Amos 8

1 Thus has Lord YHWH showed me, and behold, a basket of summer-fruit.

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

2 And He says, “What are you seeing, Amos?” And I say, “A basket of summer-fruit.” And YHWH says to me: “The end has come to My people Israel, I no longer pass over to it 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 And female singers have howled of a palace in that day,” A declaration of Lord YHWH, “Many [are] the carcasses, into any place throw—hush!”

“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 Hear this, you who are swallowing up the needy, To cause the poor of the land to cease,

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

5 Saying, “When does the new moon pass, And we sell ground grain? And the Sabbath, and we open out pure grain? To make little the ephah, And to make great the shekel, And to use balances of deceit perversely.

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 To purchase the poor with money, And the needy for a pair of sandals, Indeed, the refuse of the pure grain we sell.”

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

7 YHWH has sworn by the excellence of Jacob: “I do not forget any of their works forever.

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

8 Does the land not tremble for this, And every dweller in it has mourned? And all of it has come up as a flood. And it has been cast out, and has sunk, Like the flood of Egypt.

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 And it has come to pass in that day,” A declaration of Lord YHWH, “I have caused the sun to go in at noon, And caused darkness on the land in a day of light,

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 And have turned your festivals to mourning, And all your songs to lamentation, And caused sackcloth to come up on all loins, And on every head—baldness, And made it as a mourning of an only one, And its latter end as a day of bitterness.

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 Behold, days are coming,” A declaration of Lord YHWH, “And I have sent a famine into the land, Not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, But of hearing the words of YHWH.

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 And they have wandered from sea to sea, And from north even to east, They go to and fro to seek the word of YHWH, And they do 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 In that day the beautiful virgins, And the young men, faint with thirst.

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

14 Those swearing by the guilt of Samaria, And who have said, Your god lives, O Dan, And, The way of Beer-Sheba lives, Indeed, they have fallen and do not 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.”