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More Visions and Messages of Judgment

The Sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw[a] a basket of summer fruit.[b] He said, “What do you see, Amos?” I replied, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me, “The end[c] has come for my people Israel! I will no longer overlook their sins.[d]

The women singing in the temple[e] will wail in that day.”

The Sovereign Lord is speaking.
“There will be many corpses littered everywhere![f] Be quiet!”

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Footnotes

  1. Amos 8:1 tn Heb “behold” or “look.”
  2. Amos 8:1 sn The basket of summer fruit (also in the following verse) probably refers to figs from the summer crop, which ripens in August-September. See O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 115.
  3. Amos 8:2 sn There is a sound play here. The Hebrew word קֵץ (qets, “end”) sounds like קָיִץ (qayits, “summer fruit”). Possibly they were pronounced alike in the Northern dialect of Hebrew. This is a case where the vision is not the prophecy, but simply the occasion for a prophecy. The basket of summer fruit is only relevant as a means to get Amos to say qayits (קָיִץ) as an occasion for the Lord to say qets (קֵץ) and make the prophecy. Cf. Jer 1:11-14; Amos 7:7-8.
  4. Amos 8:2 tn Heb “I will no longer pass over him.”
  5. Amos 8:3 tn Or “palace” (NASB, NCV, TEV).
  6. Amos 8:3 tn Heb “Many corpses in every place he will throw out.” The subject of the verb is probably impersonal, though many emend the active (Hiphil) form to a passive (Hophal): “Many corpses in every place will be thrown out.”

A Basket of Ripe Fruit

My Lord Yahweh showed me this, and there was a basket of summer fruit. And he said, “What do you see, Amos?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” And Yahweh said to me, “The end has come upon my people Israel. I will not pass by them again!” “And the songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day,” declares[a] my Lord Yahweh. “The corpses are numerous; he throws them in every place. Be quiet!”

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Footnotes

  1. Amos 8:3 Literally “a declaration of”