First Vision: Locusts

The Lord God showed me this: He was forming a swarm of locusts(A) at the time the spring crop first began to sprout—after the cutting of the king’s hay. When the locusts finished eating the vegetation of the land,(B) I said, “Lord God, please forgive!(C) How will Jacob survive since he is so small?” (D)

The Lord relented concerning this.(E) “It will not happen,” he said.

Second Vision: Fire

The Lord God showed me this: The Lord God was calling for a judgment by fire.(F) It consumed the great deep and devoured the land. Then I said, “Lord God, please stop!(G) How will Jacob survive since he is so small?”

The Lord relented concerning this.(H) “This will not happen either,” said the Lord God.

Third Vision: A Plumb Line

He showed me this: The Lord was standing there by a vertical wall with a plumb line in his hand. The Lord asked me, “What do you see, Amos?” (I)

I replied, “A plumb line.”

Then the Lord said, “I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel;(J) I will no longer spare them:(K)

Isaac’s high places(L) will be deserted,
and Israel’s sanctuaries will be in ruins;(M)
I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam
with a sword.”

Amaziah’s Opposition

10 Amaziah the priest(N) of Bethel sent word to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you(O) right here in the house of Israel. The land cannot endure all his words, 11 for Amos has said this: ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will certainly go into exile from its homeland.’”(P)

12 Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Go away, you seer!(Q) Flee to the land of Judah. Earn your living[a] and give your prophecies there, 13 but don’t ever prophesy(R) at Bethel again, for it is the king’s sanctuary(S) and a royal temple.”

14 So Amos answered Amaziah, “I was[b] not a prophet or the son of a prophet;[c](T) rather, I was[d] a herdsman,(U) and I took care of sycamore figs. 15 But the Lord took me from following the flock(V) and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’”(W)

16 Now hear the word of the Lord. You say:

Do not prophesy(X) against Israel;
do not preach(Y) against the house of Isaac.

17 Therefore, this is what the Lord says:

Your wife will be a prostitute in the city,(Z)
your sons and daughters will fall by the sword,(AA)
and your land will be divided up
with a measuring line.
You yourself will die on pagan[e] soil,(AB)
and Israel will certainly go into exile(AC)
from its homeland.

Fourth Vision: A Basket of Summer Fruit

The Lord God showed me this: a basket of summer fruit. He asked me, “What do you see, Amos?” (AD)

I replied, “A basket of summer fruit.”[f](AE)

The Lord said to me, “The end has come for my people Israel;(AF) I will no longer spare them.(AG) In that day the temple[g] songs(AH) will become wailing”(AI)—this is the Lord God’s declaration. “Many dead bodies, thrown everywhere!(AJ) Silence!” (AK)

Hear this, you who trample on the needy(AL)
and do away with the poor of the land,(AM)
asking, “When will the New Moon be over
so we may sell grain,(AN)
and the Sabbath,
so we may market wheat?(AO)
We can reduce the measure
while increasing the price[h]
and cheat with dishonest scales.(AP)
We can buy the poor with silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals(AQ)
and even sell the chaff!”

The Lord has sworn(AR) by the Pride of Jacob:[i](AS)

I will never forget all their deeds.(AT)
Because of this, won’t the land quake(AU)
and all who dwell in it mourn?(AV)
All of it will rise like the Nile;(AW)
it will surge and then subside
like the Nile in Egypt.(AX)

And in that day—
this is the declaration of the Lord God
I will make the sun go down at noon;(AY)
I will darken the land in the daytime.(AZ)
10 I will turn your feasts into mourning(BA)
and all your songs into lamentation;(BB)
I will cause everyone[j] to wear sackcloth(BC)
and every head to be shaved.(BD)
I will make that grief
like mourning for an only son(BE)
and its outcome like a bitter day.

