Amos 8

1 Thus the Lord GOD showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit.

Here, My Lord, Yahweh, gave me to see, —and lo! there was a basket of summer fruit.

2 He said, “Amos, what do you see?” I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the LORD said to me, “The end has come on my people Israel. I will not again pass by them any more.

So then he said, What canst thou see, Amos? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said Yahweh unto me, The end hath come unto my people Israel, I will not again any more forgive them;

3 The songs of the temple will be wailing in that day,” says the Lord GOD. “The dead bodies will be many. In every place they will throw them out with silence.

but palace-songs, shall become howlings, in that day, Declareth My Lord, Yahweh, —Many shall be the dead bodies in every place—cast forth—[with a] hush!

4 Hear this, you who desire to swallow up the needy, and cause the poor of the land to fail,

Hear this, ye who pant after the needy, and to make an end of the oppressed of the land:

5 saying, ‘When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may market wheat, making the efah small, and the shekel large, and dealing falsely with balances of deceit;

Who say, When will the new moon, pass away, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath that we may open grain? who diminish the ephah, and increase the shekel, and who falsify by deceitful weights:

6 that we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals, and sell the sweepings with the wheat?’”

Who buy—for silver—the poor, and the needy for a pair of shoes, —and that the refuse of the grain we may sell.

7 The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob, “Surely I will never forget any of their works.

Sworn hath Yahweh, by the Excellency of Jacob, —Surely I will never forget any of their doings!

8 Won’t the land tremble for this, and everyone mourn who dwells in it? Yes, it will rise up wholly like the River; and it will be stirred up and sink again, like the River of Egypt.

Is it not, for this, that the land, shall tremble? and shall mourn every inhabitant therein? Shall it not come up—like the Nile, all of it, and be tossed and subside like the river of Egypt?

9 It will happen in that day,” says the Lord GOD, “that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day.

Yea it shall come to pass, in that day, Declareth My Lord, Yahweh, that I will cause the sun to go in at high noon, —and will darken the earth on a day of brightness!

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

So will I turn your festivals into mourning, and all your songs into a dirge, and I will bring up—on all loins—sackcloth, and upon every head—baldness, —and I will make it like the mourning for an only one, even the afterpart thereof, as a day of bitterness.

11 Behold, the days come,” says the Lord GOD, “that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the LORD’s words.

Lo! days are coming, Declareth My Lord, Yahweh, that I will send a hunger throughout the land, —not a hunger for food, nor a thirst for water, but for hearing the words of Yahweh;

12 They will wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they will run back and forth to seek the LORD’s word, and will not find it.

Therefore shall men rove about—from sea to sea, and from the north even unto sunrise, —they shall run to and fro—seeking the word of Yahweh, but shall not find [it].

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

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

14 Those who swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, ‘As your god, Dan, lives,’ and, ‘As the way of Beersheba lives,’ they will fall, and never rise up again.”

They who swear by the Guilt of Samaria, and say, As thy God, liveth, O Dan! and, As the Way of Beer-sheba, liveth, shall fall, and shall not rise any more.