Beginning

1 The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Yisroel in the yamim of Uziyah Melech Yehudah, and in the yamim of Yarov‘am ben Yoash Melech Yisroel, two years before the earthquake.

² And he said, Hashem roars from Tziyon, and utters His voice from Yerushalayim; and the pastures of the ro’im (shepherds) mourn, and the summit of Mt Carmel withers.

³ Thus saith Hashem: For shloshah peysha’im of Damascus, even for arba’ah, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have threshed Gil‘ad with threshing sledges of barzel (iron);

⁴ But I will send an eish onto Bais Chatzael, which shall devour the fortresses of Ben-hadad.

⁵ I will break down also the gate bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from Bikeat-Aven, and him that holdeth the shevet (sceptre) from Bais Eden; and the people of Aram shall go into golus unto Kir, saith Hashem.

⁶ Thus saith Hashem: For shloshah peysha’im of Azah (Gaza), even for arba’ah, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they carried away captive the golus shleimah (entire exiled population), to deliver them up to Edom;

⁷ But I will send an eish on the chomah (wall) of Azah (Gaza), which shall devour the fortresses thereof;

⁸ And I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod, and him that holdeth the shevet (sceptre) from Ashkelon, and I will turn Mine hand against Ekron; and the she’erit Pelishtim shall perish, saith Adonoi Hashem.

⁹ Thus saith Hashem: For shloshah peysha’im of Tzor, even for arba’ah, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they delivered up the golus shleimah to Edom, and remembered not the brit achim;

¹⁰ But I will send an eish on the chomah (wall) of Tzor, which shall devour the fortresses thereof.

¹¹ Thus saith Hashem: For shloshah peysha’im of Edom, even for arba’ah, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he did pursue his brother with the cherev, and did cast off all rachamim, and his anger did rage perpetually, and he kept his wrath netzach;

¹² But I will send an eish upon Teman, which shall devour the fortresses of Botzrah.

¹³ Thus saith Hashem: For shloshah peysha’im of the Bnei Ammon, even for arba’ah, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have ripped open the women with child of Gil‘ad, that they might enlarge their border;

¹⁴ But I will kindle an eish in the chomah (wall) of Rabbah, and it shall devour the fortresses thereof, with war cries in the yom milchamah, with a tempest in the yom sufah (day of the storm);

¹⁵ And their melech shall go into golus, he and his sarim (princes) together, saith Hashem.

2 Thus saith Hashem: For shloshah peysha’im of Moav, even for arba’ah, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he burned the bones of Melech Edom into lime;

² But I will send an eish upon Moav, and it shall devour the fortresses of Keriyot; and Moav shall die with tumult, with war cries, and with the blast of the shofar;

³ And I will cut off the shofet (judge) from the midst thereof, and will slay all the sarim (princes) thereof with him, saith Hashem.

⁴ Thus saith Hashem: For shloshah peysha’im of Yehudah, even for arba’ah, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have despised the torat Hashem, and have not been shomer over His chukkim, and their lies caused them to err, after the halakhah of their avot;

⁵ But I will send an eish upon Yehudah, and it shall devour the fortresses of Yerushalayim.

⁶ Thus saith Hashem: For shloshah peysha’im of Yisroel, even for arba’ah, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the tzaddik for kesef, and the needy for a pair of sandals;

⁷ They who pant after the dust of the ground on the rosh of the poor, and turn aside the derech of the anavim; and an ish and his av will go in unto the same na’arah, to commit chillul Hashem against My Shem kodesh;

⁸ And they lay themselves down upon clothes taken in pledge by every mizbe’ach, and they guzzle the yayin of the fined in the Beis Eloheichem.

⁹ Yet destroyed I HaEmori before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his p’ri from above, and his shorashim from beneath.

¹⁰ Also I brought you up from Eretz Mitzrayim, and led you arba’im shanah through the midbar, to possess the Eretz HaEmori (land of the Amorite).

¹¹ And I raised up of your banim for nevi’im, and of your bochurim for Nezirim. Is it not even thus, O ye Bnei Yisroel? saith Hashem.

