Amos 7-9
New American Standard Bible
Warning through Visions
7 This is what the Lord [a]God showed me, and behold, He was forming a (A)swarm of locusts [b]when the spring crop began to sprout. And behold, the spring crop was after the king’s mowing. 2 And it came about, [c]when it had (B)finished eating the vegetation of the land, that I said,
“(C)Lord God, please pardon!
How can Jacob stand?
For he is (D)small.”
3 The Lord (E)relented of this.
“It shall not be,” said the Lord.
4 So the Lord God showed me, and behold, the Lord God was calling to contend with them by (F)fire, and it consumed the great deep and began to consume the [d]farmland. 5 Then I said,
“(G)Lord God, please stop!
(H)How can Jacob stand?
For he is small.”
6 The Lord (I)relented of this.
“This too shall not be,” said the Lord God.
7 So He showed me, and behold, the Lord was standing [e]by a [f]vertical wall with a plumb line in His hand. 8 And the Lord said to me, “(J)What do you see, Amos?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said,
“Behold I am about to put a (K)plumb line
In the midst of My people Israel.
I will not [g](L)spare them any longer.
9 The (M)high places of Isaac will become deserted,
And the (N)sanctuaries of Israel will be in ruins.
Then I will (O)rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”
Amos Accused; Gives an Answer
10 Then Amaziah, the (P)priest of Bethel, sent word to (Q)Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has (R)conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel; the land is unable to endure all his words. 11 For this is what Amos says: ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will certainly go from its land into exile.’” 12 Then Amaziah said to Amos, “(S)Go, you seer, flee to the land of Judah; and eat bread there and do your prophesying there! 13 But (T)do not prophesy at Bethel any longer, for it is a (U)sanctuary of the king and a royal [h]residence.”
14 Then Amos replied to Amaziah, “I am not a prophet, nor am I the (V)son of a prophet; for I am a herdsman and a [i]grower of sycamore figs. 15 But the Lord took me from [j]following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go (W)prophesy to My people Israel.’ 16 So now hear the word of the Lord: you are saying, ‘You (X)shall not prophesy against Israel (Y)nor shall you [k]prophesy against the house of Isaac.’ 17 Therefore, this is what the Lord says: ‘Your (Z)wife will become a prostitute in the city, your (AA)sons and your daughters will fall by the sword, your land will be parceled up by a measuring line, and you yourself will die [l]upon (AB)unclean soil. Furthermore Israel will certainly go from its land into exile.’”
Basket of Fruit and Israel’s Captivity
8 This is what the Lord [m]God showed me, and behold, there was a basket of summer fruit. 2 And He said, “What do you see, Amos?” And (AC)I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me, “The (AD)end has come for My people Israel. I will not [n](AE)spare them any longer. 3 [o]The (AF)songs of the palace will turn to (AG)wailing on that day,” declares the Lord God. “The (AH)corpses will be many; in every place [p]they will throw them out. [q]Hush!”
4 Hear this, you who [r](AI)trample the needy, to put an end to the humble of the land, 5 saying,
“When will the (AJ)new moon [s]be over,
So that we may sell grain;
And the (AK)Sabbath, so that we may open the wheat market,
To make the [t]ephah smaller and the [u]shekel bigger,
And to (AL)cheat with dishonest scales,
6 So as to (AM)buy the helpless for [v]money,
And the needy for a pair of sandals,
And that we may sell the refuse of the wheat?”
7 The Lord has (AN)sworn by the (AO)pride of Jacob,
“Indeed, I will (AP)never forget any of their deeds.
8 Because of this will the land not (AQ)quake,
And everyone who lives in it (AR)mourn?
Indeed, all of it will (AS)rise up like the Nile,
And it will be tossed about
And subside like the Nile of Egypt.
9 And it will come about on that day,” declares the Lord God,
“That I will make the (AT)sun go down at noon,
And (AU)make the earth dark in [w]broad daylight.
