Amos 1-9
Common English Bible
Introduction
1 These are the words of Amos, one of the shepherds of Tekoa. He perceived these things concerning Israel two years before the earthquake, in the days of Judah’s King Uzziah and in the days of Israel’s King Jeroboam, Joash’s son.
Proclamation of divine judgment
2 He said:
The Lord roars from Zion.
He shouts from Jerusalem;
the pastures of the shepherds wither,
and the top of Carmel dries up.
A word to Damascus
3 The Lord proclaims:
For three crimes of Damascus,
and for four, I won’t hold back the punishment,
because they have harvested Gilead
with sharp iron tools.
4 I will send down fire on the house of Hazael;
it will devour the palaces of Ben-hadad.
5 I will break the fortified gates of Damascus,
and eliminate the people from the Aven Valley,
including the one who rules from Beth-eden;
the people of Aram will be forced to live in Kir,
says the Lord.
A word to Gaza and Ashdod
6 The Lord proclaims:
For three crimes of Gaza,
and for four, I won’t hold back the punishment,
because they rounded up entire communities,
to hand them over to Edom.
7 I will send down a fire on the wall of Gaza;
it will devour Gaza’s palaces.
8 I will eliminate the people from Ashdod,
the one who rules from Ashkelon.
I will turn my hand against Ekron,
and the Philistines who remain will perish,
says the Lord God.
A word to Tyre
9 The Lord proclaims:
For three crimes of Tyre,
and for four, I won’t hold back the punishment,
because they have delivered up entire communities over to Edom,
and neglected their covenantal obligations.
10 So I will send a fire on the wall of Tyre;
it will devour their palaces.
A word to Edom
11 The Lord proclaims:
For three crimes of Edom,
and for four, I won’t hold back the punishment,
because he chased after his brother with the sword,
denied all compassion,
kept his anger alive,
and fueled his wrath forever.
12 So I will send a fire on Teman;
it will devour the fortresses of Bozrah.
A word to Ammon
13 The Lord proclaims:
For three crimes of the Ammonites,
and for four, I won’t hold back the punishment,
because they have ripped open pregnant women in Gilead
in order to possess more land.
14 So I will start a fire at the wall of Rabbah;
the fire will devour its palaces,
with a war cry on the day of battle,
with strong wind on the day of the storm.
15 Then their king will be taken away,
he and his officials together,
says the Lord.
A word to Moab
2 The Lord proclaims:
For three crimes of Moab,
and for four, I won’t hold back the punishment,
because he burned to lime
the bones of the king of Edom.
2 So I will send down a fire on Moab;
it will devour the palaces of Kerioth.
Moab will die in a great uproar,
with a war cry, with the sound of the ram’s horn.
3 I will remove their judge from them
and slay all their officials with him,
says the Lord.
A word to Judah
4 The Lord proclaims:
For three crimes of Judah,
and for four, I won’t hold back the punishment,
because they have rejected the Instruction of the Lord,
and haven’t kept his laws.
They have been led off the right path by the same lies
after which their ancestors walked.
5 So I will send a fire on Judah,
and it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem.
A word to Israel
6 The Lord proclaims:
For three crimes of Israel,
and for four, I won’t hold back the punishment,
because they have sold the innocent for silver,
and those in need for a pair of sandals.
7 They crush the head of the poor into the dust of the earth,
and push the afflicted out of the way.
Father and son have intercourse with the same young woman,
degrading my holy name.
8 They stretch out beside every altar
on garments taken in loan;
in the house of their god they drink
wine bought with fines they imposed.
9 Yet I destroyed the Amorite before them,
whose height was as tall as cedar trees,
and whose strength was as strong as oak trees.
I destroyed his fruit above
and his roots below.
10 Also I brought you up out of the land of Egypt,
and led you forty years in the wilderness,
to lay claim to the land of the Amorite.
11 I raised up some of your children to be prophets
and some of your youth to be nazirites.