¹² But ye gave the Nezirim yayin to drink; and commanded the nevi’im, saying, Prophesy not.

¹³ Hinei, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves.

¹⁴ Therefore flight shall perish from the swift, and the chazak shall not strengthen his ko’ach, neither shall the gibbor deliver his own nefesh;

¹⁵ Neither shall he stand that handleth the keshet; and he that is swift of foot shall not deliver his own nefesh; neither shall he that rideth the sus deliver himself.

¹⁶ And he that is courageous among the gibborim shall flee away naked in that Yom, saith Hashem.

3 Hear this word that Hashem hath spoken against you, O Bnei Yisroel, against the kol hamishpochoh which I brought up from Eretz Mitzrayim, saying,

² You only have I known of all the mishpechot ha’adamah: therefore I will punish you for kol avonotechem.

³ Can shnayim walk together, except they be agreed?

⁴ Will an aryeh roar in the thicket, when he hath no prey? Will a lion roar from his den, if he has taken nothing?

⁵ Can a bird fall in a pach ha’aretz (trap on the ground), when his snare is not set? Can a pach spring up from ha’aretz without making a capture?

⁶ Shall a shofar be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be disaster in a city, and Hashem hath not caused it?

⁷ Surely Adonoi Hashem will do nothing, but He revealeth His sod (secret) unto His avadim hanevi’im.

⁸ The aryeh hath roared, who will not fear? Adonoi Hashem hath spoken, who can but prophesy?

⁹ Publish in the fortresses at Ashdod, and in the fortresses in Eretz Mitzrayim, and say, Assemble yourselves upon harei Shomron, and behold the great tumults in the midst thereof, and the oppression in the midst thereof.

¹⁰ For they have no da’as to do right, saith Hashem, who store up chamas and shod in their fortresses.

¹¹ Therefore thus saith Adonoi Hashem: An adversary shall surround the land; and he shall bring down thy strongholds from thee, and thy fortresses shall be plundered.

¹² Thus saith Hashem: As the ro’eh taketh out of the mouth of the aryeh two legs, or a piece of an ozen; so shall the Bnei Yisroel be saved that dwell in Shomron—with the corner of a mittah (bed), and the edge of a couch.

¹³ Hear ye, and testify in Bais Ya’akov, saith Adonoi Hashem Elohei HaTzva’os,

¹⁴ On the Yom that I visit her to punish the peysha’im of Yisroel, I will also visit to punish the mizbechot of Beit-El; and the horns of the mizbe’ach shall be cut off, and fall to ha’aretz.

¹⁵ And I will strike the bais hachoref with the bais hakayitz; and the batim (houses) of ivory shall perish, and the batim rabbim (great houses) shall have an end, saith Hashem.

4 Hear this word, ye cows of Bashan, that are on Mt Shomron, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to their adonim, Bring, and let us drink.

² Adonoi Hashem hath sworn by His Kodesh, that, hinei, the yamim shall come upon you, that He will take you away with hooks, and the last of you with fishhooks.

³ And ye shall go out of the breaks in the wall, every cow right behind the next; and ye shall be cast out toward Harmonah, saith Hashem.

⁴ Come to Beit-El, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply peysha’im; and bring your zevakhim every boker, and your ma’asrot (tithes) every third day;

⁵ And offer a todah thank offering with chametz (leavened bread), and proclaim and publish the nedavot (freewill offerings); for this ye love, O Bnei Yisroel, saith Adonoi Hashem.

⁶ And I also have given you cleanness of teeth [i.e., famine] in all your towns, and want of lechem in all your places; yet have ye not returned unto Me, saith Hashem.

⁷ And also I have withheld the geshem from you, when there were yet shloshah chodashim to the harvest; and I caused it to rain upon one town, and caused it not to rain upon another town; one chelek (part) was rained upon, and the chelek, whereupon it rained not, withered.

⁸ So two or three towns wandered unto one town, to drink mayim; but they were not satisfied; yet have ye not returned unto Me, saith Hashem.

⁹ I have struck you with blight and mildew; when your ganim (gardens) and your kramim (vineyards) and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the locust devoured them; yet have ye not returned unto Me, saith Hashem.

