Amos 8

1 This is what the Lord Yahweh showed me. Look, a basket of summer fruit!

This is what the Lord God let me see: and I saw a basket of summer fruit.

2 He said, “What do you see, Amos?” I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then Yahweh said to me, “The end has come for my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.

And he said, Amos, what do you see? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then the Lord said to me, The end has come to my people Israel; never again will my eyes be shut to their sin.

3 The songs of the temple will become wailings in that day —this is the declaration of the Lord Yahweh— many dead bodies, they are thrown everywhere! Silence!”

And the songs of the king's house will be cries of pain in that day, says the Lord God: great will be the number of the dead bodies, and everywhere they will put them out without a word.

4 Listen to this, you who trample the needy and remove the poor of the land.

Give ear to this, you who are crushing the poor, and whose purpose is to put an end to those who are in need in the land,

5 They say, “When will the new moon be over, so we can sell grain again? When will the Sabbath day be over, so that we can sell wheat? We will make the measure small and increase the price, as we cheat with false scales.

Saying, When will the new moon be gone, so that we may do trade in grain? and the Sabbath, so that we may put out in the market the produce of our fields? making the measure small and the price great, and trading falsely with scales of deceit;

6 This is so we can sell bad wheat, buy the poor with silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals.”

Getting the poor for silver, and him who is in need for the price of two shoes, and taking a price for the waste parts of the grain.

7 Yahweh has sworn by the pride of Jacob, “Surely I will never forget any of their actions.”

The Lord has taken an oath by the pride of Jacob, Truly I will ever keep in mind all their works.

8 Will not the land quake for this, and every one who lives in it mourn? All of it will rise up like the Nile River, and it will be tossed about and sink again, like the river of Egypt.

Will not the land be shaking with fear because of this, and everyone in it have sorrow? and all of it will be overflowing like the River; and it will be troubled and go down again like the River of Egypt.

9 “It will come in that day —this is the declaration of the Lord Yahweh— that I will make the sun set at noon, and I will darken the earth at daylight.

And it will come about in that day, says the Lord God, that I will make the sun go down in the middle of the day, and I will make the earth dark in daylight:

10 I will turn your festivals into mourning and all your songs into lamentation. I will make all of you wear sackcloth and have baldness on every head. I will make it like mourning for an only son, and a bitter day to its end.

Your feasts will be turned into sorrow and all your melody into songs of grief; everyone will be clothed with haircloth, and the hair of every head will be cut; I will make the weeping like that for an only son, and the end of it like a bitter day.

11 Look, the days are coming —this is the declaration of the Lord Yahweh— when I will send a famine in the land, not a famine for bread, nor of thirst for water, but for hearing the words of Yahweh.

See, the days are coming, says the Lord God, when I will send times of great need on the land, not need of food or desire for water, but for hearing the words of the Lord.

12 They will stagger from sea to sea; they will run from the north to the east to seek the word of Yahweh, but they will not find it.

And they will go wandering from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, running here and there in search of the word of the Lord, and they will not get it.

13 In that day the beautiful virgins and the young men will faint from thirst.

In that day the fair virgins and the young men will be feeble from need of water.

14 Those who swear by the sin of Samaria and say, 'As your god lives, Dan,' and, 'As the way to Beersheba exists'— they will fall and never rise again.”

Those who make their oaths by the sin of Samaria and say, By the life of your God, O Dan; and, By the living way of Beer-sheba; even they will go down, never again to be lifted up.