Isn’t this so, people of Israel?
says the Lord.
12 But you made the nazirites drink wine,
and commanded the prophets,
saying, “You won’t prophesy.”
13 So now I will oppress you,
just like a cart is weighed down[a]
when it is full of harvested grain.
14 Fast runners will find no refuge;
the strong will lose their strength;
the mighty will be unable to save their lives.
15 Those who shoot the bow won’t survive.
Fast runners won’t escape;
those who ride horses won’t save themselves.
16 The bravest warrior
will flee away naked in that day,
says the Lord.
Words of doom for Israel
3 Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought out of the land of Egypt:
2 You only have I loved so deeply
of all the families of the earth.
Therefore, I will punish you
for all your wrongdoing.
3 Will two people walk together
unless they have agreed to do so?[b]
4 Does a lion roar in the forest
when it has no prey?
Does a young lion cry out from its den
if it has caught nothing?
5 Will a bird fall into a trap on the ground
when there is no bait for it?
Will a trap spring up from the ground
when it has taken nothing?
6 If a ram’s horn is blown in a city,
won’t people tremble?
If disaster falls on a city,
is it the Lord who has done it?
7 Surely the Lord God does nothing
without revealing his secret
to his servants the prophets.
8 A lion has roared;
who will not fear?
The Lord God has spoken;
who can but prophesy?
9 Proclaim it to the palaces of Ashdod
and to the palaces in the land of Egypt.
Say, “Gather yourselves on Mount Samaria,
and see the great turmoil in the city,
and what violent deeds are inside it.”
10 They don’t know how to do right,
says the Lord—
those who store up violence and robbery in their palaces.
11 Therefore, the Lord my God proclaims:
An enemy will surround the land;
he will bring you down from your protected places,
and your palaces will be robbed.
12 The Lord proclaims:
Just as the shepherd rescues two legs or the piece of an ear from the mouth of the lion, so will the people of Israel be rescued. Those who live in Samaria will escape with the corner of a bed, and those in Damascus with a piece of a couch.[c]
13 Hear this and speak against the house of Jacob,
says the Lord God, the God of heavenly forces:
14 On the day I punish the crimes of Israel,
I will also visit the altars of Bethel;
the horns of the altar will be cut off
and will fall to the ground.
15 I will tear down the winter house as well as the summer house;
the houses of ivory will perish;
the great houses will be swept away,
says the Lord.
Judgment on Israel’s elite
4 Hear this word, you cows of Bashan,
who are on Mount Samaria,
who cheat the weak,
who crush the needy,
who say to their husbands, “Bring drinks, so we can get drunk!”
2 The Lord God has solemnly promised by his holiness:
The days are surely coming upon you,
when they will take you away with hooks,
even the last one of you with fishhooks.
3 You will go out through the broken wall,
each one after another;
and you will be flung out into Harmon,
says the Lord.
A divine taunt
4 Come to Bethel—and commit a crime;
multiply crimes at Gilgal.
Bring your sacrifices every morning,
your tenth-part gifts every three days.
5 Offer a thanksgiving sacrifice of leavened bread,
and publicize your gifts to the Lord;
for so you love to do, people of Israel!
says the Lord God.
Israel’s stubbornness
6 I have sent a famine in all your cities,
and not provided enough bread in all your places,
yet you didn’t return to me,
says the Lord.
7 I also withheld rain from you
when there were still three months to the harvest.
I allowed rain to fall on one city,
no rain to fall on another city.
One field was rained on,
and the field dried up where it didn’t rain.
8 So two or three thirsty towns went to one city to drink water, and weren’t satisfied;
yet you didn’t return to me,
says the Lord.
9 I struck you with disease and mildew.
I destroyed your gardens and your vineyards.
The locust devoured your fig trees and your olive trees;
yet you didn’t return to me,
says the Lord.
10 I sent a plague against you like the one in Egypt.
I killed your young men with the sword.
