Amos 4 - Micah 3
Tree of Life Version
Word for Worldly Women
4 Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on Samaria’s hill,
who oppress the poor,
who crush the needy,
who say to their masters: “Bring, so we may drink.”
2 My Lord Adonai has sworn by His holiness:
“Behold, days are coming upon you
when he will drag you away with meat-hooks,
the last of you with fishhooks.
3 You will go out through breaches—
each woman straight ahead,
and you will be cast to Harmon.”[a]
It is the declaration of Adonai.
4 “Come to Bethel and transgress,
in Gilgal multiply transgression.
Every morning bring your sacrifices
and your tithes every three days.
5 Offer up hametz as a thank offering,
call out about freewill offerings—
boast about it!
For so you love to do, Bnei-Yisrael.”
It is the declaration of my Lord Adonai.
Yet You Have Not Returned
6 “So also, I myself have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities
and lack of bread in all your places—
yet you have not returned to Me,”
declares Adonai.
7 “Also I myself have withheld from you
the rain—when three months remain to the harvest,
I caused it to rain on one city,
while on another city I sent no rain;
one piece of ground would get rain,
while the portion not rained on would wither.
8 So two or three cities go staggering to one city to drink water,
but would not be satisfied—
yet you have not returned to Me,”
declares Adonai.
9 “I struck you with blight and mildew.
Your many gardens and vineyards,
your fig-trees and olive trees the locust has devoured—
yet you have not returned to Me,”
declares Adonai.
10 “I sent among you a plague in the manner of Egypt.
I slew your young men by the sword,
with your chariot-horses in captivity.
I made the stench of your camp rise up even to your own nostrils—
yet you have not returned to Me,”
declares Adonai.
11 I overthrew some of you as God
overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah[b].
You became like a firebrand snatched from a blaze—
yet you have not returned to Me,”
declares Adonai.
Prepare to Meet Your God
12 “Therefore here is what I will do to you, Israel.
Because I will do this to you,
prepare to meet your God, Israel!”
13 For behold! He who forms mountains
who creates the wind,
who declares His thoughts to man,
who makes dawn out of darkness,
who walks above the heights of the earth—
His Name is Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot!
Seek Adonai and Live
5 Hear this word that I take up as a lament over you, O house of Israel:
2 She has fallen, never rising again—virgin Israel—
She is forsaken on her land,
with nobody to lift her up.
3 For thus says Adonai Elohim:
“The city that sends out a thousand
will have a hundred left,
and one that sends out a hundred
will have ten left for the house of Israel.”
4 For thus says Adonai to the house of Israel:
“Seek Me, and live!
5 But do not seek Bethel,
do not go to Gilgal,
do not cross over to Beersheba.
For Gilgal will surely go into exile,
and Bethel will come to trouble.
6 Seek Adonai, and live—
lest He rush like fire through the house of Joseph.
Yes, it will devour Bethel,
with no one to quench it.[c]
Sins of Injustice
7 You who turn justice to wormwood
threw righteousness to the ground.
8 He who made the Pleiades and Orion
and changes deep darkness to morning.
Who darkens the day into night.
Who summons the water of the sea
and pours it out on the face of the earth
—Adonai is His Name.
9 He flashes destruction on the mighty,
so destruction will come against a fortress.
10 They despise one who reproves at the gate,
so they detest one who speaks with integrity.
11 Therefore, because you trample on the poor,
exacting from him a burden of grain,
you built houses of hewn stone,
but will not dwell in them,
you planted pleasant vineyards,
but will not drink their wine.
12 For I know your crimes are many
and your sins countless—
afflicting the righteous, taking bribes,
and turning the needy aside at the gate.
13 Therefore the prudent keep silent at such a time
—for it is a distressful time.
14 Seek good and not evil,
so you may live,
and so Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot may be with you
—just as you said!
15 Hate evil, love good,
maintain justice at the gate.
Maybe Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot will
extend grace to Joseph’s remnant.[d]
16 Therefore thus said Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot, my Lord:
“There will be wailing in all plazas and in all streets.
They will say: ‘Alas! Alas!’
The farmer will be called to mourning
along with those who know the lamentation song.
17 In all vineyards will be wailing,
for I will pass through your midst”
—Adonai has spoken.
