< Amosi 8 >
1 Hili ndilo alilonionyesha Bwana Mwenyezi katika maono: kikapu cha matunda yaliyoiva.
Thus the Lord GOD showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit.
2 Akaniuliza, “Amosi, unaona nini?” Nikajibu, “Kikapu chenye matunda yaliyoiva.” Ndipo Bwana akaniambia, “Wakati umewadia kwa watu wangu Israeli; sitawahurumia zaidi.”
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.
3 Bwana Mwenyezi asema, “Katika siku ile, nyimbo katika Hekalu zitageuka kuwa maombolezo. Miili mingi, mingi sana: itatupwa kila mahali! Kimya!”
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.
4 Lisikieni hili, ninyi ambao mnawagandamiza wahitaji, na kuwaonea maskini wa nchi,
Hear this, you who desire to swallow up the needy, and cause the poor of the land to fail,
5 mkisema, “Ni lini Mwezi Mwandamo utakapopita ili tupate kuuza nafaka, na Sabato itakwisha lini ili tuweze kuuza ngano?” Mkipunguza vipimo, na kuongeza bei, na kudanganya kwa mizani zisizo sawa,
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;
6 mkiwanunua maskini kwa fedha, na wahitaji kwa jozi ya viatu, na mkiuza hata takataka za ngano pamoja na ngano.
that we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals, and sell the sweepings with the wheat?’”
7 Bwana ameapa kwake mwenyewe, aliye Kiburi cha Yakobo: “Kamwe sitasahau chochote ambacho wamefanya.
The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob, “Surely I will never forget any of their works.
8 “Je, nchi haitatetemeka kwa ajili ya hili, nao wote waishio ndani mwake hawataomboleza? Nchi yote itainuka kama Naili; itapanda na kushuka kama mto wa Misri.
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.
9 “Katika siku ile,” asema Bwana Mwenyezi, “Nitalifanya jua litue alasiri na kuifanya dunia iwe giza wakati wa mchana mwangavu.
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.
10 Nitageuza sikukuu zenu za kidini kuwa maombolezo, na kuimba kwenu kote kuwe kilio. Nitawafanya ninyi nyote mvae nguo ya gunia na kunyoa nywele zenu. Nitaufanya wakati ule uwe kama wa kuombolezea mwana wa pekee, na mwisho wake kama siku ya uchungu.
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.
11 “Siku zinakuja,” asema Bwana Mwenyezi, “wakati nitakapotuma njaa katika nchi yote: si njaa ya chakula wala kiu ya maji, lakini njaa ya kusikia maneno ya Bwana.
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.
12 Wanaume watayumbayumba kutoka bahari hadi bahari na kutangatanga kutoka kaskazini mpaka mashariki, wakitafuta neno la Bwana, lakini hawatalipata.
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.
13 “Katika siku ile “wasichana wazuri na vijana wanaume wenye nguvu watazimia kwa sababu ya kiu.
In that day the beautiful virgins and the young men will faint for thirst.
14 Wale waapao kwa aibu ya Samaria, au kusema, ‘Hakika kama miungu yenu iishivyo, ee Dani,’ au ‘Hakika kama mungu wa Beer-Sheba aishivyo’: wataanguka, wala hawatasimama tena.”
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.”