Amos 7 and 8 abusing the poor

Introduction to post: If New Testament, CJB online, emphasis in bold or Old Testament from chabad.org, text I emphasize in green; NKJV in magenta; OT in olive. footnotes to CJB in superscript ^{sky blue} using Hebrew Bible; Nomads* discussion in yellow; and my comments in gray. Colored text indicates a repeated phrase, catalogue, or theme. I may use endnotes to cite outside literature or extensive comment.  

*Participative Sunday-school-class at UBC led by Kenny Tipton. In my view, Kenny appreciates and owns opinion in a continuous search to discover the ineluctable truth.

 My evolving statement about Genesis 1:26-28,31 and Psalm 82, now from the Hebrew Bible at chabad.org, is at the end of this post: because I accept Genesis 1’s directive to constrain chaos in my way of living, I may personally attempt to develop a god facing death or angelic person (John 10:36 with reference to Psalm 82:6-7).

Understanding this series: Kenny is leading a series of 8 lessons on the book of the 12; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Minor_Prophets.

Key points in Amos 7 & 8:

7:2 Amos begs forgiveness to Israel (Jacob); 7:2,5 “with Jacob”.

7:3, 6, 8:12, Shall not: respectively, come about, come to pass, find it. In the third instance, Israel shall not find the word of the Lord.

7:9 through 8:12 Amos’s vision for Israel’s future is sprinkled with dark words: desolate, ruined, die, exiled, harlot, fall, divided, wailings, corpses, quake, destroyed, mourning, lamentation, baldness, bitter, famine, thirst, and wander, in order.

8:14 The how: Israel erred by following gods.

8:4,6 The what: Israel abused the poor and the needy.

The text:

Amos 7 https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/16179/jewish/Chapter-7.htm 1Thus the Lord God showed me, and behold He was forming locusts at the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth, and behold the latter growth after the king's mowings.

2And it came to pass, when it finished eating the grass of the earth, that I said, "O Lord God! Forgive now! Who shall arise [with] Jacob, for he is small?"

3The Lord relented concerning this. It shall not come about, said the Lord.

4Thus the Lord God showed me, and behold the Lord God calls to contend by fire, and it consumed the great deep and consumed the field.

5And I said, "O Lord God! Desist now! Who shall arise [with] Jacob, for he is small?"

6The Lord relented concerning this; this too shall not come to pass, said the Lord God.

7Thus He showed me, and behold the Lord was standing on a wall made by a plumbline, with a plumbline in His hand.

8And the Lord said to me; What do you see, Amos? And I said, "A plumbline." And the Lord said: Behold I place a plumbline in the midst of My people Israel; I will no longer pardon them.

9And the high places of Isaac shall become desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be ruined, and I will rise upon the house of Jeroboam with the sword.

10And Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, "Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land will be unable to endure all his words.

11For so said Amos; Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall be exiled off its land."

12And Amaziah said to Amos, "Seer, go, run away to the land of Judah and eat bread there; and prophesy there.

13But do not continue to prophesy in Bethel for it is the sanctuary of a king and the capital of the kingdom.

14And Amos replied and said to Amaziah, "I am neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I am a cattle herder and an inspector of sycamores.

15And the Lord took me from following the flock, and He said to me; Go, prophesy to My people Israel.

16And now, hearken to the word of the Lord. You say, "Do not prophesy concerning Israel and do not prophesy concerning the house of Isaac."

17Therefore, so said the Lord: Your wife shall play the harlot in the city, and your sons and daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided by lot, and you shall die on unclean soil, and Israel shall be exiled from its land. Amos 8

1Thus the Lord God showed me, and behold a basket of late figs.

2And He said: What do you see, Amos? And I said, "A basket of late figs." And the Lord said to me: The end has come to My people Israel. I will no longer pardon them.

3And the songs of the temple shall be wailings in that day, says the Lord God: corpses shall increase; everywhere "Cast away, remove!"

4Hearken to this, you who swallow up the needy, and to cut off the poor of the land.

5Saying, "When will the month be delayed, so that we will sell grain, and the Sabbatical Year, so that we will open [our stores of] grain, to make the ephah smaller and to make the shekel larger, and to pervert deceitful scales.

6To purchase the poor with money, and the needy in order to inherit them, and the refuse of the grain we will sell."