10 Then I will (AV)turn your festivals into mourning,
And all your songs into songs of mourning;
And I will put (AW)sackcloth around everyone’s waist,
And [x]baldness on every head.
And I will make it (AX)like a time of mourning for an only son,
And the end of it will be like a bitter day.
11 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord God,
“When I will send a famine on the land,
Not a famine of bread or a thirst for water,
But rather (AY)for hearing the words of the Lord.
12 People will stagger from sea to sea
And from the north even to the east;
They will roam about to (AZ)seek the word of the Lord,
But they will not find it.
13 On that day the beautiful (BA)virgins
And the young men will (BB)faint from thirst.
14 As for those who swear by the [y](BC)guilt of Samaria,
And say, ‘As your god lives, (BD)Dan,’
And, ‘As the way of (BE)Beersheba lives,’
They will fall and (BF)not rise again.”
God’s Judgment Unavoidable
9 I saw the Lord standing beside the (BG)altar, and He said,
“Strike the pillar capitals so that the (BH)thresholds will shake,
And (BI)break them on the heads of them all!
Then I will (BJ)put to death the rest of them with the sword;
They will (BK)not have a fugitive who will flee,
Nor a survivor who will escape.
2 Though they dig into (BL)Sheol,
From there My hand will take them;
And though they (BM)ascend to heaven,
From there I will bring them down.
3 And though they hide on the summit of Carmel,
I will (BN)track them down and take them from there;
And though they (BO)hide themselves from My sight on the bottom of the sea,
I will command the (BP)serpent from there, and it will bite them.
4 And though they go into (BQ)captivity before their enemies,
From there I will command the sword and it will kill them,
And I will (BR)set My eyes against them for harm and not for good.”
5 The Lord [z]God of armies,
The One who (BS)touches the land so that it quakes,
And (BT)all those who live in it mourn,
And all of it rises up like the Nile
And subsides like the Nile of Egypt;
6 The One who builds His (BU)upper chambers in the heavens
And has founded His vaulted dome over the earth,
He who (BV)calls for the waters of the sea
And (BW)pours them out on the face of the earth,
(BX)The Lord is His name.
7 “Are you not as the sons of (BY)Ethiopia to Me,
You sons of Israel?” declares the Lord.
“Have I not brought up Israel from the land of Egypt,
And the (BZ)Philistines from Caphtor and the (CA)Arameans from (CB)Kir?
8 Behold, the (CC)eyes of the Lord God are on the sinful kingdom,
And I will (CD)eliminate it from the face of the earth;
Nevertheless, I will (CE)not totally eliminate the house of Jacob,”
Declares the Lord.
9 “For behold, I am commanding,
And I will (CF)shake the house of Israel among all nations
As grain is shaken in a sieve,
But not a pebble will fall to the ground.
10 All the (CG)sinners of My people will die by the sword,
Those who say, ‘(CH)The catastrophe will not overtake or confront us.’
The Restoration of Israel
11 “On that day I will (CI)raise up the fallen [aa](CJ)shelter of David,
And wall up its (CK)gaps;
I will also raise up its ruins
And rebuild it as in the (CL)days of old;
12 (CM)So that they may [ab]possess the remnant of (CN)Edom
And all the [ac]nations who are (CO)called by My name,”
Declares the Lord who does this.
13 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“When the (CP)plowman will overtake the reaper,
And the one who treads grapes will overtake him who sows the seed;
When the (CQ)mountains will drip grape juice,
And all the hills will come apart.
14 I will also (CR)restore the fortunes of My people Israel,
And they will (CS)rebuild the desolated cities and live in them;
They will also (CT)plant vineyards and drink their wine,
And make gardens and eat their fruit.
15 I will also plant them on their land,
And (CU)they will not be uprooted again from their land
Which I have given them,”
Says the Lord your God.
