< Amos 8 >

1 Thus has the Lord GOD showed to 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 see you? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the LORD to me, The end is come on my people of 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 temple shall be howlings in that day, says the Lord GOD: there shall be many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them forth with 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, O you that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail,
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 by 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; yes, and 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 The LORD has sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely 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 dwells therein? and it shall rise up wholly as a flood; and it shall be cast out and drowned, as by the flood 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, says the Lord GOD, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth 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 on all loins, and baldness on every head; and I will make it as the mourning of 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, the days come, says the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:
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 even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, 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 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, Your god, O Dan, lives; and, The manner of Beersheba lives; 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。

< Amos 8 >