I carried away your horses.
I made the stink of your camp go up into your nostrils;
yet you didn’t return to me,
says the Lord.
11 I destroyed some of you,
as when God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.
You were like a burning coal plucked out of the fire;
yet you didn’t return to me,
says the Lord.
12 Truly, Israel,
I will act in this way toward you;
therefore, I will do this to you.
Prepare to meet your God, Israel!
13 The one who forms the mountains, creates the wind,
makes known his thoughts to humankind,
makes the morning darkness,
and moves over the heights of the earth—
the Lord, the God of heavenly forces is his name!
A song of lament
5 Hear this word—a funeral song—that I am lifting up against you, house of Israel:
2 Fallen, no more to rise,
is virgin Israel,
deserted on her land,
with no one to raise her up.
3 The Lord God proclaims:
The city that marched out one thousand people
will have one hundred left,
and the city that marched out one hundred will have ten left in the house of Israel.
Words of encouragement
4 The Lord proclaims to the house of Israel:
Seek me and live.
5 But don’t seek Bethel,
don’t enter into Gilgal,
or cross over to Beer-sheba;
for Gilgal will go into exile,
and Bethel will come to nothing.
6 Seek the Lord and live,
or else God might rush like a fire against the house of Joseph.
The fire will burn up Bethel, with no one to put it out.
Words of doom
7 Doom to you who turn justice into poison,
and throw righteousness to the ground!
8 The one who made the Pleiades and Orion,
and turns deep darkness into the morning,
and darkens the day into night;
who summons the waters of the sea,
and pours them out on the surface of the earth—
this one’s name is the Lord—
9 who causes destruction to flash out against the strong,
so that destruction comes upon the fortress.
10 They hate the one who judges at the city gate,
and they reject the one who speaks the truth.
11 Truly, because you crush the weak,
and because you tax their grain,
you have built houses of carved stone,
but you won’t live in them;
you have planted pleasant vineyards,
but you won’t drink their wine.
12 I know how many are your crimes,
and how numerous are your sins—
afflicting the righteous,
taking money on the side,
turning away the poor who seek help.
13 Therefore, the one who is wise will keep silent in that time;
it is an evil time.
Words of inspiration
14 Seek good and not evil,
that you may live;
and so the Lord, the God of heavenly forces,
will be with you just as you have said.
15 Hate evil, love good,
and establish justice at the city gate.
Perhaps the Lord God of heavenly forces
will be gracious to what is left of Joseph.
Divine wrath anticipated
16 Truly, the Lord proclaims,
the God of heavenly forces, the Lord:
Crying will be heard in all the squares.
In all the streets they will say, “Oh no! Oh no!”
They will call upon the farmers to wail,
and those skilled in mourning to lament.
17 In all the vineyards there will be bitter crying because
I will pass through your midst,
says the Lord.
A statement of divine disgust
18 Doom to those who desire the day of the Lord!
Why do you want the day of the Lord?
It is darkness, not light;
19 as if someone fled from a lion,
and was met by a bear;
or sought refuge in a house,
rested a hand against the wall,
and was bitten by a snake.
20 Isn’t the day of the Lord darkness, not light;
all dark with no brightness in it?
21 I hate, I reject your festivals;
I don’t enjoy your joyous assemblies.
22 If you bring me your entirely burned offerings and gifts of food—
I won’t be pleased;
I won’t even look at your offerings of well-fed animals.
23 Take away the noise of your songs;
I won’t listen to the melody of your harps.
24 But let justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
25 Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings
during the forty years in the wilderness, house of Israel?
26 You will take up Sakkuth your king,
and Kaiwan your star-god,
your images, which you made for yourselves.
27 Therefore, I will take you away
beyond Damascus, says the Lord,
whose name is the God of heavenly forces.
Warnings to the self-satisfied
6 Doom to those resting comfortably in Zion
and those trusting in Mount Samaria,
the chiefs of the nations,
to whom the house of Israel comes!