Footnotes
- Amos 7:1 Heb YHWH, usually rendered Lord, and so throughout the ch
- Amos 7:1 Lit at the beginning of the coming up of
- Amos 7:2 Lit if
- Amos 7:4 Lit plot of land
- Amos 7:7 Or on
- Amos 7:7 Lit wall of a plumb line
- Amos 7:8 Lit pass him by
- Amos 7:13 Lit house
- Amos 7:14 Or picker
- Amos 7:15 Lit behind
- Amos 7:16 Lit drivel
- Amos 7:17 Or in an unclean land
- Amos 8:1 Heb YHWH, usually rendered Lord, and so throughout the ch
- Amos 8:2 Lit pass him by
- Amos 8:3 Lit They will howl the palace songs
- Amos 8:3 Lit he has thrown
- Amos 8:3 An order for sacred silence
- Amos 8:4 Or snap at
- Amos 8:5 Lit pass by
- Amos 8:5 About 1 cubic foot or 0.03 cubic meters
- Amos 8:5 About 0.5 oz. or 14 gm
- Amos 8:6 Lit silver
- Amos 8:9 Lit a day of light
- Amos 8:10 I.e., shaved as a sign of mourning
- Amos 8:14 Or Ashimah
- Amos 9:5 Heb YHWH, usually rendered Lord, and so throughout the ch
- Amos 9:11 Heb sukkah; i.e., hut or dwelling
- Amos 9:12 Or take possession of
- Amos 9:12 Or Gentiles
Amos 7-9
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Locusts, Fire, and a Plumb Line
7 This is what the Lord God showed me: he was forming locusts at the time the latter growth began to sprout (it was the latter growth after the king’s mowings).(A) 2 When they had finished eating the grass of the land, I said,
“O Lord God, forgive, I beg you!
How can Jacob stand?
He is so small!”(B)
3 The Lord relented concerning this;
“It shall not be,” said the Lord.(C)
4 This is what the Lord God showed me: the Lord God was calling for judgment by fire, and it devoured the great deep and was eating up the land. 5 Then I said,
“O Lord God, cease, I beg you!
How can Jacob stand?
He is so small!”(D)
6 The Lord relented concerning this;
“This also shall not be,” said the Lord God.(E)
7 This is what he showed me: the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. 8 And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said,
“See, I am setting a plumb line
in the midst of my people Israel;
I will spare them no longer;(F)
9 the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate,
and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste,
and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”(G)
Amaziah Complains to the King
10 Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the very center of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words.(H) 11 For thus Amos has said,
‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword,
and Israel must go into exile
away from his land.’ ”(I)
12 And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, earn your bread there, and prophesy there, 13 but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.”(J)
14 Then Amos answered Amaziah, “I am[a] no prophet nor a prophet’s son, but I am[b] a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore trees,(K) 15 and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’(L)
16 “Now therefore hear the word of the Lord.
You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel,
and do not preach against the house of Isaac.’(M)
17 Therefore thus says the Lord:
Your wife shall become a prostitute in the city,
and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword,
and your land shall be parceled out by line;
you yourself shall die in an unclean land,
and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.”(N)
The Basket of Fruit
8 This is what the Lord God showed me: a basket of summer fruit. 2 He said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me,
“The end[c] has come upon my people Israel;
I will spare them no longer.(O)
3 The songs of the temple[d] shall become wailings on that day,”
says the Lord God;
“the dead bodies shall be many,
cast out in every place. Be silent!”(P)
4 Hear this, you who trample on the needy,
and bring to ruin the poor of the land,(Q)
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?