11 Look, the days are coming—
this is the declaration of the Lord God
when I will send a famine through the land:
not a famine of bread or a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of the Lord.(BF)
12 People will stagger from sea to sea
and roam from north to east
seeking the word of the Lord,(BG)
but they will not find it.
13 In that day the beautiful young women,(BH)
the young men also, will faint from thirst.(BI)
14 Those who swear by the guilt of Samaria(BJ)
and say, “As your god lives, Dan,”(BK)
or, “As the way[k][l] of Beer-sheba lives”(BL)
they will fall, never to rise again.(BM)

Fifth Vision: The Lord beside the Altar

I saw the Lord standing beside the altar,(BN) and he said:

Strike the capitals of the pillars(BO)
so that the thresholds shake;
knock them down on the heads of all the people.
Then I will kill the rest of them with the sword.(BP)
None of those who flee will get away;(BQ)
none of the fugitives will escape.
If they dig down to Sheol,(BR)
from there my hand will take them;
if they climb up to heaven,(BS)
from there I will bring them down.
If they hide
on the top of Carmel,
from there I will track them down(BT)
and seize them;
if they conceal themselves
from my sight on the sea floor,(BU)
from there I will command
the sea serpent to bite them.(BV)
And if they are driven
by their enemies into captivity,(BW)
from there I will command
the sword to kill them.(BX)
I will keep my eye on them
for harm and not for good.(BY)

The Lord, the God of Armies—
he touches the earth;(BZ)
it melts, and all who dwell in it mourn;
all of it rises like the Nile
and subsides like the Nile of Egypt.(CA)
He builds his upper chambers
in the heavens(CB)
and lays the foundation of his vault
on the earth.(CC)
He summons the water of the sea
and pours it out over the surface of the earth.(CD)
The Lord is his name.(CE)

Announcement of Judgment

Israelites, are you not like the Cushites to me?(CF)
This is the Lord’s declaration.
Didn’t I bring Israel from the land of Egypt,
the Philistines from Caphtor,[m](CG)
and the Arameans from Kir?(CH)
Look, the eyes of the Lord God
are on the sinful kingdom,(CI)
and I will obliterate it
from the face of the earth.(CJ)
However, I will not totally destroy
the house of Jacob(CK)
this is the Lord’s declaration—
for I am about to give the command,
and I will shake the house of Israel(CL)
among all the nations,
as one shakes a sieve,
but not a pebble will fall to the ground.
10 All the sinners among my people(CM)
who say, “Disaster will never overtake[n]
or confront us,”(CN)
will die by the sword.

Announcement of Restoration

11 In that day
I will restore the fallen shelter(CO) of David:(CP)
I will repair its gaps,
restore its ruins,(CQ)
and rebuild it as in the days of old,(CR)
12 so that they may possess
the remnant of Edom(CS)
and all the nations
that bear my name[o](CT)
this is the declaration of the Lord; he will do this.

13 Look, the days are coming—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
when the plowman will overtake the reaper(CU)
and the one who treads grapes,
the sower of seed.
The mountains will drip with sweet wine,
and all the hills will flow with it.(CV)
14 I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel.[p](CW)
They will rebuild and occupy ruined cities,(CX)
plant vineyards and drink their wine,
make gardens and eat their produce.(CY)
15 I will plant them on their land,
and they will never again be uprooted
from the land I have given them.(CZ)
The Lord your God has spoken.

Footnotes

  1. 7:12 Lit Eat bread
  2. 7:14 Or am
  3. 7:14 = a prophet’s disciple or a member of a prophetic guild
  4. 7:14 Or am
  5. 7:17 Lit unclean
  6. 8:2 In Hb the word for summer fruit sounds like the word for end.
  7. 8:3 Or palace
  8. 8:5 Lit reduce the ephah and make the shekel great
  9. 8:7 = the Lord or the promised land
  10. 8:10 Lit every waist
  11. 8:14 LXX reads god
  12. 8:14 Or power
  13. 9:7 Probably Crete
  14. 9:10 Or “You will not let disaster come near
  15. 9:12 LXX reads so that the remnant of man and all the nations... may seek me; Ac 15:17
  16. 9:14 Or restore my people Israel from captivity

Judah’s King Jotham

27 Jotham was twenty-five years old(A) when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem.(B) His mother’s name was Jerushah daughter of Zadok. He did what was right in the Lord’s sight just as his father Uzziah had done. In addition, he didn’t enter the Lord’s sanctuary,(C) but the people still behaved corruptly.

