Bible in 90 Days
7 So I will be like a lion to them.
Like a leopard, I will lurk along the path.
8 I will come upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs.
I will tear the cover off their hearts.
Then I will devour them like a lioness.
The wild animals will rip them apart.
9 This is what has destroyed you, Israel:
the fact that you are against me, against your helper.[a]
10 So where is your king, so that he may save you in all your cities,
and your judges, whom you requested, saying, “Give me a king and officials”?
11 I gave you a king in my anger,
and I took him away in my wrath.
12 The guilt of Ephraim is wrapped up.
His sin is stored up.
13 Labor pains will come for him,
but he is not a wise son,
for when the time arrives,
he is not ready to be born.
14 I will ransom them from the power of the grave![b]
I will redeem them from death!
Death, where are your plagues?
Grave, where is your destruction?
Compassion will be hidden from my eyes.
15 Although he flourishes as a son among brothers,[c]
an east wind will come.
The breath[d] of the Lord is coming up from the wilderness.
His spring will become dry.
His fountain will be dried up.
His treasury will be plundered of every precious article.
16 Samaria will be found guilty,
because she rebelled against her God.
The people will fall by the sword.
Their little children will be dashed to the ground,
and their pregnant women will be ripped open.[e]
Return to the Lord!
14 Israel, return to the Lord your God,
for you have stumbled because of your guilt.
2 Take words with you[f] and return to the Lord.
Say to him, “Forgive all our guilt,
and receive us graciously,
and let us present the fruit of our lips as bulls.[g]
3 Assyria cannot save us.
We will not ride on horses.
We will no longer call the work of our hands our gods!
For in you the fatherless child finds compassion.”
4 I will cure them of their unfaithfulness.
I will love them freely,
for my anger has turned away from them.
5 I will be refreshing like dew to Israel.
It will blossom like a lily.
It will take root like a cedar of Lebanon.
6 Its young shoots will sprout.
Its beauty will be like an olive tree.
Its fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon.
7 Those who live in Israel’s shade will once again grow grain.
They will blossom like a grape vine.
Its fame will be like the wine of Lebanon.
8 Ephraim, how much more do I have to put up with from idols?
I am the one who has answered, and I look after him.
I am like a fresh fir tree.
Your fruit comes from me.
9 Who is wise? Let him understand these things.
Who is discerning? Let him know them.
For the ways of the Lord are right,
and the righteous walk in them,
but the rebellious stumble in them.
1 The word of the Lord that came to Joel son of Pethuel.
Warnings and Descriptions of the Locust Plague
2 Hear this, you elders.
Listen, all of you who live in the land.
Has anything like this ever happened in your days
or in the days of your fathers?
3 Tell it to your children,
and let your children tell it to their children,
and their children to the next generation.
4 What the grasshoppers have left, the swarming locusts have eaten.
What the swarming locusts have left, the young locusts have eaten.
What the young locusts have left, the mature locusts have eaten.[h]
5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep!
Wail,[i] all you wine drinkers,
because of the sweet wine[j] that has been snatched from your mouth.
6 A nation has come up into my land, powerful and without number.
It has teeth like a lion and fangs like a lioness.
7 It has devastated my vines and shredded my fig trees.
It has completely stripped off their bark and thrown it aside,
so that their branches are bare and white.
8 Grieve like a virgin dressed in sackcloth,
who grieves for the husband[k] of her youth.
9 Grain offerings and drink offerings are cut off from the house of the Lord.
The priests are in mourning,
those who minister in the presence of the Lord.
10 The fields are devastated. The soil mourns.
The grain is devastated.
The new wine has run dry. The olive oil runs out.
11 Hang your heads, you farmers.
Wail, you vine growers, for the wheat and for the barley,
because the grain harvest has died in the field.
12 The vine has dried up, and the fig tree has withered.
The pomegranate, the date palm, and the apple tree—
all the trees in the countryside have dried up,
and joy has dried up for all the people.
13 Put on sackcloth, you priests, and lament.
Wail, you who minister in front of the altar.
Come, spend the night in sackcloth,
you who minister before my God,
because the grain offerings and drink offerings
are being held back from the house of your God.
14 Set aside a day of fasting. Call a solemn convocation.
Summon the elders and everyone who lives in the land
to come to the house of the Lord your God.
Cry out to the Lord!
Announcement of the Day of the Lord
15 How terrible that day will be!
Yes, the Day of the Lord is near.