We will make the ephah smaller and the shekel heavier
and practice deceit with false balances,(R)
6 buying the poor for silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals
and selling the sweepings of the wheat.”(S)
7 The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.(T)
8 Shall not the land tremble on this account,
and everyone mourn who lives in it,
and all of it rise like the Nile,
and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?(U)
9 On that day, says the Lord God,
I will make the sun go down at noon
and darken the earth in broad daylight.(V)
10 I will turn your feasts into mourning
and all your songs into lamentation;
I will bring sackcloth on all loins
and baldness on every head;
I will make it like the mourning for an only son
and the end of it like a bitter day.(W)
11 The time is surely coming, says the Lord God,
when I will send a famine on the land,
not a famine of bread or a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of the Lord.(X)
12 They shall wander from sea to sea
and from north to east;
they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord,
but they shall not find it.(Y)
13 On that day the beautiful young women and the young men
shall faint for thirst.(Z)
14 Those who swear by Ashimah of Samaria
and say, “As your god lives, O Dan,”
and, “As the way of Beer-sheba lives”—
they shall fall and never rise again.(AA)
The Destruction of Israel
9 I saw the Lord standing beside[e] the altar, and he said:
Strike the capitals until the thresholds shake
and shatter them on the heads of all the people,[f]
and those who are left I will kill with the sword;
not one of them shall flee away,
not one of them shall escape.(AB)
2 Though they dig into Sheol,
from there shall my hand take them;
though they climb up to heaven,
from there I will bring them down.(AC)
3 Though they hide themselves on the top of Carmel,
from there I will search out and take them;
and though they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea,
there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them.(AD)
4 And though they go into captivity in front of their enemies,
there I will command the sword, and it shall kill them;
and I will fix my eyes on them
for harm and not for good.(AE)
5 The Lord, God of hosts,
he who touches the earth and it melts,
and all who live in it mourn,
and all of it rises like the Nile
and sinks again, like the Nile of Egypt,(AF)
6 who builds his upper chambers in the heavens
and founds his vault upon the earth,
who calls for the waters of the sea
and pours them out upon the surface of the earth—
the Lord is his name.(AG)
7 Are you not like the Cushites to me,
O people of Israel? says the Lord.
Did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt
and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir?(AH)
8 The eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom,
and I will destroy it from the face of the earth
—except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,
says the Lord.(AI)
9 For I will command
and shake the house of Israel among all the nations,
as one shakes with a sieve
but no pebble shall fall to the ground.(AJ)
10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword,
who say, “Evil shall not overtake or meet us.”(AK)
The Restoration of David’s Kingdom
11 On that day I will raise up
the booth of David that is fallen
and repair its[g] breaches
and raise up its[h] ruins
and rebuild it as in the days of old,(AL)
12 in order that they may possess the remnant of Edom
and all the nations who are called by my name,
says the Lord who does this.(AM)
13 The time is surely coming, says the Lord,
when the one who plows shall catch up with the one who reaps
and the treader of grapes with the one who sows the seed;
the mountains shall drip sweet wine,
and all the hills shall flow with it.(AN)
14 I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel,
and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them;
they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine,
and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit.(AO)
15 I will plant them upon their land,
and they shall never again be plucked up
out of the land that I have given them,
says the Lord your God.(AP)
Amos 7-9
Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition
7 These things the Lord God shewed to me: and behold the locust was formed in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter rain, and lo, it was the latter rain after the king's mowing.
2 And it came to pass, that when they had made an end of eating the grass of the land, I said: O Lord God, be merciful, I beseech thee: who shall raise up Jacob, for he is very little?
3 The Lord had pity upon this: It shall not be, said the Lord.
4 These things the Lord God shewed to me: and behold the Lord called for judgment unto fire, and it devoured the great deep, and ate up a part at the same time.
5 And I said: O Lord God, cease, I beseech thee, who shall raise up Jacob, for he is a little one?
6 The Lord had pity upon this. Yea this also shall not be, said the Lord God.
7 These things the Lord shewed to me: and behold the Lord was standing upon a plastered wall, and in his hand a mason's trowel.
8 And the Lord said to me: What seest thou, Amos? And I said: A mason's trowel. And the Lord said: Behold, I will lay down the trowel in the midst of my people Israel. I will plaster them over no more.
