Amos 8
1 This is what the Lord GOD showed me: I saw a basket of summer fruit.
The Lord God showed me this: a basket of summer fruit.
2 “Amos, what do you see?” He asked. “A basket of summer fruit,” I replied. So the LORD said to me, “The end has come for My people Israel; I will no longer spare them.”
‘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 “In that day,” declares the Lord GOD, “the songs of the temple will turn to wailing. Many will be the corpses, strewn in silence everywhere!”
The singing women in the palace will howl on that day, says the Lord: Corpses everywhere, thrown out in silence.
4 Hear this, you who trample the needy, who do away with the poor of the land,
Listen to this, you who trample on the needy, who oppress the poor of the earth,
5 asking, “When will the New Moon be over, that we may sell grain? When will the Sabbath end, that we may market wheat? Let us reduce the ephah and increase the shekel; let us cheat with dishonest scales.
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 Let us buy the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the chaff with 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 The LORD has sworn by the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget any of their deeds.
Now the Lord has taken an oath by the Pride of Jacob: I will never forget all their deeds!
8 Will not the land quake for this, and all its dwellers mourn? All of it will swell like the Nile; it will surge and then subside like the Nile in 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 in that day, declares the Lord GOD, I will make the sun go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the daytime.
On that day, says the Lord God, I will make the sun set at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight.
10 I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation. I will cause everyone to wear sackcloth and every head to be shaved. I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son, and its outcome like 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 are coming, declares the Lord GOD, when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.
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 People will stagger from sea to sea and roam from north to east, seeking the word of the LORD, but they will 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 lovely young women— the young men as well— will faint from thirst.
In that day beautiful girls and strong young men will faint from thirst.
14 Those who swear by the guilt of Samaria and say, ‘As surely as your god lives, O Dan,’ or, ‘As surely as the way of Beersheba lives’— they will fall, never to rise 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.