¹⁰ I have sent among you the dever after the manner of Mitzrayim; your bocherim have I slain with the cherev, and have taken away your susim; and I have made the stench of your machanot to come up unto your nostrils; yet have ye not returned unto Me, saith Hashem.

¹¹ I have overthrown some of you, as Elohim overthrew Sodom and Amora (Gomorrah), and ye were like a firebrand snatched from the burning; yet have ye not returned unto Me, saith Hashem.

¹² Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Yisroel; and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet Eloheicha, O Yisroel.

¹³ For, hinei, He that formeth the harim, and createth the ruach, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the shachar darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, Hashem Elohei Tzva’os Shmo.

5 Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a kinah (lamentation), O Bais Yisroel.

² The Betulat Yisroel is fallen; she shall no more rise; she is forsaken in her own land; there is none to raise her up.

³ For thus saith Adonoi Hashem: The city that went out by a thousand will be left a hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred will be left ten, for Bais Yisroel.

⁴ For thus saith Hashem unto Bais Yisroel: Seek ye Me, and live;

⁵ But seek not Beit-El, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beer Sheva; for Gilgal shall surely go into golus, and Beit-El shall come to naught.

⁶ Seek Hashem, and live; lest He break out like eish in Bais Yosef, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Beit-El.

⁷ Ye who turn mishpat into wormwood, and cast tzedakah to the ground,

⁸ Seek Him that maketh the Pleiades and Orion, and turneth tzalmavet into boker, and maketh the yom into lailah; that calleth for the waters of the yam, and poureth them out upon the face of ha’aretz; Hashem Shmo;

⁹ Who causeth shod (destruction) to flash upon the strong, and shod upon the fortified city.

¹⁰ They hate the mochiach (reprover [of injustice]) in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh tamim (uprightly).

¹¹ Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat; ye have built batim (houses) of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant kramim (vineyards), but ye shall not drink yayin of them.

¹² For I have da’as of your manifold peysha’im and your mighty chattaim (sins); they afflict the tzaddik, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the sha’ar (gate, court) from their right.

¹³ Therefore the maskil (prudent) shall keep silence in such times; for it is an evil time.

¹⁴ Seek tov, and not rah, that ye may live; and so Hashem Elohei Tzva’os shall be with you, just as ye say He is.

¹⁵ Hate the rah, and love the tov, and establish mishpat in the sha’ar; it may be that Hashem Elohei Tzava’os will be gracious unto the she’erit Yosef.

¹⁶ Therefore Hashem Adonoi Elohei Tzva’os saith thus: Wailing shall be in all rechovot; and they shall cry in all the public squares, Alas! Alas! And they shall call the ikkar (farmer) to mourning, and such as are skillful of lamentation to wailing.

¹⁷ And in all kramim (vineyards) shall be wailing; for I will pass through thee, saith Hashem.

¹⁸ Hoy unto you that desire the Yom Hashem! Why do ye seek it? The Yom Hashem is choshech, and not ohr.

¹⁹ As if a man did flee from an ari, and a dov met him; or went into the bais, and leaned his hand on the kir (wall), and a nachash bit him.

²⁰ Shall not the Yom Hashem be choshech, and not ohr? Even very dark, and no brightness in it?

²¹ I hate, I despise your chagim (religious festivals), and I will not stand in your atzerot (solemn assemblies).

²² Though ye offer Me olot and your minchot, I will not accept them; neither will I regard your choice shelamim (peace offerings).

²³ Take thou away from Me the noise of thy shirim (songs); for I will not hear the melody of thy nevalim (harps).

²⁴ But let mishpat run down as mayim, and tzedakah as a never failing stream.

²⁵ Did ye offer unto Me zevakhim and minchah in the midbar arba’im shanah, O Bais Yisroel?

²⁶ But ye have borne the shrine of your Moloch and the pedestal of your tzelamim, your star g-d, which ye made for yourselves.

²⁷ Therefore will I cause you to go into golus beyond Damascus, saith Hashem Elohei Tzva’os Shmo.