7The Lord swore by the pride of Jacob: I will never forget any of their deeds.

8Shall the land not quake for this, and shall all its inhabitants [not] be destroyed? Yea, it shall rise up wholly like the rain cloud, and it shall cast up and sink like the river of Egypt.

9And it shall come to pass on that day, says the Lord God, that I will cause the sun to set at midday, and I will darken the land on a sunny day.

10And I will turn your festivals into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation, and I bring up sackcloth on all loins, and baldness on every head, and I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and its end is like a bitter day.

11Behold, days are coming, says the Lord God, and I will send famine into the land, not a famine for bread nor a thirst for water, but to hear the word of the Lord.

12And they shall wander from sea to sea and from the north to the east; they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it.

13On that day, the beautiful virgins and the young men shall faint of thirst.

14Those who swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, "As your god lives, O Dan," and "As the road to Beersheba exists," shall fall and no longer rise.

 

 [Genesis 1:26-28, 31, chabad.org:

I read to consider and apply perhaps 5500 year old Sumerian political philosophy, religiously referenced by Semite (pre-Israel) scribes of 3900 years ago, in Genesis 1:26-28, in my paraphrase and extension to civic integrity:  

Female-and-male-human-being may and can choose to practice the power, the authority, and the responsibility to pursue goodness and constrain wickedness on earth. Civic citizens may and can develop statutory justice.

Political and religious philosopher Yeshua affirmed Genesis 1:26-28, contributing ideas in each Matthew 18:18 (no peace-power above humankind), Matthew 19:3-8 (mutual spousal-loyalty), Matthew 5:48 (in good behavior, pursue personal perfection, which also affirms Deuteronomy 18:13), Matthew 19:4-6 (don’t divide/lessen goodness), John 10:34 (humans who resist and avoid wickedness are gods facing death, as in Psalm 82:1-7), and in other direct dialogue, such as “go and sin no more”. Psalm 82 says nothing about resurrection, which could be church doctrine only.

Discussion

I think Genesis 1:26-28 informs humankind to flourish in goodness rather than accommodate badness and allow evil. Quoting chabad.org below,

And God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and they shall rule over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the heaven and over the animals and over all the earth and over all the creeping things that creep upon the earth."

And God created man in His image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

And God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and rule over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the sky and all the living creatures that crawl on the earth."

Accepting the power, the authority, and the responsibility to have dominion over life on earth is human being (verb). Reliable human-beings discover and choose goodness to actual reality.

Sumer-mythology holds that 3 goddesses and 3 gods -- Namma, An, Ki, Enki, Ninhursag, and Gestu – both created and activated existence. A list of major Sumerian gods and relation to primitive opinion about the beginning follows:

	Name	Gender	Earth/Psychology Feature	Power	Offspring
1	Nammu	goddess*	primeval waters	creation	An and Ki
2	An	god*	sky	universal authority, kings	gods &godesses
3	Ki	goddess*	earth		gods &godesses
4	Enlil	god	wind, air, storms	creator,father,caring judge	Nanna & Utu
5	Nanna	god	moon	light,divine justice	plants
6	Utu	god	sun,justice,truth,morality	light,divine justice	plants
7	Inanna	goddess	love,beauty,eros,justice,war	escaped the underworld
8	Ereshkigal	goddess	death,doom	Underworld
9	Enki	god*	water,male fertility,wisdom	Prophesied Great Flood	civilization.art
10	Gula	goddess	healing	Doctors	surgery
11	Ninhursag	goddess*	mountains,rocky ground	royal guardian	wildlife
12	Gestu	god*	blood of humankind	intelligence

^ Sumer mythology suggests that 6 gods and goddesses created & activated existence

 

The pronoun and plurality change in Genesis 1:26-28 may be an artifact of the ancient scribe’s confusion if not weakness in transitioning primitive thought to the monotheistic version. Genesis 1 marks discovery by polytheistic Sumer civilization and transitions to a Semitic-speaking faction’s pursuit of monotheism, which leads to Israel’s Hashem then on to Christianity’s blood sacifice.

Note: unlike chabad.org, quoted above,  OJB uses “Elohim” in Genesis 1 and 2, excepting “G-d” in 1:24-31. V 27 seems to equate the two entities. Septuagint uses “ὁ θεὸς”, or God throughout Genesis 1. I use “The phrase, the god or whatever constrains human choice”, hoping to express religious humility to whatever the god is.

