos 3:7 was one of the key verses. And he asked the question, he says, “There’s all these things happening around me,” this is a guy who’s living in the 9th century, and he’s saying, “Can these things just be random events, or must there be reference to them and the prophets?” And he was actually a Karaite Jew named Daniel al-Kumisi, and he came up with a radical approach. He said, “Wait a minute, if there’s all these things happening, it says that God doesn’t do anything, except he reveals His counsel to His servants, the prophets. And if we have the rise of Islam, and the fall of the Roman Empire, and all these world stage events, there must be something in the Prophets about them.”

And so he came up with this approach, which was really unusual for Karaite Jews, but not unique. And his approach was to say, the prophet may have spoken about something that applied at his time, but there’s all these events that have to be explained and have to be referred to in the prophecies. And so he would say there also could be this future application of that prophecy. Meaning there could be something in the prophecy that applied in the time of Amos, but also we can look today and see how it’s unfolded in our own times.

Keith: Amen. So this is what we do in Prophet Pearls - exploring biblical prophecy for yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Nehemia: Shalom.

Keith: Amen.

You have been listening to Prophet Pearls with Nehemia Gordon and Keith Johnson. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon’s Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.

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Related Posts: The Original Torah Pearls - Vayeishev (Genesis 37:1-40:23) Torah and Prophet Pearls Hebrew Voices Episodes Support Team Studies Nehemia Gordon's Teachings on the Name of God
  • Louis Korkames says:

    Can two walk together without having met. Could it also mean without speaking to each other. How could you walk along with someone especially for a considerable length of time without speaking to each other. I think that happens today when there is enmity between groups of people and prejudice, they won’t speak to each other or acknowledge each other. Don’t let it happen!

  • Cynda LeTullier says:

    I am with you Keith on Chai Tea ☕️ a favorite of mine ~ also CoffeeMocha ☕️ 🍫 !

    I so enjoy the Torah & Prophet Pearls so much ~ I go through it yearly with you guys. Thank You so much for having these available.

    Blessings to you both and your families.

  • Juan Beltran says:

    Nehemia , i was reading back Ovadia and i found that in verse 1 the sixth hebrew word is YEHOVAH but the vocal under first “hey” is a Chataph segol instead of qamats.

    Is this an error in the Chabad.org posting or is a singularity?

    I was trying to compare with Allepo codex but i did not found a link were i can upload the pictures of it .

  • Donald Murphy says:

    so why waste your time on the religion of the Roman Empire??

  • Derrill Floyd says:

    Nehemia, I asked you about the Star of David origins, in person, once. You told me about a book that was edited years later to say it was satanic. Could you me the names of the book, author and editor?

  • Mark Cimini says:

    So, what is your opinion of Bible Codes? Encoded messages via letter skipping.

  • Daniel says:

    Here the verse from Amos 3:3 from the YLT.
    Amo 3:3 Do two walk together if they have not met?
    From TS2009
    Amo 3:3 Would two walk together, without having met?

    Thank you Nehemia to put words right, it’s good to compare different translations

  • Heiki says:

    You know, I keep coming back again and again to listen and learn … I pray for your peace, shalom.

  • Lori says:

    Hello Nehemia,
    Thank you for your commentary on Amos 2:6-3:8. I have a question about the Hebrew text. In Amos 2:6, the Hebrew word for “I will not turn away…” is אשיבנו, (1st person sg., Hiphil future of שוב) meaning “I will not turn away (something); I understand the nu-ending (נו) to be the direct object of the verb, the thing turned away. Correct? How then shall I translate this? “I will not turn away/back us/our what?” Some translations insert the word “punishment”, and so interpret this to mean, “I will not turn away the punishment thereof.” or “…our punishment.” To whom or what does this נו (us/our) refer? Perhaps the word/judgment of the council mentioned in Amos 3:7?

    Thanks for your input.

    Lori

  • George says:

    SHALOM! Thank YOU for taking the time to share!! It’s a blessing to read and lisitn your videos!! SHALOM!!

  • I noticed that, as the first verse of the prophet portion, with “they sold the righteous for silver”, hearkens back to Joseph; the final verse, with “the lion has roared…”, reminds me of Judah and the side story of him and Tamar. Coincidence?

  • suzanholland says:

    seems to me a clear connection can be made from Amos 2:6-3:15 to Zech. 11 as well.

  • Love to relax listening to Hebrew Scriptures clarify truth that has been veiled now being discovered. Love even your laughter even when there’s a shade of different ways to see that is healthy..Love you guys .. Ruth Peterson from chilly Minnesota

  • Fednold Meunier says:

    Shalom chaver sheli, atah mochan? Great חַבְרוּתָא (chavruta). I have two requests, if I may. Being a gentile, and a non speaker of the mother language, I would like if you could translate Hebrew titles of the Torah and Prophet Pearls. I listen to them while commuting, and it difficult for me to move on, because I get stuck trying to figure out what the Title means. The second question is, what the name of the (for a lack of a better term) Concordance you use during research. I truly believe you or Keith may have mentioned it, but I can’t for the life of seem to remember what it is called. Shalom Aleichem!

  • Desiree Rush says:

    Good News Translation Amos3:3 Do two people start traveling together without arranging to meet ? Clear plain English.

  • Desiree Rush says:

    Modern banking is far from biblical or righteous. Thank you for helping our Father to explain to us how things are supposed to work.

  • Donald Delancey says:

    Has Nehemia ever looked at the 144.000 in Rev. to see if they could be Kararite Jew? I enjoy your teachings Thanks