Amos 8

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

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.

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

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,

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?”

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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