Amos 2
Modern English Version
2 Thus says the Lord:
For three transgressions of Moab,
and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,
because he burned to lime
the bones of the king of Edom.
2 So I will send fire against Moab,
and it will devour the fortresses of Kerioth;
Moab will die in uproar,
with a war cry and the alarm of the trumpet.
3 I will cut off the ruler from its midst,
and will slay all its princes with him,
says the Lord.
Judgment Against Judah
4 Thus says the Lord:
For three transgressions of Judah,
and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,
because they have rejected the law of the Lord,
and have not kept His commandments.
The lies which their fathers followed
have led them astray.
5 So I will send fire against Judah,
and it will devour the fortresses of Jerusalem.
Judgment Against Israel
6 Thus says the Lord:
For three transgressions of Israel,
and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,
because they sell the righteous for silver,
and the poor for a pair of sandals.
7 They trample the head of the poor
into the dust of the earth,
and push the oppressed out of the way.
A man and his father go in to the same woman,
profaning My holy name.
8 They recline by every altar
on garments taken in pledge,
and in the house of their gods
they drink the wine from those who have been fined.
9 Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them,
whose height was like the height of the cedars.
He was strong as the oaks,
yet I destroyed his fruit above
and his roots below.
10 It was I who brought you up from the land of Egypt,
and led you forty years through the wilderness,
to possess the land of the Amorite.
11 I raised up some of your sons as prophets,
and some of your young men as Nazirites.
Is it not so, O children of Israel?
says the Lord.
12 But you made the Nazirites drink wine,
and commanded the prophets, saying, “Do not prophesy.”
13 Indeed I will slow you down,
as a wagon is slowed that is full of sheaves.
14 Flight will perish from the swift,
the strong will not retain his strength,
nor will the warrior save his life.
15 The bowman will not stand firm,
the swift-footed will not escape,
nor will the horseman save his life.
16 He that is courageous among the warriors
will flee away naked on that day,
says the Lord.
Amos 6-8
Modern English Version
Woe to the Complacent
6 Woe to those who are at ease in Zion,
and to those confident on the mount of Samaria,
nobles of the first of the nations,
to whom the house of Israel comes!
2 Cross over to Kalneh and see,
and go from there to Hamath the great;
then go down to Gath of the Philistines—
are you better than these kingdoms?
Or is their territory greater than your territory?
3 You who brush off the day of disaster,
but bring on a session of lawlessness;
4 who lie upon beds of ivory, and lounge on their couches,
eating lambs from the flock and calves from the stall;
5 who sing to the sound of the harp
and invent musical instruments for themselves like David;
6 who drink from bowls of wine
and anoint themselves with the finest oils,
but are not grieved over the destruction of Joseph.
7 Therefore now they will go at the head of the captives into exile,
and the revelry of those who are lounging will vanish.
8 The Lord God hath sworn by Himself, an oracle of the Lord the God of Hosts:
I abhor the pride of Jacob
and hate his palaces,
so I will deliver up the city
with all that is in it.
9 If there remain ten people in one house, they will die. 10 And when a relative or one who prepares the bodies picks them up to carry them out of the house, and says to someone in the recesses of the house, “Is anyone else with you?” and he says, “No,” he will say, “Hush!”—not to pronounce the name of the Lord.
11 But indeed the Lord gives a command,
and He will shatter the great house to bits,
and the small house to pieces.
12 Can horses run on a rocky crag?
Can one plow the sea with oxen?
But you have turned justice into poison,
and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood,
13 you who rejoice in Lo Debar, who say,
“Is it not by our own strength that we captured Karnaim?”
14 Watch: I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel,
says the Lord, the God of Hosts,
and they will oppress you
from Lebo Hamath to the Wadi Arabah.
Plague of Locusts
7 This is what the Lord God showed me: He was forming a plague of locusts when the latter growth was beginning to sprout up, the latter growth after the king’s reaping. 2 When they had finished devouring the foliage of the land, I said, “O Lord God, please forgive. How can Jacob survive? For he is small.”
3 The Lord relented concerning this:
“It shall not be,” said the Lord.
Fire
4 This is what the Lord God showed me: The Lord God was calling for a judgment by fire. It was consuming the great deep and was devouring the fields. 5 I said, “O Lord God, please stop. How can Jacob survive? For he is small.”
6 The Lord relented concerning this:
“This also shall not be,” said the Lord God.
Plumb Line
7 This is what He showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall made using a plumb line, with a plumb line in His hand. 8 The Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?”
And I said, “A plumb line.”
Then the Lord said, “See, I am putting a plumb line in the midst of My people Israel. I will forgive them no more.
9 The high places of Isaac will be destroyed,
the sanctuaries of Israel will be laid waste,
and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”
The Priest Tries to Banish Amos
10 Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent a message to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you at the very center of the house of Israel. The country cannot endure all his words. 11 For this is what Amos said:
‘Jeroboam will die by the sword,
and Israel will surely be exiled
away from its land.’ ”
12 So Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee back to the land of Judah. Earn your sustenance there, and prophesy there. 13 But do not prophesy any more at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary and a royal temple.”
14 But Amos answered Amaziah: “I am no prophet, and I am no prophet’s disciple. Rather, I am a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore trees. 15 But the Lord took me away from the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to My people Israel.’ 16 Now therefore hear the word of the Lord: You say,
‘Do not prophesy against Israel,
and do not preach against the house of Isaac.’
17 “Therefore thus says the Lord:
‘Your wife will be a prostitute in the city,
your sons and daughters will fall by the sword,
and your land will be divided by measuring line;
you yourself will die in an unclean land;
and Israel will surely go into exile
away from its land.’ ”
Basket of Fruit
8 This is what the Lord God showed me: a basket of summer fruit. 2 He said, “Amos, what do you see?”
And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.”
Then the Lord said to me, “The end has come upon My people Israel. I will forgive them no more.
3 “The songs of the temple shall become wailings on that day,” says the Lord God. “The corpses shall be many, cast down everywhere. Hush!”
Against the Greedy
4 Hear this, you who trample on the needy
to make the poor of the land fail,
5 saying,
“When will the New Moon be over,
so that we may sell grain?
And the Sabbath,
that we may open the wheat sales,
making the ephah[a] too small,
and the shekel[b] too heavy,
cheating with dishonest scales,
6 that we may buy the poor for silver,
the needy for a pair of sandals,
and sell the refuse as wheat?”
7 The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.
8 Will not the land tremble because of this,
and everyone mourn who lives on it?
It will all rise up like the Nile,
and be tossed around, then sink
like the Nile of Egypt.
9 On that day, says the Lord God,
I will make the sun go down at noon,
and darken the earth in mid-daylight;
10 I will turn your feasts into mourning,
and all your songs into dirges;
I will put sackcloth upon all loins,
and baldness on every head;
I will make it like the mourning for an only child,
and its end like a bitter day.
11 The time is coming, says the Lord God,
when I will send a famine on the land,
not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of the Lord.
12 They will wander from sea to sea,
and from north to east;
they will run back and forth to seek the word of the Lord,
but they will not find it.
13 On that day
the beautiful maidens and the young men
will faint with thirst.
14 Those who swear by Ashimah of Samaria, and say,
“By the life of your god, O Dan,”
and, “By the life of the way of Beersheba”—
they shall fall
and never rise again.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.