It will come like destruction from the Almighty.[l]
16 Hasn’t the food been cut off right before our eyes?
Happiness and celebration are cut off from the house of our God.
17 The planted seed is dried up under the clods of earth.[m]
The storehouses are in ruins.
The granaries have been broken down, because the grain has dried up.
18 Listen to how the cattle bellow!
The herds of cattle are milling around in confusion, because they have no pasture.
Even the flocks of sheep are suffering punishment.
Closing Prayer
19 To you, O Lord, I call,
because fire has consumed the grazing lands in the wilderness,[n]
and flames have burned up all the trees in the countryside.
20 Even the animals in the countryside pant for you.
The streams of water have dried up,
and fire has consumed the grazing lands in the wilderness.
Announce the Day of the Lord
2 Blow the ram’s horn in Zion.
Sound the alarm on my holy mountain.
Let all who live in the land tremble with fear,
for the Day of the Lord is coming.
It is close at hand—
2 a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and frightening darkness.
Description of the Locust Army
Like dawn[o] spreading across the mountains,
a large and mighty people is coming.
There has been nothing like it from ancient times,
nor will there ever be again for generations to come.
3 In front of them, fire devours.
Behind them, a flame blazes.
In front of them, the land is like the Garden of Eden.
Behind them, it is a desolate wilderness.
There is no escaping them.
4 They look like horses.
They charge like cavalry.
5 With a noise like chariots
they bounce over the mountaintops,
like a crackling fire consuming stubble,
like a powerful army lined up for battle.
6 At the sight of them, peoples are in anguish.
Every face becomes flushed.[p]
7 They charge like strong warriors.
They climb over walls like soldiers.
They all march in formation.
They do not turn aside from their path.
8 They do not collide with each other.
Each marches straight ahead in his position.
They pierce through defenses without hesitating.[q]
9 They rush into the city.
They run along the city wall.
They climb into the houses.
Like thieves they enter through the windows.
10 In front of them the earth quakes.
The sky shudders.
The sun and moon become dark,
and the stars stop shining.
Announce the Day of the Lord
11 The Lord shouts at the head of his army.
His forces are very numerous,
and those who obey his command are powerful.
The Day of the Lord is great. It is terrifying.
Who can endure it?
Call to Repentance and Closing Prayer
12 Even now, declares the Lord,
return to me with all your heart,
with fasting and weeping and grief.
13 Tear your heart and not your clothing.
Return to the Lord your God,
for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in mercy,
and he relents from sending disaster.
14 Who knows?
He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing—
grain offerings and drink offerings for the Lord your God.
15 Blow the ram’s horn in Zion.
Set aside a day for fasting.
Call a solemn convocation.
16 Gather the people.
Consecrate the assembly.
Bring together the elders.
Gather the children, even those nursing at the breast.
Let the bridegroom leave his room,
and the bride her chamber.
17 Let the priests, who minister before the Lord,
weep between the temple porch and the altar.
Let them say:
Have compassion on your people, O Lord.
Do not subject the inheritance you have given us to the scorn of the nations.
Do not make us notorious among the nations as an object of ridicule.[r]
Why should they say among the peoples,
“Where is their God?”
A Dialogue Between the Lord and the Prophet
The Lord’s Promises
18 The Lord is zealous for his land,
and he will take pity on his people.
19 The Lord will respond to them:
I am sending you grain, new wine, and fresh oil,
enough to satisfy you fully.
Never again will I subject you to scorn among the nations.
20 I will drive the northern invaders far from you,
pushing them into a parched and desolate land.
Their vanguard will be driven into the eastern sea[s]
and their rearguard into the western sea.[t]
Then their stench will go up. Their foul smell will go up.
The Prophet’s Response
Yes, the Lord[u] has done great things.
21 Do not be afraid, O earth.
Celebrate and be glad.
Yes, the Lord has done great things.
22 Do not be afraid, you animals out in the field,
because the grazing lands are becoming green.
The trees are bearing their fruit.
The fig tree and the vine yield their riches.
23 Celebrate, you people of Zion!
Rejoice in the Lord your God,
because he has given you the autumn rains in righteousness.[v]
He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains,[w] as he did in the beginning.
24 The threshing floors will be filled with grain.
The vats will overflow with new wine and olive oil.
The Lord’s Promise
25 I will repay you for the years eaten by the swarming locusts,
by the young locusts, the mature locusts, and the grasshoppers,[x]
my great army that I sent among you.