Again, since theism is a human construct, I use the phrase, “the god, whatever it may be”, to express objection to any doctrinal God yet reserve humility to ineluctable evidence and remaining unknowns about that which constrains the consequences of human choices. Make no mistake, I write opinion, because I do not know the ineluctable truth.]

New practice, recording the cover message:

Hello, Nomads,

We indulged the delight of togetherness, which neglected key points in the text.

It seems Amos 7-8 warns that neglecting the poor and needy promises ruin. My study is attached and posted on my blog understandtheknowledge.blogspot.com.

I think responsibility to the needy and poor was first introduce in the first Sumer-king law codes, 5500 years ago: “The orphan was not delivered up to the rich man; the widow was not delivered up to the mighty man; the man of one shekel was not delivered up to the man of one mina”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Ur-Nammu. Sumerian law codes legislated harshness, famously “eye for eye”.

Judeo-Christianity, I think erroneously, proposes to ameliorate life that perpetuates the poor and needy by giving to church-doctrine. Kenny asks, in essence, “Do we perceive we have not improved in 2000 years and therefore should take action?” I think Kenny is onto something, and it’s not firing the LSU football coach.

Globally, I think capitalism is the only economic system that can benefit Homo sapiens. However, the give and take of the entrepreneur-consumer-relationship is so massive and slow that government nudge is necessary to goodness and justice. The cost to the entrepreneur is high and risky, so rewards need to be adequate. However, they need not crush the consumer unto poverty. The civic faction need not accommodate a ballroom that dwarfs the White House. The working class need not pay taxes to subsidize the poor and thereby excessively reward the entrepreneurs. A civic people has the responsibility to manage the United States republic.

What can be done? My first thought is to limit rewards. For example, limit major CEO salaries to a multiple of the median income; which now approaches $50,000/year. If a civic people limited the top CEO’s to only $5,000,000/yr, scaling down to minor CEO’s the United States republic could motivate the needy and the poor. Another glaring injustice is the extreme rewards to the rent-seekers of the entertainment industries. My first thought is to limit ticket prices to $100 for concerts and $50 for sports events. A civic people can require top economists to remedy entertainment excesses.

Judeo-Christianity entices us to assign responsibility for civic justice to “God”. Some Christians displace “God” with Jesus Christ. Neglect of authority, power, and responsibility that the laws of physics assign to the civic faction of humankind marches on. Nomads and UBC need not continue the neglect unto the next generation. Is that the challenge Kenny expressed on Sunday?

I need to revise my post for Amos 5 to include Amos 6.

I hope to see you next Sunday,

Phil

 

Amos 5 and 6 what does Israel's Hashem want?

Introduction to this post: If New Testament, CJB online, emphasis in bold or Old Testament from chabad.org, text I emphasize in green; NKJV in magenta; OT in olive. footnotes to CJB in superscript ^{sky blue} using Hebrew Bible; Nomads* discussion in yellow; and my comments in gray. Colored text indicates a repeated phrase or a catalogue. I may use endnotes to cite outside literature or extensive comment.  

*Participative Sunday-school-class at UBC led by Kenny Tipton. In my view, Kenny appreciates and owns opinion in a continuous search to discover the ineluctable truth.

 My evolving statement about Genesis 1:26-28,31 and Psalm 82, now from the Hebrew Bible at chabad.org, is at the end of this post: because I accept Genesis 1’s directive to constrain chaos in my way of living, I may personally attempt to develop a god facing death or angelic person (John 10:36 with reference to Psalm 82:6-7).

Understanding this series: Kenny is leading a series of 8 lessons on the book of the 12; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Minor_Prophets.

Key points in Amos 5:

5:1-12 Israel being admonished for golden-calf idol worship and for injustice, unrighteousness, robbery, oppression, and neglect.

5:13-15 Silently seek goodness and establish justice, hoping for mercy.

5:16-20. The Lord God of Hosts will punish the towns, farms, and vineyards in dark times.

5:21-23 The Lord God of Hosts hates Israel’s festivals, sacrifices, songs, music. [It seems arrogant to accuse the god of hate. Prudence (V 13) empowers humility.]

5:24-26. Israel will receive justice and righteousness as their idol worship gets its rewards.

