< Amos 8 >
1 Thus did Jehovah shew unto me; and behold, a basket of summer-fruit.
[神視四:果籃]吾主上主叫我看見這事:看,有一籃熟果子。
2 And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer-fruit. And Jehovah said unto me, The end is come upon my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more.
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。
3 And the songs of the palace shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord Jehovah. The dead bodies shall be many; in every place they shall be cast forth. Silence!
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。」
4 Hear this, ye that pant after the needy, even to cause to fail the poor of the land,
壓榨窮人,使世上弱小絕跡的人哪! 你們應聽。
5 saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat? making the ephah small and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances for deceit:
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﹖
6 that we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; and that we may sell the refuse of the wheat.
用銀錢購買窮人,以一雙鞋換取貧人,連麥糠也賣掉﹖」
7 Jehovah hath sworn by the glory of Jacob, Certainly I will never forget any of their works.
上主指著雅各伯的誇耀說:「我永不會忘了你們的所作所為。
8 Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein? And it shall wholly rise up like the Nile; and it shall surge and sink down, as the river of Egypt.
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﹖
9 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 land in the clear day.
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;
10 And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up 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.
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。
11 Behold, days come, saith the Lord Jehovah, when 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.
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。
12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north to the east; they shall run to and fro to seek the word of Jehovah, and shall not find it.
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。
13 In that day shall the fair virgins and the young men faint for thirst;
那一天,美麗的處女和健壯的青年,必因饑渴而暈眩。
14 they that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, [As] thy god, O Dan, liveth! and, [As] the way of Beer-sheba liveth! even they shall fall, and never rise up again.
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。