9 And the high places of the idol shall be thrown down, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste: and I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.
10 And Amasias the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying: Amos hath rebelled against thee in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words.
11 For thus saith Amos: Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall be carried away captive out of their own land.
12 And Amasias said to Amos: Thou seer, go, flee away into the land of Juda: and eat bread there, and prophesy there.
13 But prophesy not again any more in Bethel: because it is the king's sanctuary, and it is the house of the kingdom.
14 And Amos answered and said to Amasias: I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet: but I am a herdsman plucking wild figs.
15 And the Lord took me when I followed the flock, and the Lord said to me: Go, prophesy to my people Israel.
16 And now hear thou the word of the Lord: Thou sayest, thou shalt not prophesy against Israel, and thou shalt not drop thy word upon the house of the idol.
17 Therefore thus saith the Lord: Thy wife shall play the harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be measured by a line: and thou shalt die in a polluted land, and Israel shall go into captivity out of their land.
8 These things the Lord shewed to me: and behold a hook to draw down the fruit.
2 And he said: What seest thou, Amos? And I said: A hook to draw down fruit. And the Lord said to me: The end is come upon my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more.
3 And the hinges of the temple shall screak in that day, saith the Lord God: many shall die: silence shall be cast in every place.
4 Hear this, you that crush the poor, and make the needy of the land to fail,
5 Saying: When will the month be over, and we shall sell our wares: and the sabbath, and we shall open the corn: that we may lessen the measure, and increase the sicle, and may convey in deceitful balances,
6 That we may possess the needy for money, and the poor for a pair of shoes, and may sell the refuse of the corn?
7 The Lord hath sworn against the pride of Jacob: surely I will never forget all their works.
8 Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein: and rise up altogether as a river, and be cast out, and run down as the river of Egypt?
9 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that the sun shall go down at midday, and I will make the earth dark in the day of light:
10 And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation: and I will bring up sackcloth upon every back of yours, and baldness upon every head: and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the latter end thereof as a bitter day.
11 Behold the days come, saith the Lord, and I will send forth a famine into the land: not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, but of hearing the word of the Lord.
12 And they shall move from sea to sea, and from the north to the east: they shall go about seeking the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.
13 In that day the fair virgins, and the young men shall faint for thirst.
14 They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say: Thy God, O Dan, liveth: and the way of Bersabee liveth: and they shall fall, and shall rise no more.
9 I saw the Lord standing upon the altar, and he said: Strike the hinges, and let the lintels be shook: for there is covetousness in the head of them all, and I will slay the last of them with the sword: there shall be no flight for them: they shall flee, and he that shall flee of them shall not be delivered.
2 Though they go down even to hell, thence shall my hand bring them out: and though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down.
3 And though they be hid in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them away from thence: and though they hide themselves from my eyes in the depth of the sea, there will I command the serpent and he shall bite them.
4 And if they go into captivity before their enemies, there will I command the sword, and it shall kill them. And I will set my eyes upon them for evil, and not for good.
5 And the Lord the God of hosts is he who toucheth the earth, and it shall melt: and all that dwell therein shall mourn: and it shall rise up as a river, and shall run down as the river of Egypt.
6 He that buildeth his ascension in heaven, and hath founded his bundle upon the earth: who calleth the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth, the Lord is his name.
7 Are not you as the children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel, saith the Lord? did not I bring up Israel, out of the land of Egypt: and the Philistines out of Cappadocia, and the Syrians out of Cyrene?
8 Behold the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth: but yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the Lord.
9 For behold I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, as corn is sifted in a sieve: and there shall not a little stone fall to the ground.
10 All the sinners of my people shall fall by the sword: who say: The evils shall not approach, and shall not come upon us.
11 In that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David, that is fallen: and I will close up the breaches of the walls thereof, and repair what was fallen: and I will rebuild it as in the days of old.