5:27. The Lord God of Hosts, to whom hate is attributed in V 21, will exile them “beyond Damascus”. Competitive Bibles offer at least 15 variations on the power that exiles them to Damascus. Does the god accept the priesthood of Bible interpreters?

6:8 I do not trust that the power that constrains human choices (the god if we must to communicate with theists) would swear, abhor, or hate.

 Amos 5 https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/16175/jewish/Chapter-3.htm

1Hearken to this word which I take up for a lamentation over you, O house of Israel. [The house of Israel is the 12 sons of Jacob, whose father was Isaac, whose father was Abraham, whose father was Terah, patriarch of a Semitic-speaking tribe in Ur. Abraham had 3 wives, each of whom had many descendants. Sara begot Isaac. Isaac’s son, Esau, had many descendants. His brother, Jacob, had 4 wives, of whom Leah was ancestor to Yeshua. Leah was Semitic-speaking and her son, Judah, spoke Hebrew. Much later, Yeshua spoke Aramaic. These points seem clear on an image I attached to my email.]

2The virgin of Israel [in exile?] has fallen and shall not continue to rise; she is spread out on her soil, there is none to raise her up.

3For so said the Lord God: The city that gives forth a thousand shall remain with a hundred, and the one that gives forth a hundred shall remain with ten, of the house of Israel.

4For so said the Lord to the house of Israel; Seek Me and live.

5But seek not Bethel [Jeroboam’s golden calf], neither come to Gilgal [also golden calf], nor pass Beersheba [probably golden calf], for Gilgal shall be exiled, and Bethel shall become nought.

6Seek the Lord and live, lest He break out like fire in the house of Joseph [Joseph is Rachael’s son and thus not in the lineage to Yeshua.], and it consume with none to quench it for Bethel.

7Those who turn justice to wormwood, and who leave righteousness on the ground.

8He Who made the Pleiades [7 Sisters constellation] and Orion and turns darkness into morning, and day He darkens as night; He Who calls the water of the sea and pours it out on the face of the earth, the Lord is His Name.

9Who strengthens the robbed upon the strong, and the robbed shall come upon a fortress.

10They hated him who reproves them in the gate, and they despise him who speaks uprightly.

11Therefore, because you have trodden on poor, and the burden of grain you take from him, houses of hewn stone you have built but you shall not dwell therein, precious vineyards you have planted, but you shall not drink their wine.

12For I know that your transgressions are many, and your sins are mighty; you who oppress the just [victimization applies only to the just citizen who gets oppressed], taking ransom, and turning aside the needy in the gate.

13Therefore, the prudent at that time shall keep silent, for it is a time of evil.

14Seek good and not evil in order that you live, and so the Lord God of Hosts shall be with you, as you said.

15Hate evil and love good, and establish justice [Intentions of the US Constitution] in the gate; perhaps the Lord God of Hosts will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. [All Israel remained together after Joseph served Egypt.]

16Therefore, so said the Lord God of Hosts, the Lord: In all the city squares lamentation, and in all streets they shall say, "Alas! Alas!" and they shall meet the plowman with mourning and lamentation with those who know to wail.

17And in all vineyards [there shall be] lamentation, for I will pass in your midst, said the Lord.

18Woe to those who desire the day of the Lord. Why would you have the day of the Lord? It is darkness, and not light.

19As if a man flees from the lion and the bear meets him, and he comes to the house and leans his hand on the wall, and a serpent bites him.

20Is not the day of the Lord darkness and not light, even very dark, with no brightness in it.

21I hate, I reject your festivals, and I will not smell [the sacrifices of] your assemblies.

22For if you offer up to Me burnt-offerings and your meal-offerings, I will not accept [them], and the peace offerings of your fattened cattle I will not regard.

23Take away from Me the din of your songs, and the music of your lutes I will not hear.

24And justice shall be revealed like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

25Did you offer Me sacrifices and meal-offerings in the desert forty years, O house of Israel?

26And you shall carry Siccuth [tabernacle?] your king and Chiun [symbols?] your images, Kochav [celestial star] your god, which you have made for yourselves. [Worship, praise, and sacrifice pale before goodness.] [This verse in this chapter challenges the priesthood of the believer as an egocentric arrogance toward whatever constrains the consequences of human choice – the god if you wish.] Amos 6

1Woe to those who are at ease in Zion and to those who are secure in the mountain of Samaria, those called the first of the nations, and the house of Israel has come to them.

