Amos 8

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

And behold a fowler's basket.

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, What see you, Amos? And I said, A fowler's basket. And the Lord said to me, The end is come upon my people Israel; I will not pass by them any 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 ceilings of the temple shall howl in that day, says the Lord God: [there shall be] many a fallen one in every place; I will bring silence upon [them].

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

Hear now this, you that oppress the poor in the morning, and drive the needy ones by tyranny from the earth,

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 month pass away, and we shall sell, and the sabbath, and we shall open the treasure, to make the measure small, and to enlarge the weight, and make the balance unfair?

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 poor for silver, and the needy for shoes; and we will trade in every kind of fruit.

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 swears against the pride of Jacob, None of your works shall ever be forgotten.

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.

And shall not the land be troubled for these things, and shall not every one who dwells in it mourn? whereas destruction shall come up as a river, and shall descend as the river 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 it shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord God, [that] the sun shall go down at noon, and the light shall be darkened on the earth by 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 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 them as the mourning of a beloved [friend], and those with them as a day of grief.

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.

Behold, the days come, says the Lord, that I will send forth a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a famine 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 the waters shall be troubled from sea to sea, and from the north to the east shall [men] run hither and there, seeking the word of the Lord, and they shall not find [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 fair virgins and the young men faint 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 who swear by the propitiation of Samaria, and who say, Your god, O Dan, lives; and, Your god, O Bersabee, lives; and they shall fall, and shall no more rise again.