Amos 7:7-9:10

English Standard Version

“Behold, I am setting ^(D)a plumb line
    in the midst of my people Israel;
    ^(E)I will never again pass by them;
^9 (F)the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate,
    and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste,
    and I will rise against ^(G)the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”

“‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword,
    and ^(K)Israel must go into exile
    away from his land.’”

“You say, ^(U)‘Do not prophesy against Israel,
    and ^(V)do not preach against the house of ^(W)Isaac.’

“‘Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city,
    and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword,
    and your land ^(Y)shall be divided up with a measuring line;
you yourself shall die in an unclean land,
    and ^(Z)Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.’”

^(AD)“The end^[b] has come upon my people Israel;
    I will never again pass by them.
^3 (AE)The songs of the temple^{[c] (AF)}shall become wailings^[d] in that day,”
declares the Lord God.
^(AG)“So many dead bodies!”
“They are thrown everywhere!”
^(AH)“Silence!”

⁴ Hear this, ^(AI)you who trample on the needy
    and bring the poor of the land to an end,
⁵ saying, “When will ^(AJ)the new moon be over,
    that we may sell grain?
And ^(AK)the Sabbath,
    that we may offer wheat for sale,
that we may make ^(AL)the ephah small and the shekel^[e] great
    and deal deceitfully with false balances,
⁶ that we may buy the poor for ^(AM)silver
    and the needy for a pair of sandals
    and sell the chaff of the wheat?”

⁷ The Lord has sworn by ^(AN)the pride of Jacob:
“Surely ^(AO)I will never forget any of their deeds.
^8 (AP)Shall not the land tremble on this account,
    and everyone mourn who dwells in it,
^(AQ)and all of it rise like the Nile,
    and be tossed about ^(AR)and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?”

⁹ “And on that day,” declares the Lord God,
    ^(AS)“I will make the sun go down at noon
    and darken the earth in broad daylight.
^10 (AT)I will turn your feasts into mourning
    and all your songs into lamentation;
^(AU)I will bring sackcloth on every waist
    ^(AV)and baldness on every head;
^(AW)I will make it like the mourning for an only son
    and the end of it like a bitter day.

¹¹ “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God,
    “when ^(AX)I will send a famine on the land—
not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,
    ^(AY)but of hearing the words of the Lord.
^12 (AZ)They shall wander from sea to sea,
    and from north to east;
they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord,
    ^(BA)but they shall not find it.

^13 (BB)“In that day the lovely virgins and the young men
    shall ^(BC)faint for thirst.
¹⁴ Those who swear by ^(BD)the Guilt of Samaria,
    and say, ‘As your god lives, O Dan,’
and, ‘As ^(BE)the Way of ^(BF)Beersheba lives,’
    they shall fall, and never rise again.”

^(BG)“Strike the capitals until ^(BH)the thresholds ^(BI)shake,
    ^(BJ)and shatter them on the heads of all the people;^[g]
and those who are left of them I will kill with the sword;
    ^(BK)not one of them shall flee away;
    not one of them shall escape.

^2 (BL)“If they dig into Sheol,
    from there shall my hand take them;
^(BM)if they climb up to heaven,
    from there I will bring them down.
³ If they hide themselves on ^(BN)the top of Carmel,
    from there I will search them out and take them;
^(BO)and if they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea,
    there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them.
^4 (BP)And if they go into captivity before their enemies,
    there I will command the sword, and it shall kill them;
^(BQ)and I will fix my eyes upon them
    for evil and not for good.”

⁵ The Lord God of hosts,
he who touches the earth and ^(BR)it melts,
    and all who dwell in it mourn,
^(BS)and all of it rises like the Nile,
    ^(BT)and sinks again, like the Nile of Egypt;
^6 (BU)who builds his upper chambers in the heavens
    and founds his vault upon the earth;
^(BV)who calls for the waters of the sea
    and pours them out upon the surface of the earth—
^(BW)the Lord is his name.

⁷ “Are you not like ^(BX)the Cushites to me,
    O people of Israel?” declares the Lord.
^(BY)“Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt,
    and ^(BZ)the Philistines from ^(CA)Caphtor and the Syrians from ^(CB)Kir?
⁸ Behold, ^(CC)the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom,
    and I will destroy it from the surface of the ground,
    ^(CD)except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,”
declares the Lord.

⁹ “For behold, I will command,
    ^(CE)and shake the house of Israel among all the nations
as one shakes with a sieve,
    but no pebble shall fall to the earth.
¹⁰ All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword,
    who say, ^(CF)‘Disaster shall not overtake or meet us.’