Dreadful Day of Adonai
18 Oy to you—longing for the Day of Adonai![e]
What would it be for you?
The Day of Adonai will be darkness and not light.[f]
19 It will be as when a man is fleeing from a lion—
and meets a bear!
Or he comes home,
leans his hand on the wall,
and a snake bites him!
20 Will not the Day of Adonai be darkness, not light?
Gloom, not brightness?
Justice Better Than Sacrifices
21 “I hate, I despise your festivals!
I take no delight in your sacred assemblies.
22 Even if you offer me burnt offerings and your grain offerings,
I will not accept them,
nor will I look
at peace offerings of your fattened animals.
23 Take away from Me the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the melody of your harps.
24 But let justice roll like water
and righteousness like an ever-flowing torrent.
25 Did you bring sacrifices and offerings to Me in the wilderness
for forty years, O house of Israel?
26 But you lifted up your images
—Siccuth your ‘king’, and Chiun,[g] your star gods—
which you made for yourselves,[h]
27 So I will send you into exile,
beyond Damascus.”
Adonai has spoken,
Elohei-Tzva’ot is His Name.
At Ease in Zion
6 Oy! You who are at ease in Zion,
trusting in Samaria’s hill!
Distinguished ones of the foremost of nations—
to whom the house of Israel comes
2 Go over to Calneh and look.
From there go to great Hamath,
go down to Gath of the Philistines.
Are you better than these kingdoms?
Or is their territory larger than yours?
3 Dismissing the day of calamity,
you bring near the throne of violence.
4 Reclining on beds of ivory,
sprawling on their couches,
dining on lambs from the flock
and calves from amid the stall,
5 chanting to the sound of harp like David,
inventing their own instruments of song,
6 drinking wine from bowls,
anointing with choice ointments—
yet they are not sickened over the breakdown of Joseph.
7 Therefore now they will go into exile at the head of the exiles.
Sprawling revelry will cease.
8 My Lord Adonai has sworn by Himself
—declares Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot—
“I loathe the arrogance of Jacob,
I despise his palaces,
so I will shut down the city and everything in it.”
9 If ten people remain in one house, they will die. 10 One’s beloved—the one burning incense for him—will lift him up to carry the bones out of the house, and he will say to one in the innermost recess of the house: “Is anyone else still with you?” And he will say: “No one.” Then he will say, “Hush! For we must not mention the Name of Adonai.”
11 For behold, Adonai will command,
He will smash the big house to fragments
and the little house to splinters.
12 Will horses run on the cliff?
Will one plow there with oxen?
Yet you turned justice into venom,
the fruit of righteousness into wormwood.
13 You are rejoicing for no reason, saying:
“Haven’t we taken two horns for ourselves by our own strength?”
14 “For behold, I am raising up against you,
O house of Israel, a nation,
and they will afflict you
from Lebo-Hamath[i] to the Valley of the Arabah.”
declares Adonai, the God of Hosts.
Locusts and the Trial by Fire
7 This is what my Lord Adonai has shown me: Behold, He was forming locusts at the beginning of the spring crop—after the cutting of the king’s hay. 2 When the locust-swarm had finished devouring the vegetation of the land, I said:
“Adonai Elohim, please pardon!
How can Jacob stand, for he is small?”
3 Adonai relented concerning this.
“It shall not be,” Adonai said.
4 This is what my Lord Adonai has shown me: Behold, Adonai Elohim was calling for the trial by fire, and it would have devoured the great deep, and it would have devoured the territory. 5 But I said:
“My Lord Adonai, stop, please!
How can Jacob stand, for he is small?”
6 Adonai relented concerning this.
“This also shall not happen,”
says my Lord Adonai.
Plumb Line on a Wall
7 This is what He has revealed to me: Behold, my Lord was standing by a vertical wall, and in His hand was a plumb line. 8 Then Adonai said to me: “What do you see, Amos?”
I said: “A plumb line.”
Then my Lord said:
“Behold, I am setting a plumb line among My people Israel—
I will no longer pass over them.
