Amos 8

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

This is what the Lord Yahweh showed me. Look, 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.

He said, “What do you see, Amos?” I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then Yahweh said to me, “The end has come for my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.

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

The songs of the temple will become wailings in that day —this is the declaration of the Lord Yahweh— many dead bodies, they are thrown everywhere! Silence!”

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

Listen to this, you who trample the needy and remove 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?”

They say, “When will the new moon be over, so we can sell grain again? When will the Sabbath day be over, so that we can sell wheat? We will make the measure small and increase the price, as we cheat with false scales.

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

This is so we can sell bad wheat, buy the poor with silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals.”

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.

Yahweh has sworn by the pride of Jacob, “Surely I will never forget any of their actions.”

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 every one who lives in it mourn? All of it will rise up like the Nile River, and it will be tossed about and sink again, 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.

“It will come in that day —this is the declaration of the Lord Yahweh— that I will make the sun set at noon, and I will darken the earth at daylight.

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 festivals into mourning and all your songs into lamentation. I will make all of you wear sackcloth and have baldness on every head. I will make it like mourning for an only son, and a bitter day to its end.

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.

Look, the days are coming —this is the declaration of the Lord Yahweh— when I will send a famine in the land, not a famine for bread, nor of thirst for water, but for hearing the words of Yahweh.

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.

They will stagger from sea to sea; they will run from the north to the east to seek the word of Yahweh, 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 beautiful virgins and the young men 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 sin of Samaria and say, 'As your god lives, Dan,' and, 'As the way to Beersheba exists'— they will fall and never rise again.”