Beginning

6 Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria; who were famous at the beginning of the nations. And the House of Israel came to them.

² Go to Calneh and see. And from there go to Hamath the Great. Then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are they better than these kingdoms? Or is the border of their land greater than your border,

³ you who put far away the evil day, and approach the seat of iniquity?

⁴ They lie upon beds of ivory and stretch themselves upon their beds; and eat the lambs of the flock and the calves out of the stall.

⁵ They sing to the sound of the viol. They invent to themselves instruments of music, like David.

⁶ They drink wine in bowls and anoint themselves with the chief ointments but are not sorry for the affliction of Joseph.

⁷ Therefore, they shall now go captive with the first who go captive. And the sorrow of those who stretched themselves is at hand.

⁸ “The LORD God has sworn by Himself,” says the LORD God of Hosts, “I abhor the excellency of Jacob, and hate his palaces. Therefore, I will deliver up the city with all that is therein.

⁹ “And if there remain ten men in one house, they shall die.

¹⁰ “And his uncle shall take him up and burn him—to carry out the bones out of the house—and shall say to him who is by the sides of the house, ‘Is there still anyone with you?’ And he shall say, ‘None.’ Then he shall say, ‘Hold your tongue. For we may not remember the Name of the LORD.’”

¹¹ For behold, the LORD commands. And He will strike the great house with breaches, and the little house with clefts.

¹² Shall horses run upon the rock? Or will one plow there with oxen? For you have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood.

¹³ Yet, you rejoice over nothing. You say, “Have we not gotten horns by our own strength?”

¹⁴ “But behold, I will raise up a nation against you, O House of Israel,” says the LORD God of Hosts. “And they shall afflict you from the entrance of Hamath to the river of the wilderness.”

7 Thus has the LORD God showed to me. And behold, He formed grasshoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth. And lo, it was in the latter growth, after the king’s mowing.

² And when they had made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, “O LORD God, spare, I beg You. Who shall raise up Jacob? For he is small.”

³ So the LORD repented for this. “It shall not be,” said the LORD.

⁴ Thus has the LORD God showed to me. And behold, the LORD God called to judgment by fire. And it devoured the great deep and ate up a part.

⁵ Then I said, “O LORD God! Cease, I beg You. Who shall raise up Jacob? For he is small.”

⁶ So the LORD repented for this. “This also shall not be,” said the LORD God.

⁷ Thus He showed me. And behold, the LORD stood upon a wall made by plumbline, with a plumbline in His hand.

⁸ And the LORD said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumbline.” Then said the LORD, “Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of My people, Israel, and will pass by them no more.

⁹ “And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate. And the temples of Israel shall be destroyed. And I will rise against the House of Jeroboam with the sword.”

¹⁰ Then, Amaziah, the Priest of Bethel, sent to Jeroboam, King of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the House of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words.

¹¹ “For thus Amos says, ‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword. And Israel shall be led away captive out of their own land.’”

¹² Also, Amaziah said to Amos, “O you, the Seer! Go! Flee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread. And prophesy there.

¹³ “But prophesy no more at Bethel. For it is the king’s chapel. And it is the king’s court.”

¹⁴ Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, “I was no Prophet. Nor was I a Prophet’s son. But I was a herdsman, and a gatherer of wild figs.

¹⁵ “And the LORD took me as I followed the flock. And the LORD said to me, ‘Go. Prophesy to My people, Israel.’

¹⁶ “Now, therefore, hear the Word of the LORD. You say, ‘Do not Prophesy against Israel, and speak nothing against the House of Isaac.’

¹⁷ “Therefore, thus says the LORD: “Your wife shall be a harlot in the city. And your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword. And your land shall be divided by plumbline. And you shall die in a polluted land. And Israel shall surely go forth into captivity in this land.”

8 Thus has the LORD God shown to me: Behold, a basket of summer fruit.

² And He said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then said the LORD to me, “The end has come upon my people of Israel. I will pass by them no more.

³ “And the songs of the Temple shall be howlings on that day,” said the LORD God. “Many dead bodies shall be in every place. They shall cast them forth with silence.”

⁴ “Hear this, O you who swallow up the poor and may make the needy of the land fail,

⁵ saying, ‘When will the new month be gone, that we may sell corn; and the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat and make the ephah small and the shekel great and falsify the weights by deceit?

⁶ ‘That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat.’”

⁷ The LORD has sworn by the excellency of Jacob, “Surely, I will never forget any of their works.

⁸ “Shall not the land tremble for this; and everyone mourn who dwells therein? And it shall rise up, wholly as a flood, and it shall be cast out and drowned as by the flood of Egypt.

⁹ “And on that day,” says the LORD God, “I will even cause the Sun to go down at noon. I will darken the Earth in the clear day.

¹⁰ “And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation. And I will bring sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head. And I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day.

¹¹ “Behold, the days come,” says the LORD God, “that I will send a famine in the land; not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the Word of the LORD.

¹² “And they shall wander from sea to sea. And from the north even to the east shall they run to and fro, to seek the Word of the LORD, and shall not find it.

¹³ “On that day shall the fair virgins and the young men perish for thirst.

¹⁴ “Those who swear by the sin of Samaria, and who say, ‘Your God, O Dan, lives!” and, “The manner of Beersheba lives!” even they shall fall and never rise up again.

9 I saw the LORD standing upon the Altar. And He said, “Strike the lintel of the door, so that the posts may shake. And cut them in pieces, even the heads of them all. And I will kill the last of them with the sword. He who flees from them shall not flee away. And he who escapes from them shall not be delivered.

² “Though they dig into Hell, there shall My hand take them. Though they climb up to Heaven, there will I bring them down.

³ “And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out from there. And though they are hidden from My sight in the bottom of the sea, there will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them.

⁴ “And although they go into captivity before their enemies, there will I command the sword, and it shall slay them. And I will set My eyes upon them for evil, and not for good.”

⁵ And the LORD God of Hosts shall touch the land, and it shall melt away. And all who dwell therein shall mourn. And it shall rise up wholly like a flood and shall be drowned as by the flood of Egypt.

⁶ He builds His steps in the heaven; and has laid the foundation of His globe of elements in the earth. He calls the waters of the sea, and pours them out upon the open earth. The LORD is His Name.

⁷ “Are you not as the Ethiopians to me, O children of Israel?” says the LORD. “Have I not brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt; and the Philistines from Caphtor and Aram from Kir?

⁸ “Behold, the eyes of the LORD God are upon the sinful kingdom. And I will destroy it clean out of the Earth. Nevertheless, I will not utterly destroy the House of Jacob,” says the LORD.

⁹ “For lo, I will command, and I will sift the House of Israel among all nations, as in a sieve. Still, the least stone shall not fall upon the Earth.

¹⁰ “But all the sinners of My people who say, ‘The evil shall not come or hasten for us,” shall die by the sword.

¹¹ “On that day, I will raise up the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and close up the breaches thereof. And I will raise up its ruins. And I will build it, as in the days of old,

¹² “that they may possess the remnant of Edom—and of all the heathen—because My Name is called upon them,” says the LORD, Who does this.

¹³ “Behold, the days come,” says the LORD, “that the plowman shall touch the mower; and the treader of grapes him who sows seed. And the mountains shall drop sweet wine. And all the hills shall melt.

¹⁴ “And I will bring back the captives of My people of Israel. And they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them. And they shall plant vineyards and drink the wine thereof. They shall also make gardens and eat the fruits of them.

¹⁵ “And I will plant them upon their land. And no more shall they be pulled up again out of their land which I have given them,” says the LORD your God.