9 So the high places of Isaac will become desolate,
the sanctuaries of Israel will be laid waste,
and I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”
10 Then Amaziah, the priest of Beth-el, sent word to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying: “Amos has been conspiring against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land cannot endure all his words. 11 For this is what Amos has said: ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will surely go captive from his land.’”
12 Then Amaziah said to Amos: “Seer, go away! Flee back to the land of Judah. Eat bread there, and prophesy there. 13 But at Bethel you are not to prophesy any more—for it is a royal sanctuary and a house of the kingdom.”
14 So Amos responded and said to Amaziah: “I am no prophet, nor am I a son of a prophet. Rather, I am a shepherd tending fig trees. 15 But Adonai took me from following the flock and Adonai said to me: ‘Go, prophesy to My people Israel.’ 16 So now, hear the word of Adonai: You are saying, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel and do not preach against the house of Isaac.’ 17 Therefore, this is what Adonai says:
‘Your wife shall become a prostitute in the city,
your sons and your daughters will fall by the sword,
and your land divided up by a measuring line.
Now, as for you—you will die in an unclean land,
and Israel will surely be led away captive out of its land.’”
A Basket of Summer Fruit
8 This is what my Lord Adonai has shown me: See, there was a basket of summer fruit. 2 He said: “Amos, what do you see?”
“A basket of summer fruit,” I said.
Then Adonai said to me:
“The end has come to My people Israel.
I will not again pass over them.
3 The songs of the palace will become howls in that day.”
It is a declaration of my Lord Adonai.
“So many corpses flung everywhere! Hush!
4 Hear this, you who trample the poor,
destroying the afflicted of the land
5 saying: ‘When will the New Moon be over,
so we may sell grain?
Or Shabbat, so we may open the wheat market?
—Let’s reduce the ephah measure
and increase the shekel,
cheat with deceitful balances,
6 buy the poor for silver,
the needy for a pair of sandals!
We’ll even sell the refuse of the grain!’”
7 Adonai swore by the Pride of Jacob:
“Never will I forget all their deeds!
8 Will not the land tremble over this?
Will not all who dwell in it mourn?
Yes, it will rise up like all the Nile
—it will surge and sink again like the Nile of Egypt.”
9 “It will be in that day”
—declares my Lord Adonai—
“I will make the sun go down at noon,
yes, I will darken the earth in daylight.
10 I will turn your festivals into mourning
and all your songs into a dirge.[j]
I will pull up sackcloth on every waist
and baldness on every head.
I will make it like the mourning for an only son—
its end a bitter day.”[k]
11 “Behold, days are coming”
—declares my Lord Adonai—
“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 Adonai.[l]
12 So people will wander from sea to sea
and roam from north to east,
searching for the word of Adonai,
but they will not find it.
13 In that day, the fair virgins and the virile young men
will faint from thirst.
14 Those swearing by Samaria’s guilt will say,
‘As your gods live, Dan!’
or ‘As the way of Beersheba lives!’
But they will fall,
never to rise again.”
No Escaping His Eyes
9 I saw my Lord standing by the altar, and He said:
“Strike the tops of the pillars,
so the porches shake!
Break all of them off at the head!
Then the last of them I will slay with the sword—
none of them fleeing will escape
and no fugitive will slip away.
2 If they should dig down to Sheol,
from there My hand will take them.
If they should go up to heaven,
from there will I bring them down.
3 If they should hide themselves at the top of Carmel,
I will search them out and take them from there.
If they hide themselves from My eyes at the bottom of the sea,
from there I will command the sea serpent to bite them.
4 If they should go into captivity before their enemies,
from there I will command the sword to slay them.
I will set My eyes upon them for calamity
and not for prosperity.”
5 My Lord is Adonai-Tzva’ot.
It is He who touches the land so it melts,
and all its inhabitants will mourn.
Then it will surge like all the Nile,
and sink again like the Nile of Egypt.
6 He who builds His upper stories in heaven
fitted its vault over the earth.
He who summons the waters of the sea
and pours them out on the face of the earth
—Adonai is His Name.
7 “Are you not like the children
of the Cushites to Me, Bnei-Yisrael?”
It is the declaration of Adonai.
“Did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt,
the Philistines from Caphtor, and Aram from Kir?”
8 Behold, the eyes of my Lord Adonai are on the sinful kingdom.
So I will utterly destroy it from the face of the earth.
