< 阿摩司書 8 >
1 [神視四:果籃]吾主上主叫我看見這事:看,有一籃熟果子。
Thus the Lord Jehovah showed me: and, behold, a basket of summer fruit.
2 上主說:「亞毛斯,你看見了什麼﹖」我答說:「一籃熟果子。」上主又向我說:「我百姓以色列的結局已成熟,我不再放過她。
And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said Jehovah unto me, The end is come upon my people Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.
3 在那一天,王宮中的歌女必要哀號──吾主上主的斷語──屍體成堆,拋在各處,鴉雀無聲。」
And the songs of the temple shall be wailings in that day, saith the Lord Jehovah: the dead bodies shall be many; in every place shall they cast them forth with silence.
Hear this, O ye that would swallow up the needy, and cause the poor of the land to fail,
5 你們說:「月朔幾時才經過去,好讓我們賣五榖﹖安息日幾時才過去,好讓我們打開糧倉,縮小「厄法,」加重「協刻爾,」用假秤欺人﹖
saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell grain? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and dealing falsely with balances of deceit;
6 用銀錢購買窮人,以一雙鞋換取貧人,連麥糠也賣掉﹖」
that we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes, and sell the refuse of the wheat?
7 上主指著雅各伯的誇耀說:「我永不會忘了你們的所作所為。
Jehovah hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works.
8 難道不是因此大地才震動,地上 居民才悲號,全地氾濫有如尼羅,退落有如埃及大河﹖
Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein? yea, it shall rise up wholly like the River; and it shall be troubled and sink again, like the River of Egypt.
9 在那一天──吾主上主的斷語──我必使太陽在中午落下,使大地白畫變為黑暗;
And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord Jehovah, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day.
10 使你們的喜慶變為喪事,使你們的一切樂曲變為哀歌,使你們都腰繫苦衣,頭都剃光;使你們哀悼,如哀悼獨生子,使那一天紿終是愁苦的日子。
And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning for an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day.
11 看,那日子一來臨──吾主上主的斷語──我必使飢餓臨於此地,汞是對食物的飢餓,也不是對水的飢渴,而是對聽上主的話的飢渴。
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord Jehovah, 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 Jehovah.
12 他們必由這海走到那海,由北至東,去尋求上主的話,卻尋不到。
And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they shall run to and fro to seek the word of Jehovah, and shall not find it.
13 那一天,美麗的處女和健壯的青年,必因饑渴而暈眩。
In that day shall the fair virgins and the young men faint for thirst.
14 那些指著撒馬黎雅的罪過起誓,那些說:「丹,你的神永在,」或說:「貝爾舍巴,你的護守神永在」的人,必要跌倒,再不能起來。
They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, As thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, As the way of Beer-sheba liveth; they shall fall, and never rise up again.