Amos 8-9

New King James Version

Vision of the Summer Fruit

8 Thus the Lord God showed me: Behold, a basket of summer fruit. ²And He said, “Amos, what do you see?”

So I said, “A basket of summer fruit.”

Then the Lord said to me:

^(A)“The end has come upon My people Israel;
^(B)I will not pass by them anymore.
³And ^(C)the songs of the temple
Shall be wailing in that day,”
Says the Lord God—
“Many dead bodies everywhere,
^(D)They shall be thrown out in silence.”

⁴Hear this, you who ^[a]swallow up the needy,
And make the poor of the land fail,

⁵Saying:

“When will the New Moon be past,
That we may sell grain?
And ^(E)the Sabbath,
That we may ^[b]trade wheat?
^(F)Making the ephah small and the shekel large,
Falsifying the scales by ^(G)deceit,
⁶That we may buy the poor for ^(H)silver,
And the needy for a pair of sandals—
Even sell the bad wheat?”

⁷The Lord has sworn by ^(I)the pride of Jacob:
“Surely ^(J)I will never forget any of their works.
⁸^(K)Shall the land not tremble for this,
And everyone mourn who dwells in it?
All of it shall swell like ^[c]the River,
Heave and subside
^(L)Like the River of Egypt.

⁹“And it shall come to pass in that day,” says the Lord God,
^(M)“That I will make the sun go down at noon,
And I will darken the earth in ^[d]broad daylight;
¹⁰I will turn your feasts into ^(N)mourning,
^(O)And all your songs into lamentation;
^(P)I will bring sackcloth on every waist,
And baldness on every head;
I will make it like mourning for an only son,
And its end like a bitter day.

¹¹“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord God,
“That I will send a famine on the land,
Not a famine of bread,
Nor a thirst for water,
But ^(Q)of hearing the words of the Lord.
¹²They shall wander from sea to sea,
And from north to east;
They shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord,
But shall ^(R)not find it.

¹³“In that day the fair virgins
And strong young men
Shall faint from thirst.
¹⁴Those who ^(S)swear by ^(T)the ^[e]sin of Samaria,
Who say,
‘As your god lives, O Dan!’
And, ‘As the way of ^(U)Beersheba lives!’
They shall fall and never rise again.”

The Destruction of Israel

9 I saw the Lord standing by the altar, and He said:

“Strike the ^[f]doorposts, that the thresholds may shake,
And ^(V)break them on the heads of them all.
I will slay the last of them with the sword.
^(W)He who flees from them shall not get away,
And he who escapes from them shall not be delivered.

²“Though^(X) they dig into ^[g]hell,
From there My hand shall take them;
^(Y)Though they climb up to heaven,
From there I will bring them down;
³And though they ^(Z)hide themselves on top of Carmel,
From there I will search and take them;
Though they hide from My sight at the bottom of the sea,
From there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them;
⁴Though they go into captivity before their enemies,
From there ^(AA)I will command the sword,
And it shall slay them.
^(AB)I will set My eyes on them for harm and not for good.”

⁵The Lord God of hosts,
He who touches the earth and it ^(AC)melts,
^(AD)And all who dwell there mourn;
All of it shall swell like ^[h]the River,
And subside like the River of Egypt.
⁶He who builds His ^(AE)layers^[i] in the sky,
And has founded His strata in the earth;
Who ^(AF)calls for the waters of the sea,
And pours them out on the face of the earth—
^(AG)The Lord is His name.

⁷“Are you not like the ^[j]people of Ethiopia to Me,
O children of Israel?” says the Lord.
“Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt,
The ^(AH)Philistines from ^(AI)Caphtor,^[k]
And the Syrians from ^(AJ)Kir?

⁸“Behold, ^(AK)the eyes of the Lord God are on the sinful kingdom,
And I ^(AL)will destroy it from the face of the earth;
Yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,”
Says the Lord.

⁹“For surely I will command,
And will ^[l]sift the house of Israel among all nations,
As grain is sifted in a sieve;
^(AM)Yet not the smallest ^[m]grain shall fall to the ground.
¹⁰All the sinners of My people shall die by the sword,
^(AN)Who say, ‘The calamity shall not overtake nor confront us.’

Israel Will Be Restored

¹¹“On^(AO) that day I will raise up
The ^[n]tabernacle of David, which has fallen down,
And ^[o]repair its damages;
I will raise up its ruins,
And rebuild it as in the days of old;
¹²^(AP)That they may possess the remnant of ^(AQ)Edom,^[p]
And all the Gentiles who are called by My name,”
Says the Lord who does this thing.

¹³“Behold, ^(AR)the days are coming,” says the Lord,
“When the plowman shall overtake the reaper,
And the treader of grapes him who sows seed;
^(AS)The mountains shall drip with sweet wine,
And all the hills shall flow with it.
¹⁴^(AT)I will bring back the captives of My people Israel;
^(AU)They shall build the waste cities and inhabit them;
They shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them;
They shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them.
¹⁵I will plant them in their land,
^(AV)And no longer shall they be pulled up
From the land I have given them,”
Says the Lord your God.

Footnotes

Amos 8:4 Or trample on, Amos 2:7
Amos 8:5 Lit. open
Amos 8:8 The Nile; some Heb. mss., LXX, Tg., Syr., Vg. River (cf. 9:5); MT the light
Amos 8:9 Lit. a day of light
Amos 8:14 Or Ashima, a Syrian goddess
Amos 9:1 Capitals of the pillars
Amos 9:2 Or Sheol
Amos 9:5 The Nile
Amos 9:6 Or stairs
Amos 9:7 Lit. sons of the Ethiopians
Amos 9:7 Crete
Amos 9:9 shake
Amos 9:9 Lit. pebble
Amos 9:11 Lit. booth; a figure of a deposed dynasty
Amos 9:11 Lit. wall up its breaches
Amos 9:12 LXX mankind