Nevertheless, I will not annihilate the house of Jacob.”
It is a declaration of Adonai.
9 “For behold, I have commanded,
and I will shake the house of Israel among all the nations,
like grain being tossed in a sieve,
without a pebble falling to the ground.
10 By the sword shall all the sinners
of My people die,
those who say:
‘The calamity will not overtake or confront us.’
David’s Sukkah Restored
11 “In that day I will raise up David’s fallen sukkah.[m]
I will restore its breaches,
raise up its ruins,
and rebuild it as in days of old
12 —so they may possess the remnant of Edom
and all the nations called by My Name.”
It is a declaration of Adonai, the One who will do this.
13 “Behold, days are soon coming”
—it is a declaration of Adonai—
“when the plowman will overtake the reaper
and the one treading grapes, the one sowing seed.
The mountains will drip sweet wine
and all the hills will melt over.
14 Yes, I will restore the captivity of My people Israel.
They will rebuild desolated cities and dwell in them.
They will plant vineyards and drink their wine.
They will also make gardens and eat their fruit.
15 Yes, I will plant them on their land,
and they will never again be plucked up
out of their land that I have given to them.”
Adonai, your God, has said it.
Edom’s Arrogance and Ruin
1 The vision of Obadiah. Thus says Adonai Elohim concerning Edom:
We have heard a report from Adonai—
and an envoy has been sent among the nations:
“Arise and let us rise up against her in battle.”
2 Behold, I will make you least among the nations,
you will be greatly despised.
3 The arrogance of your heart has deceived you—
living in the clefts of the rock—
his dwelling place is lofty, saying in his heart:
‘Who shall bring me down to the earth?’
4 Even if you soar like the eagle,
and even if you set your nest among the stars,
from there I will bring you down.’”
declares Adonai.
5 “If thieves came to you,
if robbers by night—
how ruined you would be!—
would they keep stealing after they had enough?
If grape-gatherers came to you,
would they not leave some gleaning?
6 How Esau will be ransacked,
and how his hidden treasures searched out!
7 All your allies will force you to the border.
The men that are at peace with you will deceive you and overpower you.
Those who eat your bread will set a trap under you.
(He has no discernment.)
8 In that day,”—declares Adonai—
“will I not destroy the wise men from Edom
and understanding from the hill country of Esau?
9 Then your mighty men, O Teman, will be shattered
—so everyone will be cut off from the hill country of Esau by slaughter.
10 “Because of your violence to your brother Jacob,
shame will cover you,
and you will be cut off forever.
11 On the day that you stood aloof—
on the day that strangers carried away his wealth,
while foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem—
you were just like one of them.
12 You should not look down on your brother
on the day of his disaster,
nor should you rejoice over the children of Judah
in the day of their destruction.
You should not speak proudly
in the day of their distress.
13 Do not enter the gate of My people
In the day of their disaster.
Yes, you. Do not gloat over their misery
in the day of their disaster.
Yes, you—do not loot their wealth
in the day of their calamity.
14 Do not stand at the crossroad to cut down his fugitives,
and do not imprison his survivors in the day of distress.
The House of Jacob will be a Fire
15 “For the day of Adonai is near against all the nations.
As you have done, it shall be done to you.
Your dealing will return on your own head.
16 For just as you have drunk on My holy mountain,
so all the nations shall drink continually.
Yes, they will drink and gulp down,
and then be as though they had never existed.
17 But on Mount Zion there will be deliverance,
and it will be holy.
Then house of Jacob will dispossess
those who dispossessed them.
18 The house of Jacob will be a fire,
and the house of Joseph flame,
while the house of Esau will be straw—
they will set them on fire and consume them.
So there will be no survivors of the house of Esau.”
—for Adonai has spoken.
19 Then those of the Negev[n]
will possess the hill country of Esau,
and those of the foothills the Philistines.
Then they will possess the territory of Ephraim
and the territory of Samaria,
while Benjamin will possess Gilead.
20 The exiles of this army of Bnei-Yisrael
will possess what belonged to the Canaanites as far as Zarephath, while the exiles of Jerusalem, who are in Sepharad,
will possess the cities of the Negev.