2 Cross over to Calneh and see;
from there go to Hamath the great;
then go down to Gath of the Philistines.
Are you better than these kingdoms?
Or is your territory greater than their territory?
3 Doom to those who ignore the evil day
and make violent rule draw near:
4 who lie on beds of ivory,
stretch out on their couches,
eat lambs from the flock,
and bull calves from the stall;
5 who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp,
and, like David, compose tunes on musical instruments;
6 who drink bowls of wine,
put the best of oils on themselves,
but who aren’t grieved over the ruin of Joseph!
7 Therefore, they will now be the first to be taken away,
and the feast of those who lounged at the table will pass away.
8 The Lord God has solemnly sworn,
says the Lord, the God of heavenly forces:
I reject the pride of Jacob.
I hate his fortresses.
I will hand over the city and all that is in it.
9 If ten people remain in one house,
then they will die.
10 If a relative, someone who burns the dead,
picks up the body to bring it out of the house,
and says to someone inside the house,
“Is anyone else with you?”
the answer will be, “No.”
Then the relative will say,
“Hush! We mustn’t mention the name of the Lord.”
11 Look, the Lord is giving an order;
he will shatter the great house into bits
and the little house into pieces.
12 Do horses run on rocks?
Does one plow the sea with oxen?
But you have turned justice into poison
and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness—
13 you who rejoice in Lo-debar,
who say, “Haven’t we by our own strength taken Karnaim for ourselves?”
14 Indeed, I will raise up against you a nation, house of Israel, says the Lord God of heavenly forces,
and they will oppress you from Lebo-hamath to the desert ravine.
A vision of locusts
7 This is what the Lord God showed me: The Lord God was forming locusts at the time the late grass began to sprout. (It was the late grass after the king’s harvest.) 2 When they had finished eating the green plants of the land, I said,
“Lord God, please forgive!
How can Jacob survive?
He is so small!”
3 The Lord relented concerning this:
“It won’t take place,”
says the Lord.
A vision of fire
4 This is what the Lord God showed me: The Lord God was calling for judgment with fire, and it devoured the great deep and was eating up part of the land. 5 Then I said,
“Lord God, I beg you, stop!
How can Jacob survive?
He is so small!”
6 The Lord relented concerning this:
“This also won’t take place,”
says the Lord God.
A vision of a plumb line
7 This is what the Lord showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall, with a plumb line in his hand. 8 The Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?”
“A plumb line,” I said.
Then the Lord said,
“See, I am setting a plumb line
in the middle of my people Israel.
I will never again forgive them.
9 The shrines of Isaac will be made desolate,
and the holy places of Israel will be laid waste,
and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”
Exchange between Amaziah, Jeroboam, and Amos
10 Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, reported to Israel’s King Jeroboam, “Amos has plotted against you within the house of Israel. The land isn’t able to cope with everything that he is saying. 11 Amos has said, ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will be forced out of its land.’”
12 Amaziah said to Amos, “You who see things, go, run away to the land of Judah, eat your bread there, and prophesy there; 13 but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s holy place and his royal house.”
14 Amos answered Amaziah, “I am[d] not a prophet, nor am I a prophet’s son; but I am a shepherd, and a trimmer of sycamore trees. 15 But the Lord took me from shepherding the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’
16 “Now then hear the Lord’s word.
You say, ‘Don’t prophesy against Israel,
and don’t preach
against the house of Isaac.’
17 “Therefore, the Lord proclaims:
‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the city,
and your sons and your daughters will fall by the sword,
and your land will be measured and divided up;
you yourself will die in an unclean land,
and Israel will surely be taken away from its land.’”
A vision of summer fruit
8 This is what the Lord God showed me: 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 upon my people Israel;
I will never again forgive them.
3 On that day, the people will wail the temple songs,”
says the Lord God;
“there will be many corpses,
thrown about everywhere.[e]
Silence.”