Jotham built the Upper Gate of the Lord’s temple, and he built extensively on the wall of Ophel.(D) He also built cities in the hill country of Judah and fortresses and towers in the forests.(E) He waged war against the king of the Ammonites. He overpowered the Ammonites, and that year they gave him 7,500 pounds[a] of silver, 60,000 bushels[b] of wheat, and 60,000 bushels of barley. They paid him the same in the second and third years. So Jotham strengthened his position because he did not waver in obeying[c] the Lord his God.(F)

As for the rest of the events(G) of Jotham’s reign, along with all his wars and his ways, note that they are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah. He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. Jotham rested with his ancestors and was buried in the city of David. His son Ahaz became king in his place.

Footnotes

  1. 27:5 Lit 100 talents
  2. 27:5 Lit 10,000 cors
  3. 27:6 Lit he established his ways before

Birth of the Prince of Peace

Nevertheless, the gloom of the distressed land will not be like that of the former times when he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali.(A) But in the future he will bring honor to the way of the sea, to the land east of the Jordan, and to Galilee of the nations.

The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;(B)
a light has dawned
on those living in the land of darkness.(C)
You have enlarged the nation
and increased its joy.[a](D)
The people have rejoiced before you
as they rejoice at harvest time
and as they rejoice when dividing spoils.(E)
For you have shattered their oppressive yoke(F)
and the rod on their shoulders,
the staff of their oppressor,
just as you did on the day of Midian.(G)
For every trampling boot of battle
and the bloodied garments of war
will be burned as fuel for the fire.
For a child will be born for us,
a son will be given to us,(H)
and the government will be on his shoulders.(I)
He will be named
Wonderful Counselor,(J) Mighty God,(K)
Eternal Father,(L) Prince of Peace.(M)
The dominion will be vast,
and its prosperity will never end.(N)
He will reign on the throne of David
and over his kingdom,
to establish and sustain it
with justice and righteousness from now on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord of Armies will accomplish this.(O)

The Hand Raised against Israel

The Lord sent a message against Jacob;
it came against Israel.
All the people—
Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria(P)—will know it.
They will say with pride and arrogance,
10 “The bricks have fallen,
but we will rebuild with cut stones;
the sycamores have been cut down,
but we will replace them with cedars.”
11 The Lord has raised up Rezin’s adversaries against him
and stirred up his enemies.
12 Aram from the east and Philistia from the west
have consumed Israel with open mouths.
In all this, his anger has not turned away,
and his hand is still raised to strike.(Q)

13 The people did not turn to him who struck them;
they did not seek the Lord of Armies.
14 So the Lord cut off Israel’s head and tail,(R)
palm branch and reed in a single day.
15 The head is the elder, the honored one;(S)
the tail is the prophet, the one teaching lies.(T)
16 The leaders of the people mislead them,
and those they mislead are swallowed up.[b]
17 Therefore the Lord does not rejoice
over[c] Israel’s young men
and has no compassion
on its fatherless and widows,
for everyone is a godless evildoer,(U)
and every mouth speaks folly.
In all this, his anger has not turned away,
and his hand is still raised to strike.

18 For wickedness burns like a fire(V)
that consumes thorns and briers
and kindles the forest thickets
so that they go up in a column of smoke.
19 The land is scorched
by the wrath of the Lord of Armies,
and the people are like fuel for the fire.(W)
No one has compassion on his brother.(X)
20 They carve meat on the right,
but they are still hungry;(Y)
they have eaten on the left,
but they are still not satisfied.
Each one eats the flesh of his arm.(Z)
21 Manasseh eats Ephraim,
and Ephraim, Manasseh;
together, both are against Judah.(AA)
In all this, his anger has not turned away,
and his hand is still raised to strike.(AB)

Footnotes

  1. 9:3 Alt Hb tradition reads have not increased joy
  2. 9:16 Or are confused
  3. 9:17 DSS read not spare

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