Amos 8
1 These things the Lord shewed to me: and behold a hook to draw down the fruit.
This is what the Lord God showed me. I saw a basket of fruit.
2 And he said: What seest thou, Amos? And I said: A hook to draw down fruit. And the Lord said to me: The end is come upon my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more.
He asked me, “What do you see, Amos?” I said, “A basket of fruit.” Then the Lord told me, “This is the end of my people Israel! I won't ignore their sins anymore.
3 And the hinges of the temple shall screak in that day, saith the Lord God: many shall die: silence shall be cast in every place.
On that day the Temple songs will become sorrowful wailing. There will be dead bodies scattered everywhere. Silence!” declares the Lord.
4 Hear this, you that crush the poor, and make the needy of the land to fail,
Listen to this, you who trample down the needy, and wipe out the poor of the land.
5 Saying: When will the month be over, and we shall sell our wares: and the sabbath, and we shall open the corn: that we may lessen the measure, and increase the sicle, and may convey in deceitful balances,
You who ask, “When will the holy day be over so we can get back to selling grain? When will the Sabbath be over so we can open our storehouses, and cheat people with short measures and unfair scales?”
6 That we may possess the needy for money, and the poor for a pair of shoes, and may sell the refuse of the corn?
You buy the poor for silver, the needy for a pair of sandals, and you sell grain mixed with chaff.
7 The Lord hath sworn against the pride of Jacob: surely I will never forget all their works.
The Lord God, of whom the descendants of Jacob are so proud, has sworn an oath: I will never forget the evil you have done.
8 Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein: and rise up altogether as a river, and be cast out, and run down as the river of Egypt?
Shall not the land tremble because of this, and everyone who lives there mourn? The earth will rise up like the Nile river in flood, be tossed around, and then fall again.
9 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that the sun shall go down at midday, and I will make the earth dark in the day of light:
On that day, declares the Lord God, I will make the sun go down at noon, and darken the land during the daytime.
10 And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation: and I will bring up sackcloth upon every back of yours, and baldness upon every head: and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the latter end thereof as a bitter day.
I will turn your festivals into times of mourning, your happy songs into laments. I will make you wear sackcloth and shave your heads. I will make your mourning like that for an only son. At the end of it all it will be a bitter day.
11 Behold the days come, saith the Lord, and I will send forth a famine into the land: not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, but of hearing the word of the Lord.
The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will send a famine on the land—not a famine of bread, or a lack of water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.
12 And they shall move from sea to sea, and from the north to the east: they shall go about seeking the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.
People will wander from sea to sea, from north to east, running to and fro searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it.
13 In that day the fair virgins, and the young men shall faint for thirst.
On that day, even the beautiful girls and healthy young men will collapse from thirst.
14 They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say: Thy God, O Dan, liveth: and the way of Bersabee liveth: and they shall fall, and shall rise no more.
Those who swear by the disgraceful idols of Samaria, who take oaths like, “By the life of your god, Dan,” or “A pilgrimage to the god of Beersheba”—they will fall, and never rise again.
