Amos 8
Legacy Standard Bible
A Famine for Hearing the Words of Yahweh
8 Thus Lord Yahweh showed me, and behold, there was a basket of summer fruit. 2 And he said, “What do you see, Amos?” And (A)I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then Yahweh said to me, “The (B)end has come for My people Israel. I will (C)pass over them no longer. 3 And they will (D)wail with the (E)songs of the palace in that day,” declares Lord Yahweh. “Many will be the (F)corpses; in every place [a]they will cast them forth [b]in silence.”
4 Hear this, you who [c](G)trample the needy, even to cause the humble of the land to cease, 5 saying,
“When will the (H)new moon pass over,
So that we may sell grain,
And the (I)sabbath, that we may open the wheat market,
To make the [d]bushel smaller and the [e]shekel bigger,
And to (J)cheat with a deceptive balance,
6 So as to (K)buy the poor for [f]money
And the needy for a pair of sandals,
And that we may sell the refuse of the wheat?”
7 Yahweh has (L)sworn by the (M)lofty pride of Jacob,
“Indeed, I will (N)never forget any of their works.
8 Because of this will not the land (O)tremble
And everyone who inhabits it (P)mourn?
Indeed, all of it will (Q)rise up like the Nile,
And it will be tossed about
And subside like the Nile of Egypt.
9 And it will be in that day,” declares Lord Yahweh,
“That I will make the (R)sun go down at noon
And (S)make the earth dark in [g]broad daylight.
10 Then I will (T)overturn your feasts into mourning
And all your songs into [h]lamentation;
And I will bring up (U)sackcloth on everyone’s loins
And baldness on every head.
And I will make it (V)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 Lord Yahweh,
“When I will send a famine on the land,
Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water,
But rather (W)for hearing the words of Yahweh.
12 People will wander from sea to sea
And from the north even to the east;
They will go to and fro to (X)seek the word of Yahweh,
But they will not find it.
13 In that day the beautiful (Y)virgins
And the choice men will (Z)faint from thirst.
14 As for those who swear by the [i](AA)guilt of Samaria,
Who say, ‘As your god lives, O (AB)Dan,’
And, ‘As the way of (AC)Beersheba lives,’
They will fall and (AD)not rise again.”
Amos 8
New Living Translation
A Vision of Ripe Fruit
8 Then the Sovereign Lord showed me another vision. In it I saw a basket filled with ripe fruit. 2 “What do you see, Amos?” he asked.
I replied, “A basket full of ripe fruit.”
Then the Lord said, “Like this fruit, Israel is ripe for punishment! I will not delay their punishment again. 3 In that day the singing in the temple will turn to wailing. Dead bodies will be scattered everywhere. They will be carried out of the city in silence. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!”
4 Listen to this, you who rob the poor
and trample down the needy!
5 You can’t wait for the Sabbath day to be over
and the religious festivals to end
so you can get back to cheating the helpless.
You measure out grain with dishonest measures
and cheat the buyer with dishonest scales.[a]
6 And you mix the grain you sell
with chaff swept from the floor.
Then you enslave poor people
for one piece of silver or a pair of sandals.
7 Now the Lord has sworn this oath
by his own name, the Pride of Israel[b]:
“I will never forget
the wicked things you have done!
8 The earth will tremble for your deeds,
and everyone will mourn.
The ground will rise like the Nile River at floodtime;
it will heave up, then sink again.
9 “In that day,” says the Sovereign Lord,
“I will make the sun go down at noon
and darken the earth while it is still day.
10 I will turn your celebrations into times of mourning
and your singing into weeping.
You will wear funeral clothes
and shave your heads to show your sorrow—
as if your only son had died.
How very bitter that day will be!
11 “The time is surely coming,” says the Sovereign Lord,
“when I will send a famine on the land—
not a famine of bread or water
but of hearing the words of the Lord.
12 People will stagger from sea to sea
and wander from border to border[c]
searching for the word of the Lord,
but they will not find it.
13 Beautiful girls and strong young men
will grow faint in that day,
thirsting for the Lord’s word.
14 And those who swear by the shameful idols of Samaria—
who take oaths in the name of the god of Dan
and make vows in the name of the god of Beersheba[d]—
they will all fall down,
never to rise again.”
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Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