21 The victorious will go up on Mount Zion
to judge the hill country of Esau.
Then the kingdom shall be Adonai’s.
Jonah Runs From His Mission
1 Now the word of Adonai came to Jonah,[o] son of Amittai, saying: 2 “Rise, go to the great city Nineveh and call out to her, for their evil has risen before me.”
3 But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish, from the presence of Adonai. He went down to Jaffa and found a ship going to Tarshish, paid the fee and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish—away from the presence of Adonai.
4 Then Adonai hurled a forceful wind into the sea and there was such a mighty storm on the sea that the ship was about to shatter. 5 So the sailors were afraid and cried out, each man to his own god. Then they cast the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest part of the ship, to lay down and fell fast asleep.
6 So the chief sailor came near to him and said to him, “What, are you sleeping? Get up! Call out to your god. Perhaps the gods will consider us, so we will not perish!”
7 Then each man said to his companion, “Come, let’s cast lots—so we may know because of whom this evil is happening to us.” So they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah.[p]
8 Then they said to him, “Tell us, now! On whose account is this evil happening to us? What is your profession and where did you come from? What is your land and from what nation are you?”
9 He said to them, “I am a Hebrew and I fear Adonai God of the heavens, who made the sea and the dry land.”
10 Then the men became afraid with an overwhelming fear and they said to him, “What have you done?” For the men knew that he had fled from the presence of Adonai, because he had told them. 11 So they said to him, “What should we do to you so the sea will become calm for us?”—for the storm was raging on.
12 “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he said to them, “then the sea will become calm for you. For I know it is because of me that this great storm is upon you.”
13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to return to the land, but they could not, because the sea kept raging against them. 14 So they cried to Adonai and said, “Please, Adonai, don’t let us perish on account of the soul of this man and don’t put innocent blood on us. For you, Adonai, have done as you pleased.”
15 So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea—and the sea stilled from its raging. 16 Then the men became afraid with an overwhelming fear of Adonai, and they offered a sacrifice to Adonai and made vows.
2 Now Adonai prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.[q][r]
Jonah’s Prayer of Distress
2 Then Jonah prayed to Adonai his God from the belly of the fish, 3 saying:
“From my distress I cried to Adonai
and He answered me.
From the belly of Sheol I cried for help
and you heard my voice.[s]
4 For you hurled me from the deep
into the heart of the seas,
and currents swirled around me.
All your waves and your breakers
swept over me.”
5 And I said, “I have been banished
from before your eyes.
Yet I will continue to look
toward your holy Temple.”
6 Waters surrounded me up to my soul.
The deep sea engulfed me—
reeds clung to my head.
7 To the bottoms of the mountains I went down.
The earth with her bars was around me, forever!
Yet You brought my life up from the Pit,
Adonai my God.
8 As my soul was fading from me,
I remembered Adonai
and my prayer came to You,
toward Your holy Temple.
9 Those who watch worthless empty things
forsake their mercy.
10 But I, with a voice of thanks
will sacrifice to you.
What I vowed, I will pay.
Salvation is from Adonai.”
11 Then Adonai spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah onto the dry land.
Nineveh Repents
3 Now the word of Adonai came to Jonah a second time, saying, 2 “Rise and go to Nineveh, the great city, and cry out to it the proclamation that I am telling you.”
3 So Jonah rose and went to Nineveh according to the word of Adonai. Now Nineveh was a great city to God—the length of a three day journey. 4 So Jonah began to come into the city for one day’s journey, and he cried out saying: “Another forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown!”
5 Then the people of Nineveh believed God and called for a fast and wore sackcloth—from the greatest of them to the least of them. 6 When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his robe, covered himself in sackcloth, and sat in the ashes. 7 He made a proclamation saying:
“In Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles, no man or beast, herd or flock, may taste anything. They must not graze nor drink water. 8 But cover man and beast with sackcloth. Let them cry out to God with urgency. Let each one turn from his evil way and from the violence in his hands. 9 Who knows? God may turn and relent, and turn back from his burning anger, so that we may not perish.”
10 When God saw their deeds—that they turned from their wicked ways—God relented from the calamity that He said He would do to them, and did not do it.
