Amos 8:4-7

Common English Bible

Judgment on oppressors and hypocrites

⁴    Hear this, you who trample on the needy and destroy
        the poor of the land, ⁵saying,
    “When will the new moon
        be over so that we may sell grain,
        and the Sabbath
        so that we may offer wheat for sale,
        make the ephah smaller, enlarge the shekel,
        and deceive with false balances,
⁶        in order to buy the needy for silver
        and the helpless for sandals,
        and sell garbage as grain?”

⁷ The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
Surely I will never forget what they have done.

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Colossians 1:24-27

Common English Bible

Paul’s service for the church

²⁴Now I’m happy to be suffering for you. I’m completing what is missing from Christ’s sufferings with my own body. I’m doing this for the sake of his body, which is the church. ²⁵I became a servant of the church by God’s commission, which was given to me for you, in order to complete God’s word. ²⁶I’m completing it with a secret plan^[a] that has been hidden for ages and generations but which has now been revealed to his holy people. ²⁷God wanted to make the glorious riches of this secret plan^[b] known among the Gentiles, which is Christ living in you, the hope of glory.