Amos 8:11

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Behold, the days come, says the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:

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Basil the Great

AD 379

The unreliability of excessive wealth may edify even to the point of eliciting contempt of corporal riches. Wealth is unstable. It is like a wave accustomed to change back and forth due to the violence of the wind. One might suppose that the people of Israel are rich, since they have the adoption of sons and divine worship, the promises and the patriarchs. However, they have become poor because of their sin against the Lord. “But they that seek the Lord shall not be deprived of any good.” They have lacked nourishment in a certain way and have suffered hunger. For when they had put to death the bread of life, a hunger for the bread came upon them. A chastisement for the thirst was imposed on them, but “the hunger was not for sensible bread or the thirst for water, but a hunger to hear the Word of God.” Therefore “they have wanted and have suffered hunger.”

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George Leo Haydock

AD 1849

Lord. During the siege provisions were wanting, but instruction still more so. (Worthington) Israel had banished Amos. They would be left destitute. We find no prophet among them during the captivity, except Tobias, Tobias xiii. 3. We may apply this to the state of the Jews since the death of Christ. They have no guides. (Calmet) They read incessantly, and do not understand (St. Jerome; Mercer.) the Bible, which none will ever penetrate who refuse to receive the key from the Church. (Haydock)

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John Chrysostom

AD 407

We harm both soul and body if we are guilty of lack of moderation to them both by fattening one beyond need or by causing them to waste away from starvation…. The Lord of all once admonished the Jewish people … by way of extreme indignation in the words, “I will deal you not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the Word of the Lord,” to teach us that while one famine can torture the body, the other famine affects the soul. This very thing that the Lord threatened to inflict on them by way of punishment we now of our own volition secure for ourselves despite God’s show of care for us and his provision for us, through the advice of mentors, as well as the reading of Scriptures.

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Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation - 2 Peter 1:20