Amos 8
1 This is what the Lord God showed me. I saw a basket of fruit.
These things the Lord has revealed to me. And behold, a hook to draw down 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.
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 On that day the Temple songs will become sorrowful wailing. There will be dead bodies scattered everywhere. Silence!” declares the Lord.
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 Listen to this, you who trample down the needy, and wipe out the poor of the land.
Hear this, you who crush the poor and who make those in need of land to do without.
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?”
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 You buy the poor for silver, the needy for a pair of sandals, and you sell grain mixed with chaff.
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 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 arrogance of Jacob: I will not forget, even to the end, all their works.
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 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 On that day, declares the Lord God, I will make the sun go down at noon, and darken the land during the daytime.
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 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.
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 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 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 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.
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 On that day, even the beautiful girls and healthy young men will collapse from thirst.
In that day, beautiful virgins, and young men, will fail because of 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.
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.