Judgment on oppressors and hypocrites
4 Hear this, you who trample on the needy and destroy
the poor of the land, 5 saying,
“When will the new moon
be over so that we may sell grain,
and the Sabbath
so that we may offer wheat for sale,
make the ephah smaller, enlarge the shekel,
and deceive with false balances,
6 in order to buy the needy for silver
and the helpless for sandals,
and sell garbage as grain?”
7 The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
Surely I will never forget what they have done.
8 Will not the land tremble on this account,
and all who live in it mourn,
as it rises and overflows like the Nile,
and then falls again, like the River of Egypt?[f]
9 On that day, says the Lord God,
I will make the sun go down at noon,
and I will darken the earth in broad daylight.
10 I will turn your feasts into sad affairs
and all your singing into a funeral song;
I will make people wear mourning clothes
and shave their heads;
I will make it like the loss of an only child,
and the end of it like a bitter day.
11 The days are surely coming, says the Lord God,
when I will send hunger and thirst on the land;
neither a hunger for bread, nor a thirst for water,
but of hearing the Lord ’s words.
12 They will wander from sea to sea,
and from north to east;
they will roam all around, seeking the Lord’s word,
but they won’t find it.
13 On that day the beautiful young women and the young men
will faint with thirst.
14 Those who swear by the guilt of Samaria,
and say, “As your god lives, Dan,”
and, “As the way of Beer-sheba lives”—
even they will fall and never rise again.
Description of Israel’s fate
9 I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and the Lord said:
Strike the pillars until the foundations shake,
shatter them on the heads of all the people.
With the sword, I will kill the last of them;
not one of them will flee,
not one of them will escape.
2 If they dig through into the underworld,[g]
from there my hand will take them.
If they climb up to the heavens,
from there I will bring them down.
3 If they hide themselves on the top of Carmel,
I will search for them there and remove them.
If they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea,
I will give an order to the sea serpent, and it will bite them.
4 If they are forced from their homes before their enemies,
there I will give an order to the sword, and it will kill them.
I will fix my eyes on them
for harm and not for good.
A divine confession
5 The Lord, God of heavenly forces,
touches the earth and it melts,
and all who live in it are sick to death.
All of it[h] rises up like the Nile
and sinks again, like the Nile of Egypt.
6 It is the Lord who builds his upper rooms in the heavens
and establishes his residence upon the earth;
who summons the waters of the sea,
and pours them out upon the face of the earth—
the Lord is his name.
Divine address to the Israelites
7 Aren’t you like the Cushites to me,
people of Israel?
says the Lord.
Haven’t I brought Israel up from the land of Egypt,
and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir?
8 Look, the Lord God is eyeing the sinful kingdom,
and I will destroy it from the face of the earth.
However, I won’t destroy fully the house of Jacob,
says the Lord.
Warning to the house of Israel
9 Look, I am giving orders,
and I will shake the house of Israel among all the nations
as one sifts dirt with a screen,
but no pebble will fall to the ground.
10 All the sinners of my people will die by the sword,
those who say,
“Evil won’t overtake or meet us.”
Divine promise of restoration
11 On that day I will raise up
the meeting tent of David that has fallen,
and repair its broken places.
I will raise up its ruins,
and I will rebuild it like a long time ago;
12 so that they may possess what is left of Edom,
as well as all the nations who are called by my name,
says the Lord who will do this.
13 The days are surely coming, says the Lord,
when the one who plows
will overtake the one who gathers,
when the one who crushes grapes
will overtake the one who sows the seed.
The mountains will drip wine,
and all the hills will flow with it.
14 I will improve the circumstances of my people Israel;
they will rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them.
They will plant vineyards and drink their wine;
and they will make gardens and eat their fruit.
15 I will plant them upon their land,
and they will never again be plucked up
out of the land that I have given them,
says the Lord your God.
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible
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