Amos 2
American Standard Version
2 Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Moab, yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime. 2 But I will send a fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the palaces of Kerioth; and Moab shall die with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet; 3 and I will cut off the judge from the midst thereof, and will slay all the princes thereof with him, saith Jehovah.
4 Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Judah, yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have rejected the law of Jehovah, and have not kept his statutes, and their lies have caused them to err, after which their fathers did walk. 5 But I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.
6 Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Israel, yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have sold the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes— 7 they that pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and his father go unto the same maiden, to profane my holy name: 8 and they lay themselves down beside every altar upon clothes taken in pledge; and in the house of their God they drink the wine of such as have been fined.
9 Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath. 10 Also I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and led you forty years in the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite. 11 And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazirites. Is it not even thus, O ye children of Israel? saith Jehovah. 12 But ye gave the Nazirites wine to drink, and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not.
13 Behold, [a]I will press you in your place, as a cart presseth that is full of sheaves. 14 And [b]flight shall perish from the swift; and the strong shall not strengthen his force; neither shall the mighty deliver [c]himself; 15 neither shall he stand that handleth the bow; and he that is swift of foot shall not deliver himself; neither shall he that rideth the horse deliver [d]himself; 16 and he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, saith Jehovah.
Amos 2
EasyEnglish Bible
2 The Lord says, ‘The people in Moab have done more and more wrong things. So I will certainly punish them.
They dug up the bones of Edom's king. They burned his bones until they became ashes. 2 So I will send fire to the country called Moab. The fire will destroy the strong buildings in Kerioth town. The people will hear their enemies shout. And they will hear the sounds that their enemies' trumpets make. And the people will die. 3 I will let the enemies kill the ruler of Moab. And I will let them kill all its leaders too.’ That is what the Lord says.
A message to the people in Judah
4 The Lord says, ‘The people in Judah have done more and more wrong things. So I will certainly punish them.
They refused to obey my laws and my commands. They have listened to their false gods, Those are the same false gods that their ancestors served. 5 So I will send fire to Judah. The fire will completely burn the strong buildings that are in Jerusalem.’
A message to the people in Israel
6 The Lord says, ‘The people in Israel have done more and more wrong things. So I will certainly punish them.
They sold people that did not do wrong things. They sold them for silver. And they sold poor people for only the price of shoes. 7 They are not kind to poor people and they do not help them. A father and his son have sex with the same woman. They do not respect the holy way that I want them to live. 8 When they lend money to poor people, they take the poor people's clothes.[a] They do not return the clothes each night, as they should do. Instead they sleep on the clothes themselves. They do that at the places where they worship their gods. The rich people take money from poor people. They use that money to buy wine for themselves. Then they drink the wine in the temples of their gods.
9 Remember the Amorites. They were big and strong. They were like the tallest cedar trees and the strongest oak trees. But I destroyed all of them. 10 I brought you out of Egypt. After that, I led you through the wilderness for 40 years. Then I took you to the land where the Amorites lived, so that it would belong to you. 11 I chose some men among you to be prophets, and some to be Nazirites.[b] You Israelites know that it is true.’ That is what the Lord says. 12 ‘But you told the Nazirites to drink wine, like everyone else. And you said to the prophets, “Do not speak messages from God.”
13 So I will punish you. A cart that has a heavy load pushes down on the ground. That is how I will push down on you. 14 You might try to run away. But nobody will get free. Even the fastest runner will not get free. The strong people will not be strong enough to stop me. The soldiers will not be able to save their lives. 15 Soldiers who shoot arrows will have to turn back. Fast runners will not save their lives. Soldiers who ride on horses will also die. 16 At that time, strong, brave soldiers will run away without their clothes.’ That is what the Lord says.
Footnotes
- 2:8 When a poor person gave clothes to a rich person, the poor person was giving a promise. He was promising to pay money back to the rich person. God had said this to rich people about those poor people's clothes: ‘Do not keep the clothes at night. Give the clothes back to the poor people for the nights. Then they will not be cold.’
- 2:11 ‘Nazirites’ were people that had made a special promise. So they lived in a different way from other people. They did not drink alcohol and they did not cut their hair. And they did not touch anything that was dead.
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