Amos 8

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

Yahweh showed me [in a vision] a basket full of ripe 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.

He asked me, “Amos, what do you see?” I replied, “A basket of [very] ripe fruit.” He said, “That indicates that it almost the end for my Israeli people. I will not change my mind again about punishing 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!”

[Soon, ] instead of singing in the temple, they will be wailing. There will be corpses everywhere [HYP]. So, remain silent (OR, Everyone will be silent). [These things will surely happen because] I, Yahweh, have said it!”

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

[It is as though] you people trample on needy people, and you destroy the poor people.

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.

You habitually say, “We wish that [RHQ] the new moon [festival] would end soon, in order that [restrictions on doing business during the festival will be ended] and we can sell grain. We wish that the Sabbath would end soon, in order that we will again be permitted to sell our wheat”— and [when you sell it], you charge a big price for it, and you cheat people by using scales that do not weigh correctly.

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

You sell wheat that you have swept up from the floor, and as a result it is mixed with dirt. Those who are needy and poor [DOU] and who do not have money [to buy things], you cause them to become your slaves by buying them with the [small amount of] silver [with which you could buy] a pair of sandals!

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

Yahweh has declared, “Although you are very proud of [being descendants] [MTY] of Jacob, I solemnly declare that I will not forget the [evil things] that you have done.

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.

[Because of those evil things], your country will certainly [RHQ] soon be shaken, and all of you will mourn. [It will be as though] it will repeatedly rise and fall like [SIM] the Nile [River] that gets full of water [and overflows it banks] and then settles back into its riverbed.

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,

On the day [when I punish my people], I will cause the sun to set at noontime, and the [entire] earth will be dark 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 cause your [religious] celebrations to become times when you mourn; instead of singing, everyone will be weeping. Because of what I [will do], all of you will wear rough sackcloth and shave your heads [to show that you are sorrowing]. I will cause that time to be like when people mourn after an only son [has died]. All of you will be extremely sad all of that 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.

And Yahweh our God says this: “It will [soon] be the time when I will cause something to be very scarce [MET] throughout the country. But it will not be a time when there is no food or water; it will instead be a time when there will be no messages from me for anyone to hear.

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 the [Dead] Sea to the [Mediterranean] Sea, and wander from the north to the east, searching for a message from me, but there will not be any.

13 In that day the beautiful virgins, And the young men, faint with thirst.

At that time, even beautiful young women and strong young men will faint because of being very thirsty.

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 (make oaths/solemnly promise to do something) using the names of their shameful gods of Samaria, and those who solemnly promise to do something [using the name of] the god of Dan, and those who solemnly promise to do something [using the name of] the god of Beersheba, will all die; and they will never live again.”