Amos 8
1 Thus the lord Jehovah showed me: And, behold, a basket of summer fruit.
The Lord God showed me this: a basket of summer fruit.
2 And he said, Amos, what do thou see? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then Jehovah said to me, The end has come upon my people Israel. I will not again pass by them any more.
“What do you see, Amos?” he asked. I replied, “A basket of ripe summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me: The time is ripe for my people Israel, I will no longer overlook their crimes.
3 And the songs of the temple shall be wailings in that day, says the lord Jehovah. The dead bodies shall be many. In every place they shall cast them forth with silence.
The singing women in the palace will howl on that day, says the Lord: Corpses everywhere, thrown out in silence.
4 Hear this, O ye who would swallow up a needy man, and cause the poor of the land to fail,
Listen to this, you who trample on the needy, who oppress the poor of the earth,
5 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,
saying: When will the feast of the new moon be over so that we may sell grain? And the sabbath ended so that we may offer wheat for sale? Reducing the measure and increasing the price, cheating with false scales,
6 that we may buy the poor for silver, and a needy man for a pair of shoes, and sell the refuse of the wheat?
mixing the sweepings in with the wheat. Then we can buy the poor for money, the needy for a pair of shoes.
7 Jehovah has sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works.
Now the Lord has taken an oath by the Pride of Jacob: I will never forget all their deeds!
8 Shall the land not tremble for this, and everyone mourn who dwells therein? Yea, it shall rise up wholly like the River, and it shall be troubled and sink again like the River of Egypt.
Because of this won’t the land quake, and all its inhabitants mourn? Won’t the whole of it rise like the Nile, churn and subside like the Nile in Egypt?
9 And it shall come to pass in that day, says the lord Jehovah, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day.
On that day, says the Lord God, I will make the sun set at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight.
10 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.
I will turn your feasts into mourning, all your songs into dirges. I will cause you to dress in sackcloth, every head shaved. I will make you mourn like you have lost your only son, all that happens will end in bitterness.
11 Behold, the days come, says 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.
The day is coming, says the Lord God, when I will send hunger in the land. Not a famine of bread or thirst for water, but for hearing the message of the Lord.
12 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.
Then they will wander from sea to sea, from the north to the east, to seek a message from the Lord, but they will not find it.
13 In that day the fair virgins and the young men shall faint for thirst.
In that day beautiful girls and strong young men will faint from thirst.
14 Those who swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, As thy god, O Dan, lives, and, As the way of Beersheba lives, they shall fall, and never rise up again.
Those who take oaths by the shameful idol of Samaria, who swear, ‘As surely as your God lives, O Dan!’ and, ‘By the sacred way to Beer-sheba!’ – they will fall and never rise again.
