Amos 8

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

The Lord Jehovah showed me this vision: Behold a basket of ripe fruits!

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 seest thou? And I said, A basket of ripe fruits. Then said Jehovah to me, The destruction of my people Israel is ripe; I will not spare them any more.

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!”

The songs of the palace shall be shrieks in that day, Saith the Lord Jehovah. There shall be many dead bodies in every place, And they shall be cast forth in silence.

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

Hear this, ye that pant to oppress the needy, And to destroy the poor of 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.

That say, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn, And the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, Making the ephah small, and the shekel heavy, And falsifying the balances for deceit,

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

That we may buy the poor for silver, And the needy for a pair of shoes, And sell the refuse of the wheat?

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

Jehovah hath sworn by the glory of Jacob: Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.

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.

Shall not the land tremble for this, And shall not all that dwell therein mourn? Shall not all of it rise in waves like a river, And be swept from its place, and overflowed, as by 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.

It shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord Jehovah, That I will cause the sun to go down at noon, And will darken the land in the clear day.

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.

I will turn your feasts into mourning, And all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth upon all loins, And baldness upon all heads. I will fill the land with mourning, as for an only son, And its end shall be as a day of bitter woe.

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.

Behold, the time cometh, saith the Lord Jehovah, That I will send a famine upon the land; Not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, But of hearing the word of Jehovah.

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 men shall wander from sea to sea, And from the north even to the east shall they run to and fro, To seek an answer from Jehovah, and shall not find it.

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

In that day shall the fair virgins, and the young men, faint for thirst,

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.”

Who swear by the sin of Samaria, And say, By the life of thy God, O Dan! And, By the worship of Beersheba! They shall fall, and shall rise no more!