Amos 8

1 These things the Lord has revealed to me. And behold, a hook to draw down fruit.

Thus hath the Lord Jehovah shewed me, and, lo, a basket of summer-fruit.

2 And he said, “What do you see, Amos?” And I said, “A hook to draw down fruit.” And the Lord said to me, “The end has come for my people Israel. I will no longer pass through them.”

And He saith, 'What art thou seeing, Amos?' and I say, 'A basket of summer-fruit.' And Jehovah saith unto me: 'The end hath come unto My people Israel, I do not add any more to pass over to it.

3 And the hinges of the temple will creak in that day, says the Lord God. Many will die. Silence will be thrown away in all places.

And howled have songstresses of a palace in that day, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah, Many [are] the carcases, into any place throw — hush!

4 Hear this, you who crush the poor and who make those in need of land to do without.

Hear this, ye who are swallowing up the needy, To cause to cease the poor of the land,

5 You say, “When will the first day of the month be over, so we can sell our wares, and the Sabbath, so we can open the grain: in order that we may decrease the measure, and increase the price, and substitute deceitful scales,

Saying, When doth the new moon pass, And we sell ground corn? And the sabbath, and we open out pure corn? To make little the ephah, And to make great the shekel, And to use perversely balances of deceit.

6 in order that we may possess the destitute with money, and the poor for a pair of shoes, and may sell even the refuse of the grain?”

To purchase with money the poor, And the needy for a pair of sandals, Yea, the refuse of the pure corn we sell.

7 The Lord has sworn by the arrogance of Jacob: I will not forget, even to the end, all their works.

Sworn hath Jehovah by the excellency of Jacob: 'I forget not for ever any of their works.

8 Will not the earth shudder over this, and all its inhabitants mourn, and all rise up like a river, and be cast out, and flow away like the river of Egypt?

For this doth not the land tremble, And mourned hath every dweller in it? And come up as a flood hath all of it. And it hath been cast out, and hath sunk, Like the flood of Egypt.

9 And it will be in that day, says the Lord God, that the sun will decline at midday, and I will cause the earth to become dark on the day of light.

And it hath come to pass in that day, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah, I have caused the sun to go in at noon, And caused darkness on the land in a day of light,

10 And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your hymns into lamentation. And I will put sackcloth over every one of your backs, and baldness on every head. And I will begin it like the mourning for an only-begotten son, and complete it like a bitter day.

And have turned your festivals to mourning, And all your songs to lamentation, And caused sackcloth to come up on all loins, And on every head — baldness, And made it as a mourning [of] an only one, And its latter end as a day of bitterness.

11 Behold, the days pass, says the Lord, and I will send a famine on the earth: not a famine of bread, nor of thirst for water, but for hearing the word of the Lord.

Lo, days are coming, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah, And I have sent a famine into the land, Not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water But of hearing the words of Jehovah.

12 And they will move even from sea to sea, and from the North all the way to the East. They will wander around seeking the word of the Lord, and they will not find it.

And they have wandered from sea unto sea, And from north even unto east, They go to and fro to seek the word of Jehovah, And they do not find.

13 In that day, beautiful virgins, and young men, will fail because of thirst.

In that day faint do the fair virgins, And the young men, with thirst.

14 They swear by the offense of Samaria, and they say, “As your God lives, Dan,” and “The way of Beer-sheba lives.” And they will fall, and they will not rise up any more.

Those swearing by the guilt of Samaria, And have said, Live doth thy god, O Dan, And, Live doth the way of Beer-Sheba, And they have fallen — and rise not again!'