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1 This is what the Lord God showed me. I saw a basket of fruit.*Probably figs. 2 He asked me, “What do you see, Amos?” I said, “A basket of fruit.” Then the Lord told me, “This is the end of my people Israel! I won't ignore their sins anymore. 3 On that day the Temple songs will become sorrowful wailing. There will be dead bodies scattered everywhere. Silence!” declares the Lord.
4 Listen to this, you who trample down the needy, and wipe out the poor of the land. 5 You who ask, “When will the holy day†Literally, “new moon”—one of Israel's religious festivals. be over so we can get back to selling grain? When will the Sabbath be over so we can open our storehouses, and cheat people with short measures and unfair scales?” 6 You buy the poor for silver, the needy for a pair of sandals, and you sell grain mixed with chaff. 7 The Lord God, of whom the descendants of Jacob are so proud, has sworn an oath: I will never forget the evil you have done. 8 Shall not the land tremble because of this, and everyone who lives there mourn? The earth will rise up like the Nile River in flood, be tossed around, and then fall again.
9 On that day, declares the Lord God, I will make the sun go down at noon, and darken the land during the daytime. 10 I will turn your festivals into times of mourning, your happy songs into laments. I will make you wear sackcloth and shave your heads.‡Signs of mourning for the dead. I will make your mourning like that for an only son. At the end of it all it will be a bitter day.
11 The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will send a famine on the land—not a famine of bread, or a lack of water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. 12 People will wander from sea to sea,§From the Mediterranean to the Dead Sea. from north to east, running to and fro searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it. 13 On that day, even the beautiful girls and healthy young men will collapse from thirst. 14 Those who swear by the disgraceful idols*“disgraceful idols”: literally, “guilt.” of Samaria, who take oaths like, “By the life of your god, Dan,” or “A pilgrimage to the god of Beersheba”—they will fall, and never rise again.

- Amos
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*8:1 Probably figs.

†8:5 Literally, “new moon”—one of Israel's religious festivals.

‡8:10 Signs of mourning for the dead.

§8:12 From the Mediterranean to the Dead Sea.

*8:14 “disgraceful idols”: literally, “guilt.”

© 2018 Dr. Jonathan Gallagher