12 That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and all nations, because my name is invoked upon them: saith the Lord that doth these things.
13 Behold the days come, saith the Lord, when the ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed: and the mountains shall drop sweetness, and every hill shall be tilled.
14 And I will bring back the captivity of my people Israel: and they shall build the abandoned cities, and inhabit them: and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine of them: and shall make gardens, and eat the fruits of them. And I will plant them upon their own land: and I will no more pluck them out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God.
Amos 7-9
The Message
To Die Homeless and Friendless
7 1-2 God, my Master, showed me this vision: He was preparing a locust swarm. The first cutting, which went to the king, was complete, and the second crop was just sprouting. The locusts ate everything green. Not even a blade of grass was left.
I called out, “God, my Master! Excuse me, but what’s going to come of Jacob? He’s so small.”
3 God gave in.
“It won’t happen,” he said.
* * *
4 God showed me this vision: Oh! God, my Master God was calling up a firestorm. It burned up the ocean. Then it burned up the Promised Land.
5 I said, “God, my Master! Hold it—please! What’s going to come of Jacob? He’s so small.”
6 God gave in.
“All right, this won’t happen either,” God, my Master, said.
* * *
7 God showed me this vision: My Master was standing beside a wall. In his hand he held a plumb line.
8-9 God said to me, “What do you see, Amos?”
I said, “A plumb line.”
Then my Master said, “Look what I’ve done. I’ve hung a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel. I’ve spared them for the last time. This is it!
“Isaac’s sex-and-religion shrines will be smashed,
Israel’s unholy shrines will be knocked to pieces.
I’m raising my sword against the royal family of Jeroboam.”
10 Amaziah, priest at the shrine at Bethel, sent a message to Jeroboam, king of Israel:
“Amos is plotting to get rid of you; and he’s doing it as an insider, working from within Israel. His talk will destroy the country. He’s got to be silenced. Do you know what Amos is saying?
11 ‘Jeroboam will be killed.
Israel is headed for exile.’”
12-13 Then Amaziah confronted Amos: “Seer, be on your way! Get out of here and go back to Judah where you came from! Hang out there. Do your preaching there. But no more preaching at Bethel! Don’t show your face here again. This is the king’s chapel. This is a royal shrine.”
14-15 But Amos stood up to Amaziah: “I never set up to be a preacher, never had plans to be a preacher. I raised cattle and I pruned trees. Then God took me off the farm and said, ‘Go preach to my people Israel.’
16-17 “So listen to God’s Word. You tell me, ‘Don’t preach to Israel. Don’t say anything against the family of Isaac.’ But here’s what God is telling you:
Your wife will become a whore in town.
Your children will get killed.
Your land will be auctioned off.
You will die homeless and friendless.
And Israel will be hauled off to exile, far from home.”
You Who Give Little and Take Much
8 My Master God showed me this vision: A bowl of fresh fruit.
2 He said, “What do you see, Amos?”
I said, “A bowl of fresh, ripe fruit.”
God said, “Right. So, I’m calling it quits with my people Israel. I’m no longer acting as if everything is just fine.”
3 “The royal singers will wail when it happens.”
My Master God said so.
“Corpses will be strewn here, there, and everywhere.
Hush!”
4-6 Listen to this, you who walk all over the weak,
you who treat poor people as less than nothing,
Who say, “When’s my next paycheck coming
so I can go out and live it up?
How long till the weekend
when I can go out and have a good time?”
Who give little and take much,
and never do an honest day’s work.
You exploit the poor, using them—
and then, when they’re used up, you discard them.
7-8 God swears against the arrogance of Jacob:
“I’m keeping track of their every last sin.”
God’s oath will shake earth’s foundations,
dissolve the whole world into tears.
God’s oath will sweep in like a river that rises,
flooding houses and lands,
And then recedes,
leaving behind a sea of mud.
