Amos 1:1-3:8

Common English Bible

Introduction

1 These are the words of Amos, one of the shepherds of Tekoa. He perceived these things concerning Israel two years before the earthquake, in the days of Judah’s King Uzziah and in the days of Israel’s King Jeroboam, Joash’s son.

Proclamation of divine judgment

²    He said:
    The Lord roars from Zion.
        He shouts from Jerusalem;
        the pastures of the shepherds wither,
        and the top of Carmel dries up.

A word to Damascus

³    The Lord proclaims:
    For three crimes of Damascus,
        and for four, I won’t hold back the punishment,
    because they have harvested Gilead
        with sharp iron tools.
⁴    I will send down fire on the house of Hazael;
        it will devour the palaces of Ben-hadad.
⁵    I will break the fortified gates of Damascus,
        and eliminate the people from the Aven Valley,
    including the one who rules from Beth-eden;
        the people of Aram will be forced to live in Kir,
says the Lord.

A word to Gaza and Ashdod

⁶    The Lord proclaims:
    For three crimes of Gaza,
        and for four, I won’t hold back the punishment,
    because they rounded up entire communities,
        to hand them over to Edom.
⁷    I will send down a fire on the wall of Gaza;
        it will devour Gaza’s palaces.
⁸    I will eliminate the people from Ashdod,
        the one who rules from Ashkelon.
    I will turn my hand against Ekron,
        and the Philistines who remain will perish,
says the Lord God.

A word to Tyre

⁹The Lord proclaims:
    For three crimes of Tyre,
        and for four, I won’t hold back the punishment,
    because they have delivered up entire communities over to Edom,
        and neglected their covenantal obligations.
¹⁰So I will send a fire on the wall of Tyre;
        it will devour their palaces.

A word to Edom

¹¹The Lord proclaims:
    For three crimes of Edom,
        and for four, I won’t hold back the punishment,
    because he chased after his brother with the sword,
        denied all compassion,
        kept his anger alive,
        and fueled his wrath forever.
¹²So I will send a fire on Teman;
        it will devour the fortresses of Bozrah.

A word to Ammon

¹³The Lord proclaims:
    For three crimes of the Ammonites,
        and for four, I won’t hold back the punishment,
    because they have ripped open pregnant women in Gilead
        in order to possess more land.
¹⁴So I will start a fire at the wall of Rabbah;
        the fire will devour its palaces,
        with a war cry on the day of battle,
        with strong wind on the day of the storm.
¹⁵Then their king will be taken away,
        he and his officials together,
says the Lord.

A word to Moab

    2 The Lord proclaims:
    For three crimes of Moab,
        and for four, I won’t hold back the punishment,
    because he burned to lime
        the bones of the king of Edom.
²    So I will send down a fire on Moab;
        it will devour the palaces of Kerioth.
    Moab will die in a great uproar,
        with a war cry, with the sound of the ram’s horn.
³    I will remove their judge from them
        and slay all their officials with him,
says the Lord.

A word to Judah

⁴    The Lord proclaims:
    For three crimes of Judah,
        and for four, I won’t hold back the punishment,
    because they have rejected the Instruction of the Lord,
        and haven’t kept his laws.
    They have been led off the right path by the same lies
        after which their ancestors walked.
⁵    So I will send a fire on Judah,
        and it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem.

A word to Israel

⁶    The Lord proclaims:
    For three crimes of Israel,
        and for four, I won’t hold back the punishment,
    because they have sold the innocent for silver,
            and those in need for a pair of sandals.
⁷    They crush the head of the poor into the dust of the earth,
        and push the afflicted out of the way.
    Father and son have intercourse with the same young woman,
        degrading my holy name.
⁸    They stretch out beside every altar
        on garments taken in loan;
    in the house of their god they drink
        wine bought with fines they imposed.
⁹    Yet I destroyed the Amorite before them,
        whose height was as tall as cedar trees,
        and whose strength was as strong as oak trees.
    I destroyed his fruit above
        and his roots below.
¹⁰Also I brought you up out of the land of Egypt,
        and led you forty years in the wilderness,
        to lay claim to the land of the Amorite.
¹¹I raised up some of your children to be prophets
        and some of your youth to be nazirites.
    Isn’t this so, people of Israel?
says the Lord.

¹²But you made the nazirites drink wine,
        and commanded the prophets,
        saying, “You won’t prophesy.”
¹³So now I will oppress you,
        just like a cart is weighed down^[a]
        when it is full of harvested grain.
¹⁴Fast runners will find no refuge;
    the strong will lose their strength;
    the mighty will be unable to save their lives.
¹⁵Those who shoot the bow won’t survive.
        Fast runners won’t escape;
        those who ride horses won’t save themselves.
¹⁶The bravest warrior
    will flee away naked in that day,
says the Lord.

Words of doom for Israel

3 Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought out of the land of Egypt:

²You only have I loved so deeply
        of all the families of the earth.
    Therefore, I will punish you
        for all your wrongdoing.
³    Will two people walk together
        unless they have agreed to do so?^[b]
⁴    Does a lion roar in the forest
        when it has no prey?
    Does a young lion cry out from its den
        if it has caught nothing?
⁵    Will a bird fall into a trap on the ground
        when there is no bait for it?
    Will a trap spring up from the ground
        when it has taken nothing?
⁶    If a ram’s horn is blown in a city,
        won’t people tremble?
    If disaster falls on a city,
        is it the Lord who has done it?
⁷    Surely the Lord God does nothing
        without revealing his secret
        to his servants the prophets.

⁸    A lion has roared;
        who will not fear?
    The Lord God has spoken;
        who can but prophesy?

Footnotes

Amos 2:13 Heb uncertain
Amos 3:3 Or Will two walk together unless they have agreed?

Amos 3:5

Common English Bible

⁵    Will a bird fall into a trap on the ground
        when there is no bait for it?
    Will a trap spring up from the ground
        when it has taken nothing?

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Amos 3:5 in all English translations

Amos 7:10-17

Common English Bible

Exchange between Amaziah, Jeroboam, and Amos

¹⁰Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, reported to Israel’s King Jeroboam, “Amos has plotted against you within the house of Israel. The land isn’t able to cope with everything that he is saying. ¹¹Amos has said, ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will be forced out of its land.’”

¹²Amaziah said to Amos, “You who see things, go, run away to the land of Judah, eat your bread there, and prophesy there; ¹³but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s holy place and his royal house.”

¹⁴Amos answered Amaziah, “I am^[a] not a prophet, nor am I a prophet’s son; but I am a shepherd, and a trimmer of sycamore trees. ¹⁵But the Lord took me from shepherding the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’

¹⁶“Now then hear the Lord’s word.
    You say, ‘Don’t prophesy against Israel,
        and don’t preach
        against the house of Isaac.’
¹⁷“Therefore, the Lord proclaims:
    ‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the city,
        and your sons and your daughters will fall by the sword,
        and your land will be measured and divided up;
    you yourself will die in an unclean land,
        and Israel will surely be taken away from its land.’”