Amos 8

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

Thus hath the Lord God shewed vnto me, and behold, a basket of summer fruite.

2 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.

And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I sayd, A basket of sommer fruite. Then sayd the Lord vnto me, The ende is come vpon my people of Israel, I wil passe by them no more.

3 [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!”

And the songs of the Temple shalbe howlings in that day, saith the Lord God: many dead bodies shalbe in euery place: they shall cast them forth with silence.

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

Heare this, O yee that swallowe vp the poore, that ye may make the needie of the lande to fayle,

5 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.

Saying, When will the newe moneth bee gone, that we may sell corne? and the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheate, and make the Ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifie the weights by deceit?

6 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!

That we may buy the poore for siluer, and the needie for shooes: yea, and sell the refuse of the wheate.

7 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.

The Lord hath sworne by the excellencie of Iaakob, Surely I will neuer forget any of their workes.

8 [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.

Shall not the lande tremble for this, and euery one mourne, that dwelleth therein? and it shall rise vp wholy as a flood, and it shall bee cast out, and drowned as by the flood of Egypt.

9 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.

And in that day, saith the Lord God, I will euen cause the sunne to go downe at noone: and I will darken the earth in the cleare day.

10 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.”

And I will turne your feastes into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation: and I will bring sackcloth vpon all loynes, and baldnes vpon euery head: and I will make it as the mourning of an onely sonne, and the ende thereof as a bitter day.

11 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.

Beholde, the dayes come, sayeth the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the lande, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the word of the Lord.

12 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.

And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the North euen vnto the East shall they run to and from to seeke the worde of the Lord, and shall not finde it.

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

In that day shall the faire virgines and the yong men perish for thirst.

14 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.”

They that sweare by the sinne of Samaria, and that say, Thy God, O Dan, liueth, and the maner of Beer-sheba liueth, euen they shall fall, and neuer rise vp againe.