9-10 “On Judgment Day, watch out!”
These are the words of God, my Master.
“I’ll turn off the sun at noon.
In the middle of the day the earth will go black.
I’ll turn your parties into funerals
and make every song you sing a dirge.
Everyone will walk around in rags,
with sunken eyes and bald heads.
Think of the worst that could happen
—your only son, say, murdered.
That’s a hint of Judgment Day
—that and much more.
11-12 “Oh yes, Judgment Day is coming!”
These are the words of my Master God.
“I’ll send a famine through the whole country.
It won’t be food or water that’s lacking, but my Word.
People will drift from one end of the country to the other,
roam to the north, wander to the east.
They’ll go anywhere, listen to anyone,
hoping to hear God’s Word—but they won’t hear it.
13-14 “On Judgment Day,
lovely young girls will faint of Word-thirst,
robust young men will faint of God-thirst,
Along with those who take oaths at the Samaria Sin-and-Sex Center,
saying, ‘As the lord god of Dan is my witness!’
and ‘The lady goddess of Beer-sheba bless you!’
Their lives will fall to pieces.
They’ll never put it together again.”
Israel Thrown into a Sieve
9 1-4 I saw my Master standing beside the altar at the shrine. He said:
“Hit the tops of the shrine’s pillars,
make the floor shake.
The roof’s about to fall on the heads of the people,
and whoever’s still alive, I’ll kill.
No one will get away,
no runaways will make it.
If they dig their way down into the underworld,
I’ll find them and bring them up.
If they climb to the stars,
I’ll find them and bring them down.
If they hide out at the top of Mount Carmel,
I’ll find them and bring them back.
If they dive to the bottom of the ocean,
I’ll send Dragon to swallow them up.
If they’re captured alive by their enemies,
I’ll send Sword to kill them.
I’ve made up my mind
to hurt them, not help them.”
5-6 My Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
touches the earth, a mere touch, and it trembles.
The whole world goes into mourning.
Earth swells like the Nile at flood stage;
then the water subsides, like the great Nile of Egypt.
God builds his palace—towers soaring high in the skies,
foundations set on the rock-firm earth.
He calls ocean waters and they come,
then he ladles them out on the earth.
God, your God, does all this.
* * *
7-8 “Do you Israelites think you’re any better than the far-off Cushites?” God’s Decree.
“Am I not involved with all nations? Didn’t I bring Israel up from Egypt, the Philistines from Caphtor, the Arameans from Qir? But you can be sure that I, God, the Master, have my eye on the Kingdom of Sin. I’m going to wipe it off the face of the earth. Still, I won’t totally destroy the family of Jacob.” God’s Decree.
9-10 “I’m still giving the orders around here. I’m throwing Israel into a sieve among all the nations and shaking them good, shaking out all the sin, all the sinners. No real grain will be lost, but all the sinners will be sifted out and thrown away, the people who say, ‘Nothing bad will ever happen in our lifetime. It won’t even come close.’
Blessings Like Wine Pouring off the Mountains
11-12 “But also on that Judgment Day I will restore David’s house that has fallen to pieces. I’ll repair the holes in the roof, replace the broken windows, fix it up like new. David’s people will be strong again and seize what’s left of enemy Edom, plus everyone else under my sovereign judgment.” God’s Decree. He will do this.
13-15 “Yes indeed, it won’t be long now.” God’s Decree.
“Things are going to happen so fast your head will swim, one thing fast on the heels of the other. You won’t be able to keep up. Everything will be happening at once—and everywhere you look, blessings! Blessings like wine pouring off the mountains and hills. I’ll make everything right again for my people Israel:
“They’ll rebuild their ruined cities.
They’ll plant vineyards and drink good wine.
They’ll work their gardens and eat fresh vegetables.
And I’ll plant them, plant them on their own land.
They’ll never again be uprooted from the land I’ve given them.”
God, your God, says so.
New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
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Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson