Amos 8-9
Christian Standard Bible
Fourth Vision: A Basket of Summer Fruit
8 The Lord God showed me this: a basket of summer fruit. 2 He asked me, “What do you see, Amos?” (A)
I replied, “A basket of summer fruit.”[a](B)
The Lord said to me, “The end has come for my people Israel;(C) I will no longer spare them.(D) 3 In that day the temple[b] songs(E) will become wailing”(F)—this is the Lord God’s declaration. “Many dead bodies, thrown everywhere!(G) Silence!” (H)
4 Hear this, you who trample on the needy(I)
and do away with the poor of the land,(J)
5 asking, “When will the New Moon be over
so we may sell grain,(K)
and the Sabbath,
so we may market wheat?(L)
We can reduce the measure
while increasing the price[c]
and cheat with dishonest scales.(M)
6 We can buy the poor with silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals(N)
and even sell the chaff!”
7 The Lord has sworn(O) by the Pride of Jacob:[d](P)
I will never forget all their deeds.(Q)
8 Because of this, won’t the land quake(R)
and all who dwell in it mourn?(S)
All of it will rise like the Nile;(T)
it will surge and then subside
like the Nile in Egypt.(U)
9 And in that day—
this is the declaration of the Lord God—
I will make the sun go down at noon;(V)
I will darken the land in the daytime.(W)
10 I will turn your feasts into mourning(X)
and all your songs into lamentation;(Y)
I will cause everyone[e] to wear sackcloth(Z)
and every head to be shaved.(AA)
I will make that grief
like mourning for an only son(AB)
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.(AC)
12 People will stagger from sea to sea
and roam from north to east
seeking the word of the Lord,(AD)
but they will not find it.
13 In that day the beautiful young women,(AE)
the young men also, will faint from thirst.(AF)
14 Those who swear by the guilt of Samaria(AG)
and say, “As your god lives, Dan,”(AH)
or, “As the way[f][g] of Beer-sheba lives”(AI)—
they will fall, never to rise again.(AJ)
Fifth Vision: The Lord beside the Altar
9 I saw the Lord standing beside the altar,(AK) and he said:
Strike the capitals of the pillars(AL)
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.(AM)
None of those who flee will get away;(AN)
none of the fugitives will escape.
2 If they dig down to Sheol,(AO)
from there my hand will take them;
if they climb up to heaven,(AP)
from there I will bring them down.
3 If they hide
on the top of Carmel,
from there I will track them down(AQ)
and seize them;
if they conceal themselves
from my sight on the sea floor,(AR)
from there I will command
the sea serpent to bite them.(AS)
4 And if they are driven
by their enemies into captivity,(AT)
from there I will command
the sword to kill them.(AU)
I will keep my eye on them
for harm and not for good.(AV)
5 The Lord, the God of Armies—
he touches the earth;(AW)
it melts, and all who dwell in it mourn;
all of it rises like the Nile
and subsides like the Nile of Egypt.(AX)
6 He builds his upper chambers
in the heavens(AY)
and lays the foundation of his vault
on the earth.(AZ)
He summons the water of the sea
and pours it out over the surface of the earth.(BA)
The Lord is his name.(BB)
Announcement of Judgment
7 Israelites, are you not like the Cushites to me?(BC)
This is the Lord’s declaration.
Didn’t I bring Israel from the land of Egypt,
the Philistines from Caphtor,[h](BD)
and the Arameans from Kir?(BE)
8 Look, the eyes of the Lord God
are on the sinful kingdom,(BF)
and I will obliterate it
from the face of the earth.(BG)
However, I will not totally destroy
the house of Jacob(BH)—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
9 for I am about to give the command,
and I will shake the house of Israel(BI)
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(BJ)
who say, “Disaster will never overtake[i]
or confront us,”(BK)
will die by the sword.
Announcement of Restoration
11 In that day
I will restore the fallen shelter(BL) of David:(BM)
I will repair its gaps,
restore its ruins,(BN)
and rebuild it as in the days of old,(BO)
12 so that they may possess
the remnant of Edom(BP)
and all the nations
that bear my name[j](BQ)—
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(BR)
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.(BS)
14 I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel.[k](BT)
They will rebuild and occupy ruined cities,(BU)
plant vineyards and drink their wine,
make gardens and eat their produce.(BV)
15 I will plant them on their land,
and they will never again be uprooted
from the land I have given them.(BW)
The Lord your God has spoken.
Footnotes
- 8:2 In Hb the word for summer fruit sounds like the word for end.
- 8:3 Or palace
- 8:5 Lit reduce the ephah and make the shekel great
- 8:7 = the Lord or the promised land
- 8:10 Lit every waist
- 8:14 LXX reads god
- 8:14 Or power
- 9:7 Probably Crete
- 9:10 Or “You will not let disaster come near
- 9:12 LXX reads so that the remnant of man and all the nations... may seek me; Ac 15:17
- 9:14 Or restore my people Israel from captivity
2 Chronicles 27
Christian Standard Bible
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. 2 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.
3 Jotham built the Upper Gate of the Lord’s temple, and he built extensively on the wall of Ophel.(D) 4 He also built cities in the hill country of Judah and fortresses and towers in the forests.(E) 5 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. 6 So Jotham strengthened his position because he did not waver in obeying[c] the Lord his God.(F)
7 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. 8 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. 9 Jotham rested with his ancestors and was buried in the city of David. His son Ahaz became king in his place.
Isaiah 9-10
Christian Standard Bible
Birth of the Prince of Peace
9 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.
2 The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;(B)
a light has dawned
on those living in the land of darkness.(C)
3 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)
4 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)
5 For every trampling boot of battle
and the bloodied garments of war
will be burned as fuel for the fire.
6 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)
7 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
8 The Lord sent a message against Jacob;
it came against Israel.
9 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)
10 Woe(AC) to those enacting crooked statutes
and writing oppressive laws
2 to keep the poor from getting a fair trial
and to deprive the needy among my people of justice,(AD)
so that widows can be their spoil
and they can plunder the fatherless.(AE)
3 What will you do on the day of punishment
when devastation comes from far away?
Who will you run to for help?
Where will you leave your wealth?
4 There will be nothing to do
except crouch among the prisoners
or fall among the slain.
In all this, his anger has not turned away,
and his hand is still raised to strike.(AF)
Assyria, the Instrument of Wrath
5 Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger—
the staff in their hands is my wrath.
6 I will send him against a godless nation;
I will command him to go
against a people destined for my rage,
to take spoils, to plunder,(AG)
and to trample them down like clay(AH) in the streets.
7 But this is not what he intends;
this is not what he plans.
It is his intent to destroy
and to cut off many nations.
8 For he says,
“Aren’t all my commanders kings?
9 Isn’t Calno like Carchemish?
Isn’t Hamath like Arpad?
Isn’t Samaria(AI) like Damascus?[d]
10 As my hand seized the kingdoms of worthless images,
kingdoms whose idols exceeded those of Jerusalem and Samaria,
11 and as I did to Samaria and its worthless images
will I not also do to Jerusalem and its idols?” (AJ)
Judgment on Assyria
12 But when the Lord finishes all his work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he will say, “I[e] will punish the king of Assyria for his arrogant acts and the proud look in his eyes.”(AK) 13 For he said:
I have done this by my own strength
and wisdom, for I am clever.
I abolished the borders of nations
and plundered their treasures;(AL)
like a mighty warrior, I subjugated the inhabitants.[f](AM)
14 My hand has reached out, as if into a nest,
to seize the wealth of the nations.
Like one gathering abandoned eggs,
I gathered the whole earth.
No wing fluttered;
no beak opened or chirped.
15 Does an ax exalt itself
above the one who chops with it?
Does a saw magnify itself
above the one who saws with it?
It would be like a rod waving the ones who lift[g] it!
It would be like a staff lifting the one who isn’t wood!
16 Therefore the Lord God of Armies
will inflict an emaciating disease
on the well-fed of Assyria,
and he will kindle a burning fire
under its glory.
17 Israel’s Light will become a fire,
and its Holy One, a flame.(AN)
In one day it will burn and consume Assyria’s thorns and thistles.(AO)
18 He will completely destroy
the glory of its forests and orchards
as a sickness consumes a person.
19 The remaining trees of its forest
will be so few in number
that a child could count them.
The Remnant Will Return
20 On that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no longer depend on the one who struck them, but they will faithfully depend on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.(AP)
21 The remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob,
to the Mighty God.
22 Israel, even if your people were as numerous
as the sand of the sea,
only a remnant of them will return.(AQ)
Destruction has been decreed;
justice overflows.
23 For throughout the land
the Lord God of Armies
is carrying out a destruction that was decreed.
24 Therefore, the Lord God of Armies says this: “My people who dwell in Zion, do not fear Assyria, though they strike you with a rod and raise their staff over you as the Egyptians did. 25 In just a little while my wrath will be spent and my anger will turn to their destruction.” 26 And the Lord of Armies will brandish a whip against him as he did when he struck Midian at the rock of Oreb;(AR) and he will raise his staff over the sea as he did in Egypt.
God Will Judge Assyria
27 On that day
his burden will fall from your shoulders,
and his yoke from your neck.
The yoke will be broken because your neck will be too large.[h](AS)
28 Assyria has come to Aiath
and has gone through Migron,
storing their equipment at Michmash.
29 They crossed over at the ford, saying,
“We will spend the night at Geba.”
The people of Ramah are trembling;
those at Gibeah of Saul have fled.
30 Cry aloud, daughter of Gallim!
Listen, Laishah!
Anathoth is miserable.
31 Madmenah has fled.
The inhabitants of Gebim have sought refuge.
32 Today the Assyrians will stand at Nob,
shaking their fists at the mountain of Daughter Zion,
the hill of Jerusalem.
33 Look, the Lord God of Armies
will chop off the branches with terrifying power,
and the tall trees will be cut down,
the high trees felled.
34 He is clearing the thickets of the forest with an ax,
and Lebanon with its majesty will fall.
Footnotes
The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible®, and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers, all rights reserved.
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