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Thus the Lord Yahweh showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit.

He said, “Amos, what do you see?”

I said, “A basket of summer fruit.”

Then Yahweh said to me,

“The end has come on my people Israel.
    I will not again pass by them any more.
The songs of the temple will be wailing in that day,” says the Lord Yahweh.
    “The dead bodies will be many. In every place they will throw them out with silence.
Hear this, you who desire to swallow up the needy,
    and cause the poor of the land to fail,
    Saying, ‘When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell grain?
    And the Sabbath, that we may market wheat,
    making the ephah[a] small, and the shekel[b] large,
    and dealing falsely with balances of deceit;
that we may buy the poor for silver,
    and the needy for a pair of sandals,
    and sell the sweepings with the wheat?’”
Yahweh has sworn by the pride of Jacob,
    “Surely I will never forget any of their works.
Won’t the land tremble for this,
    and everyone mourn who dwells in it?
Yes, it will rise up wholly like the River;
    and it will be stirred up and sink again, like the River of Egypt.
It will happen in that day,” says the Lord Yahweh,
    “that I will cause the sun to go down at noon,
    and I will darken the earth in the clear day.
10 I will turn your feasts into mourning,
    and all your songs into lamentation;
and I will make you wear sackcloth on all your bodies,
    and baldness on every head.
I will make it like the mourning for an only son,
    and its end like a bitter day.
11 Behold, the days come,” says the Lord Yahweh,
    “that I will send a famine in the land,
    not a famine of bread,
    nor a thirst for water,
    but of hearing Yahweh’s words.
12 They will wander from sea to sea,
    and from the north even to the east;
    they will run back and forth to seek Yahweh’s word,
    and will not find it.
13 In that day the beautiful virgins
    and the young men will faint for thirst.
14 Those who swear by the sin of Samaria,
    and say, ‘As your god, Dan, lives;’
    and, ‘As the way of Beersheba lives;’
    they will fall, and never rise up again.”

Footnotes

  1. 8:5 1 ephah is about 22 liters or about 2/3 of a bushel
  2. 8:5 a normal shekel is about 10 grams or about 0.35 ounces.

The Basket of Fruit

This is what the Lord God showed me: a basket of summer fruit. He said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me,

“The end[a] has come upon my people Israel;
    I will spare them no longer.(A)
The songs of the temple[b] shall become wailings on that day,”
            says the Lord God;
“the dead bodies shall be many,
    cast out in every place. Be silent!”(B)

Hear this, you who trample on the needy,
    and bring to ruin the poor of the land,(C)
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,(D)
buying the poor for silver
    and the needy for a pair of sandals
    and selling the sweepings of the wheat.”(E)

The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.(F)
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?(G)

On that day, says the Lord God,
    I will make the sun go down at noon
    and darken the earth in broad daylight.(H)
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.(I)

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.(J)
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.(K)

13 On that day the beautiful young women and the young men
    shall faint for thirst.(L)
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.(M)

Footnotes

  1. 8.2 In Heb the word for end is related to the word for summer fruit
  2. 8.3 Or palace