Amos 8

1 This is what the Lord God showed me. I saw a basket of fruit.

This is what the Lord GOD showed me: I saw a basket of summer fruit.

2 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.

“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.”

3 On that day the Temple songs will become sorrowful wailing. There will be dead bodies scattered everywhere. Silence!” declares the Lord.

“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!”

4 Listen to this, you who trample down the needy, and wipe out the poor of the land.

Hear this, you who trample the needy, who do away with the poor of the land,

5 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?”

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.

6 You buy the poor for silver, the needy for a pair of sandals, and you sell grain mixed with chaff.

Let us buy the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the chaff with the wheat!”

7 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.

The LORD has sworn by the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget any of their deeds.

8 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.

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.

9 On that day, declares the Lord God, I will make the sun go down at noon, and darken the land during the daytime.

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.

10 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.

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.

11 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.

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.

12 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.

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.

13 On that day, even the beautiful girls and healthy young men will collapse from thirst.

In that day the lovely young women— the young men as well— will faint from thirst.

14 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.

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.”