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The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.(A)
Shall not the land tremble on this account,
    and everyone mourn who lives in it,
and all of it rise like the Nile,
    and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?(B)

On that day, says the Lord God,
    I will make the sun go down at noon
    and darken the earth in broad daylight.(C)
10 I will turn your feasts into mourning
    and all your songs into lamentation;
I will bring sackcloth on all loins
    and baldness on every head;
I will make it like the mourning for an only son
    and the end of it like a bitter day.(D)

11 The time is surely coming, says the Lord God,
    when I will send a famine on the land,
not a famine of bread or a thirst for water,
    but of hearing the words of the Lord.(E)
12 They shall wander from sea to sea
    and from north to east;
they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord,
    but they shall not find it.(F)

13 On that day the beautiful young women and the young men
    shall faint for thirst.(G)
14 Those who swear by Ashimah of Samaria
    and say, “As your god lives, O Dan,”
and, “As the way of Beer-sheba lives”—
    they shall fall and never rise again.(H)

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“The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
    I will never forget anything they have done.
Surely the land will tremble because of this, won’t it?
    And all who live in it will mourn, won’t they?
The entire land will swell up like a flooded[a] river.
    It will be stirred up and then will sink
        like the river of Egypt.
It will come about at that time,” declares the Lord God,
    “I will cause the sun to set at noon
        and the earth to darken in the daylight.
10 I will turn your festivals into mourning,
    and all of your songs to dirges.
I will cause all of you to put on sackcloth
    and to shave all of your heads.
I will make that time like mourning for an only son,
    and its conclusion will be like the end of[b] a bitter day.”

A Famine of the Word of God

11 “Look! The days are coming,”
    declares the Lord God,
“when I will send a famine throughout the land—
    not a famine of food or a thirst for water—
        but rather a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.
12 People[c] will stagger from sea to sea,
    from north to east.
They will run back and forth,
    searching for a message from the Lord,
        but they won’t find it.
13 At that time,
    the beautiful virgins will faint,
        as will the strong young men—from thirst.
14 Those who have been swearing oaths by the sin of Samaria,
    or who say, ‘As your god lives, Dan…’
or who say, ‘As the way of Beer-sheba lives…’—
    will fall, and will never rise again.”

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Footnotes

  1. Amos 8:8 The Heb. lacks flooded
  2. Amos 8:10 The Heb. lacks the end of
  3. Amos 8:12 Lit. They