26 You will have plenty to eat.
You will eat until you are full,
and you will praise the name of the Lord your God,
who has worked wonders for you.
Never again will my people be put to shame!
27 Then you will know that I am in the midst of Israel,
that I am the Lord your God,
and that there is no other.
Never again will my people be put to shame!
28 After this, I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh.[y]
Your sons and your daughters will prophesy.
Your old men will dream dreams.
Your young men will see visions.
29 Even on the servants, both male and female,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
30 I will show warning signs in the heavens and on the earth:
blood and fire and pillars of smoke.
31 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the great and terrifying day of the Lord.
32 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.[z]
So on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance,
as the Lord has promised, among the survivors whom the Lord calls.
The Promise of Judgment Against the Nations
2 I will gather all nations
and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat.[ac]
There I will enter into judgment against them
for the sake of my possession, my people Israel,
whom they scattered among the nations.
The nations also divided up my land.
3 They cast lots for my people
and traded boys to pay prostitutes.
They sold girls for wine so that they could drink.
4 Tell me, what do you have against me,
Tyre and Sidon, and all you regions of Philistia?
Are you repaying me for something I have done?
If you are paying me back,
I will swiftly and speedily repay onto your own heads what you have done,
5 because you took my silver and my gold,
and you carried off my best treasures to your temples.
6 You sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks,
in order to send them far from their own borders.
7 See, I am going to rouse them out of the places to which you sold them,
and I will make what you have done return on your own heads.
8 I will sell your sons and daughters into the hands of the people of Judah,
and they will sell them to the Sabeans, a nation far away.[ad]
Yes, the Lord has spoken.
The Prophet’s Response
9 Proclaim this among the nations:
Consecrate yourselves for war!
Rouse the strong warriors!
Let all the fighting men draw near and attack.
10 Beat your plowshares into swords,
and your pruning knives into spears.
Let the weakling say, “I am a strong warrior!”
11 Come quickly to help, all you nations from every side,
and assemble there.
Bring down your strong warriors, O Lord!
The Lord’s Promise
12 Let the nations be roused.
Let them advance into the Valley of Jehoshaphat,
for there I will be seated to judge all the nations.
13 Swing the sickle,
for the harvest is ripe.
Come, trample the grapes,
for the winepress is full and the vats overflow,
because the nations’ wickedness is so great!
14 Multitudes, multitudes in the Valley of Decision!
For the Day of the Lord is near in the Valley of Decision.
15 The sun and moon will be darkened,
and the stars will stop shining.
16 The Lord will roar from Zion
and shout from Jerusalem.
The sky and the earth will tremble.
But the Lord will be a refuge for his people,
a stronghold for the people of Israel.
17 Then you will know that I, the Lord your God, dwell in Zion, my holy mountain.
Jerusalem will be holy.
Foreigners will not pass through her again.
18 In that day the mountains will drip sweet wine,
and the hills will flow with milk.
All the stream beds of Judah will run with water.
A fountain will flow out of the Lord’s house.
It will water the Valley of Acacias.
19 Egypt will be desolate.
Edom will be a desolate wilderness,
because of violence they committed against the people of Judah, in whose land they shed innocent blood.
20 Judah will be inhabited forever,
and Jerusalem through all generations.
21 I will pardon their bloodguilt, which I have not pardoned.[ae]
The Prophet’s Final Praise
The Lord dwells in Zion!
1 The words of Amos, who was among the sheep breeders[af] from Tekoa. He saw a vision concerning Israel during the days of Uzziah king of Judah and during the days of Jeroboam son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.
2 He said:
The Lord roars from Zion.
From Jerusalem he sends out his voice.
The pastures of the shepherds dry up,[ag]
and the top of Mount Carmel withers.
Judgment Against Aram
3 This is what the Lord says:
Because of three sins[ah] of Damascus,
because of four, I will not hold back judgment,
because they cut up Gilead with iron threshing boards.[ai]
4 So I will send fire against the house of Hazael,
and it will consume the fortresses of Ben Hadad.
5 I will break the bars of the gates of Damascus,
and I will cut off the one seated in the Valley of Aven,
and the one who holds a scepter in Beth Eden.[aj]
So the people of Aram will go into exile toward Kir.[ak]
The Lord has spoken.
Judgment Against Philistia
6 This is what the Lord says:
Because of three sins of Gaza,
because of four, I will not hold back judgment,
because they sold an entire population into exile,
handing them over to Edom.