2Proceed to Calneh and see, and go from there to the great Hamath, and go down to Gath of the Philistines-are they better than these kingdoms, or is their border greater than your border?

3You, who bring yourselves closer to the day of evil, and you bring near the dwelling amidst violence.

4Those who lie on couches of ivory and stretch out on their beds, and eat lambs of the flock and calves out of the stall.

5Who sing according to the tone of the lute. They thought that their musical instruments were like [those of] David.

6Who drink from basins of wine, and with the first oils they anoint themselves, and they feel no pain concerning the destruction of Joseph.

7Therefore, now they shall go into exile at the head of the exiles, and the banquet of the haughty shall pass away.

8The Lord God swore by Himself. The Lord God of Hosts says; I abhor the pride of Jacob, and I hate his palaces, and I will deliver the city and the fullness thereof.

9And it shall be, if ten men are left in one house, they shall die.

10And his kinsman and the one who saved him from burning shall carry him to take out bones from the house, and he shall say to [the one] who is in the end of the house, "Are there any more with you?" and he shall say, "There is none." And he shall say, "Take them out." [This is] for not mentioning the Name of the Lord.

11For behold, the Lord commands, and he shall smite the great house into splinters, and the small house into chips.

12Will horses run on the rock, or will one plow with cattle, for you have perverted justice to hemlock and the fruit of righteousness to wormwood?

13Those who rejoice over a thing of nought, who say, "With our strength we have taken horns for ourselves."

14For, behold I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, says the Lord God of Hosts, and they shall oppress you from the approach to Hamath until the brook of the Arabah.

[Genesis 1:26-28, 31, chabad.org:

I read to consider and apply perhaps 5500 year old Sumerian political philosophy, religiously referenced by Semite (pre-Israel) scribes of 3900 years ago, in Genesis 1:26-28, in my paraphrase and extension to civic integrity:  

Female-and-male-human-being may and can choose to practice the power, the authority, and the responsibility to pursue goodness and constrain wickedness on earth. Civic citizens may and can develop statutory justice.

Political and religious philosopher Yeshua affirmed Genesis 1:26-28, contributing ideas in each Matthew 18:18 (no peace-power above humankind), Matthew 19:3-8 (mutual spousal-loyalty), Matthew 5:48 (in good behavior, pursue personal perfection, which also affirms Deuteronomy 18:13), Matthew 19:4-6 (don’t divide/lessen goodness), John 10:34 (humans who resist and avoid wickedness are gods facing death, as in Psalm 82:1-7), and in other direct dialogue, such as “go and sin no more”. Psalm 82 says nothing about resurrection.

Discussion

I think Genesis 1:26-28 informs humankind to flourish in goodness rather than accommodate badness and allow evil. Quoting chabad.org below,

And God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and they shall rule over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the heaven and over the animals and over all the earth and over all the creeping things that creep upon the earth."

And God created man in His image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

And God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and rule over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the sky and all the living creatures that crawl on the earth."

Accepting the power, the authority, and the responsibility to have dominion over life on earth is human being (verb). Reliable human-beings choose goodness to actual reality.

Sumer-mythology holds that 3 goddesses and 3 gods -- Namma, An, Ki, Enki, Ninhursag, and Gestu – both created and activated existence. A list of major Sumerian gods and relation to primitive opinion about the beginning follows:

	Name	Gender	Earth/Psychology Feature	Power	Offspring
1	Nammu	goddess*	primeval waters	creation	An and Ki
2	An	god*	sky	universal authority, kings	gods &godesses
3	Ki	goddess*	earth		gods &godesses
4	Enlil	god	wind, air, storms	creator,father,caring judge	Nanna & Utu
5	Nanna	god	moon	light,divine justice	plants
6	Utu	god	sun,justice,truth,morality	light,divine justice	plants
7	Inanna	goddess	love,beauty,eros,justice,war	escaped the underworld
8	Ereshkigal	goddess	death,doom	Underworld
9	Enki	god*	water,male fertility,wisdom	Prophesied Great Flood	civilization.art
10	Gula	goddess	healing	Doctors	surgery
11	Ninhursag	goddess*	mountains,rocky ground	royal guardian	wildlife
12	Gestu	god*	blood of humankind	intelligence

^ Sumer mythology suggests that 6 gods and goddesses created & activated existence

 

The pronoun and plurality change in Genesis 1:26-28 may be an artifact of the ancient scribe’s confusion if not weakness in transitioning primitive thought to the monotheistic version.

