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Now the Lord has sworn this oath
    by his own name, the Pride of Israel[a]:
“I will never forget
    the wicked things you have done!
The earth will tremble for your deeds,
    and everyone will mourn.
The ground will rise like the Nile River at floodtime;
    it will heave up, then sink again.

“In that day,” says the Sovereign Lord,
“I will make the sun go down at noon
    and darken the earth while it is still day.
10 I will turn your celebrations into times of mourning
    and your singing into weeping.
You will wear funeral clothes
    and shave your heads to show your sorrow—
as if your only son had died.
    How very bitter that day will be!

11 “The time is surely coming,” says the Sovereign Lord,
    “when I will send a famine on the land—
not a famine of bread or water
    but of hearing the words of the Lord.
12 People will stagger from sea to sea
    and wander from border to border[b]
searching for the word of the Lord,
    but they will not find it.
13 Beautiful girls and strong young men
    will grow faint in that day,
    thirsting for the Lord’s word.
14 And those who swear by the shameful idols of Samaria—
    who take oaths in the name of the god of Dan
    and make vows in the name of the god of Beersheba[c]
they will all fall down,
    never to rise again.”

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Footnotes

  1. 8:7 Hebrew the pride of Jacob. See note on 3:13.
  2. 8:12 Hebrew from north to east.
  3. 8:14 Hebrew the way of Beersheba.

“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