Jonah’s Displeasure at God’s Mercy
4 But it greatly displeased Jonah and he resented it. 2 So he prayed to Adonai and said, “Please, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my own country? That’s what I anticipated, fleeing to Tarshish—for I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and full of kindness, and relenting over calamity. 3 So please, Adonai, take my soul from me—because better is my death than my life.”
4 Yet Adonai said, “Is it good for you to be so angry?”
5 So Jonah went out from the city and sat east of the city. There He made a sukkah and he sat under it, in the shade, until he saw what would happen in the city. 6 Then Adonai God prepared a plant and it grew up over Jonah, to give shade over his head to spare him from his discomfort. So Jonah was very happy about the plant. 7 But God at dawn the next day prepared a worm that crippled the plant and it withered away. 8 When the sun rose, God prepared a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint. So he implored that his soul would die, saying, “My death would be better than my life!”
9 Then God said to Jonah, “Is it good for you to be so angry about the plant?”
“It is,” he said, “I am angry enough to die!”
10 But Adonai said, “You have pity on the plant for which you did no labor or make it grow, that appeared overnight and perished overnight. So shouldn’t I have pity on Nineveh—the great city that has in it more than 120,000 people who don’t know their right hand from their left—as well as many animals?”
1 The word of Adonai that came to Micah the Morashtite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah—visions he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
Smashing Idols in the High Places
2 Hear, O peoples—all of you!
Attention, O land and everything in it!
Adonai Elohim will be witness against you—
The Lord from His holy Temple.
3 For behold, Adonai is coming forth out of His place.
He will come down and trample on the high places of the land.
4 The mountains will melt away under Him
and the valleys will split apart
like wax before the fire,
like water being poured down a slope.
5 All this is because of Jacob’s transgression
and the sins of the house of Israel.
Who is the transgression of Jacob?
Is it not Samaria?
Who are the high places of Judah?
Are they not Jerusalem?
6 So I will make Samaria into a ruin in the countryside,
planting places for a vineyard.
I will hurl her stones into the valley
and will lay bare her foundations.
7 All her images will be smashed,
all her prostitute’s pay burned with fire,
and all her idols I will make desolate.
For from prostitute’s pay she collected them
and to prostitute’s pay they will return.
8 Concerning this let me lament and howl.
Let me walk barefoot and naked.
I will make a howl like jackals
and a mourning like ostriches.
9 For her wounds are incurable.
For it has come up to Judah.
It has reached the gate of my people—
even up to Jerusalem!
10 Tell it not in Gath—weep not at all.
At Beth-le-aphrah[t] roll in the dust.
11 Pass on, you who dwell in Saphir
—nakedness and shame—
she who dwells in Zaanan
will not come out.
Wailing of Beth-ezel[u]:
He will take from you its standing-place.
12 For she who dwells in Maroth has languished for something good.
For calamity has come down
from Adonai to Jerusalem’s gate.
13 Harness the chariot to the steed,
O inhabitant of Lachish!
It was the beginning of sin
for the Daughter of Zion—
because in you were found
the rebellions of Israel.
14 Therefore you will give parting gifts to Moresheth-gath—
houses of Achzib as a deception to the kings of Israel.
15 Yet I will bring the possessor to you,
inhabitant of Mareshah.
The glory of Israel will come
as far as Adullam.
16 Shave yourself bald,
yes shear your hair for the children of your delight.
Enlarge your bald spot like a vulture,
for they went from you into exile.
Covetous Schemers
2 Oy to them who scheme wickedness,
who work out evil upon their beds!
In the light of the morning, they do it,
for the power is in their hands.
2 They covet fields, so they seize them,
or houses, and take them away.
So they oppress a man and his house—
a man and his inheritance.
3 Therefore, thus said Adonai:
“Behold, I am scheming a calamity against this family
from which you cannot remove your necks.
Then you will not walk haughtily,
for it will be a time of distress.”
4 In that day He will lift up a parable for you,
and there will be wailing lamentation,
saying: “We have been utterly ruined!
He changes the portion of my people.
How He removes it from me!
To the faithless He apportions our fields!”
5 Therefore you will have no one casting for territory
by lot in the congregation of Adonai.
6 “Do not prophesy,” they prophesy.