Note: unlike chabad.org, quoted above,  OJB uses “Elohim” in Genesis 1 and 2, excepting “G-d” in 1:24-31. V 27 seems to equate the two entities. Septuagint uses “ὁ θεὸς”, or God throughout Genesis 1. I use “The phrase, the god or whatever constrains human choice”, hoping to express religious humility to whatever the god is.

Again, since theism is a human construct, I use the phrase, “the god, whatever it may be”, to express objection to any doctrinal God yet reserve humility to ineluctable evidence and remaining unknowns, about that which constrains the consequences of human choices. Make no mistake, I write opinion, because I do not know the ineluctable truth.]

New practice, recalling the cover message:

Hello, Nomads,

My experiences at UBC, especially with Nomads, continue to amaze me.

Happily, on the day I went to the library to present “We Can Pursue Goodness,” Kenny led Nomads in the discussion of Amos 5. Verses 14 and 15 include “Seek good . . . in order that you may live” and “. . . love good, and establish justice”, respectively. I think egregiously, in V 21, Amos claims the god said, “I hate . . . ”. I think the god’s greatest strength is neither perpetrating nor accommodating hate, so I oppose Amos’ opinion. (I turn now to updating the first library presentation then drafting the second.)

In preparing for the first library presentation, Rebekah and I discussed the Sumerian mythology seemingly transitioning to a monotheism in Genesis 1:26-28. Delightfully, I discovered that after Catechism (Confirmation), Beka became so engrossed in preparing herself for opera-performance (thank you LSU) that she was neither curious-about nor alerted-to pre-Judeo-Christian literature. This does not make me unhappy; it informs me about the personal preference our wonderful daughter is choosing, lessening a misunderstanding. I feel the same way about neighbors’ personal preferences.

Unfortunately, Catechism inculcates in students the confidence that faith is sufficient when evidence opposes doctrine. What’s in question here is faith in what? I perceive the Church offers doctrine when discovery has not demystified the evidence and begs the student to accommodate an eternity for the Church to accommodate the evidence. Happily, Cynthia shared with me that she does not need to characterize the integrity of God as Jesus: Their integrity (both reliability and wholeness) is a mystery.

As civic people, we share mystery and manners. When the occasion arises, I express my hard-earned opinion – about the god, my brief expression for the undiscovered power that constrains human choice, without trying to impose it on anyone. I want to be judged regarding only one person: myself. One feature of my humanity arises due to my commission from Tennessee’s chemical engineering department: let no designs you contribute-to blow up, ruining property and endangering the public. This principle is exponentially more important to constraining chaos in my life and citizenship.

You may recall that I recently, through discussion with a friend at Perkins Road Park, discovered that my CJB-based attraction to the entity Yeshua was and is grounded in the civic goodness Yeshua influences. I accept that my focus is goodness that inspires good behavior, which I think Yeshua advocated. Remaining grateful to Yeshua, I read the complete Bible to discover goodness evidenced by constraints on choices made by historical and mythical actors.

Also, I recently realized that Psalm 82 informs that civic people are gods facing death. That suggests individual pursuit of perfect behavior until death. These ideas seem to accommodate “the priesthood of the believer” according to the believer’s civic integrity. Errant fellow citizens suffer the consequences, and evil people beg for annihilation.

Addressing controversy in public use of “God”, I cite Amos 5:27, “He Whose Name is the Lord God of Hosts” and some 13 competitive interpretations. I choose to avoid characterizing whatever constrains the consequences of human choice, yet use “the god” for brevity. So far, Amos addresses only Israel and its impact on neighbors. It’s no burden to me that interpreters and others attempt to characterize that which constrains the consequences of human choice.

I hope my lengthy introduction does not distract from the fantastic content of Amos 5 and the concerns the October 19, 2025 Nomads raised. My report is attached and posted on understandtheknowledge.blogspot.com .

I can’t wait to learn where Kenny’s current interest leads us.

I hope to see you next Sunday,

Phil