Unless they prophesy about such things,
He will not turn back reproaches.”
7 Is it said, “O house of Jacob,
is the Ruach Adonai short of patience?
Are these His deeds?”
“Do not My words deal well
with one who walks uprightly?”
8 But recently My people arose as an enemy.
You strip off the outer robe of a garment
from those passing through confidently—
those returning from war.
9 The wives of My people you cast out
from their exquisite houses.
From her young children
you take away My splendor, forever.
10 Arise and go!
For this is not the resting place,
because of uncleanness that destroys—
a grievous destruction.
11 If a man walking in a spirit of falsehood speaks lies—
“I will prophesy for you of wine and strong drink”—
Then he would be a spokesman of this people.
12 “I will surely gather Jacob—all of you!
I will surely gather the remnant of Israel.
I will put them together like sheep in a pen,
like a flock within its pasture.
They will be noisy with people.
13 One breaking through will go up before them.[v]
They will break through,
pass through the gate and go out by it.[w]
Their King will pass through before them
—Adonai at their head!”
Unjust Leaders, False Prophets
3 Then I said:
“Hear, leaders of Jacob, rulers of the house of Israel.
Is it not for you to know justice?
2 You haters of good and lovers of evil,
you are robbing their skin from them
and their flesh from their bones.”
3 Now that they have eaten the flesh of my people,
stripped their skin off from them,
and smashed their bones to bits,
they cut it up like flesh in a pot,
or like meat within a caldron.
4 Then they will cry out to Adonai,
but He will not answer them.
Thus He will hide His face from them at that time,
because of their evil deeds.
5 Thus said Adonai about the prophets
who are misleading My people,
those who bite with their teeth and cry “Shalom”
—a word that He did not put in their mouth—
yet they consecrate war against him:
6 “Therefore you will have night without vision,
and darkness without divination.
The sun shall set on the prophets,
the day shall become dark upon them.”
7 So the seers will be ashamed
and the diviners will be abashed.
Indeed all of them will cover their lips,
for there will be no answer from God.
8 Nevertheless I myself am filled with power—
with the Ruach Adonai—
with judgment, and with might,
to declare to Jacob his transgression,
and to Israel his sin.
9 Hear this, leaders of the house of Jacob,
rulers of the house of Israel:
You who abhor justice,
and twist everything upright,
10 who build up Zion with bloodshed,
and Jerusalem with injustice.
11 Her leaders give judgment for a bribe.
Her priests give direction for a price.
Her prophets practice divination for money.
Yet they lean on Adonai by saying:
“Is not Adonai in our midst?
No calamity will come upon us!”
12 Therefore, because of you
Zion will become a plowed field.
Yes, Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins,
and the Temple Mount will become a high place in a forest.
Footnotes
- Amos 4:3 Possibly Mount Hermon, or a dung heap.
- Amos 4:11 cf. Matt. 10:15; 11:23-24; Luke 17:29.
- Amos 5:6 cf. Heb. 12:29.
- Amos 5:15 cf. Rom. 12:9.
- Amos 5:18 cf. 2 Pet. 3:4.
- Amos 5:18 cf. Acts. 2:20.
- Amos 5:26 Or, tabernacle of your Moloch, and Saturn (of Babylonia).
- Amos 5:26 cf. Acts 7:43.
- Amos 6:14 Or, the entrance of Hamat.
- Amos 8:10 cf. Jacob 4:9.
- Amos 8:10 cf. Luke 23:28.
- Amos 8:11 cf. Matt. 4:4.
- Amos 9:11 cf. Acts 15:16-18.
- Obadiah 1:19 Negev also known as, the South.
- Jonah 1:1 cf. Matt. 12:39-41; 16:4; Luke 11:29-30, 32.
- Jonah 1:7 cf. Acts 1:26.
- Jonah 2:1 Most translations, 2:1 is 1:17.
- Jonah 2:1 cf. Matt. 12:40; 16:4.
- Jonah 2:3 cf. Acts 13:35.
- Micah 1:10 Meaning, House of Dust.
- Micah 1:11 Meaning, the house nearby.
- Micah 2:13 cf. Matt. 11:12.
- Micah 2:13 cf. John 10:7, 9.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.