7 So I will send fire against the city wall of Gaza,
and it will consume her citadels.
8 I will cut off the one seated in Ashdod,
and the one who holds a scepter in Ashkelon.
I will also turn my hand against Ekron,
and what is left of the Philistines will perish.
The Lord God has spoken.
Judgment Against Canaan
9 This is what the Lord says:
Because of three sins of Tyre,
because of four, I will not hold back judgment,
because they delivered over an entire population and exiled them to Edom,
and they did not remember a treaty of brotherhood.
10 So I will send fire against the city wall of Tyre,
and it will consume her citadels.
Judgment Against Edom
11 This is what the Lord says:
Because of three sins of Edom,
because of four, I will not hold back judgment,
because he[al] pursued his brother with a sword,
and he had no compassion.[am]
His anger kept tearing Israel apart,
and his fury raged without stopping.
12 So I will send fire against Teman,
and it will consume the citadels of Bozrah.
Judgment Against Ammon
13 This is what the Lord says:
Because of three sins of the Ammonites,
because of four, I will not hold back judgment,
because they ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead in order to enlarge their own territory.
14 So I will ignite a fire against the city wall of Rabbah,
and it will consume her citadels
with a battle cry on the day of war,
with a strong wind on the day of the storm.
15 Then their king will go into exile,
he and his officials together.
The Lord has spoken.
Judgment Against Moab
2 This is what the Lord says:
Because of three sins of Moab,
because of four, I will not hold back judgment,
because they burned the bones of the king of Edom to make lime.
2 So I will send fire against Moab,
and it will consume the citadels of Kerioth.
Moab will die in an uproar,
with a battle cry, with a blast of a ram’s horn.
3 I will cut off the judge[an] from her midst,
and I will kill all her officials with him.
The Lord has spoken.
Judgment Against Judah
4 This is what the Lord says:
Because of three sins of Judah,
because of four, I will not hold back judgment,
because they rejected the law of the Lord,
and they did not keep his statutes.
Their lying idols led them astray,
the idols that their fathers followed.
5 So I will send fire against Judah,
and it will consume the citadels of Jerusalem.
Judgment Against Israel
6 This is what the Lord says:
Because of three sins of Israel,
because of four, I will not hold back judgment,
because they sell the righteous for silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals.
7 They trample the heads of the poor into the dust of the earth,
and they turn aside the claims of the oppressed.
A man and his father go to the same young woman.
In this way they profane my holy name.
8 They stretch themselves out beside every altar
on pieces of clothing they seized as collateral.
In the temple of their gods they drink wine obtained through fines.
9 I was the one who destroyed the Amorites in front of them,
the Amorites, who were as tall as cedars,
who were as strong as oaks.
I destroyed their fruit above and their roots below.
10 I myself brought you up from the land of Egypt,
and I led you in the wilderness for forty years,
so that you would take possession of the land of the Amorites.
11 I raised up some of your sons to be prophets,
and some of your best young men to be Nazirites.
Is this not so, you people of Israel? declares the Lord.
12 But you made the Nazirites drink wine,
and you commanded the prophets, “You must not prophesy!”
13 Look, I am weighed down under you,
just as a cart is weighed down when it is loaded with sheaves of grain.[ao]
14 There will be no escape for the swift runner.
The powerful man will not be able to exert his strength,
and the strong warrior will not be able to save his own life.
15 The archer will not stand his ground.
The swift runner will not save himself,
and the horseman will not save his own life.
16 The most courageous among the warriors will flee naked on that day,
declares the Lord.
Why Amos Must Prophesy
3 People of Israel, listen to this word that the Lord has spoken concerning you, concerning the entire family of clans that I brought up from the land of Egypt:
2 You alone have I chosen[ap] from all the clans of the earth.
Therefore I will inflict punishment on you for all your guilt.
3 Can two people walk together without agreeing to do so?
4 Does a lion roar in the forest if it does not have prey?
Does a young lion growl from its den if it has not caught anything?
5 Does a bird fall into a trap on the ground if there is no bait?
Does a trap spring up from the ground when nothing has tripped it?
6 If a ram’s horn is sounded in a city, the people become alarmed, don’t they?
If a disaster takes place in a city, is it not the Lord who has done it?
7 Certainly the Lord God does not do anything
without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.
8 A lion has roared! Who can avoid being terrified?
The Lord God has spoken! Who can hold back from prophesying?
Judgment Against Samaria
9 Make this known to the citadels in Ashdod
and to the citadels in the land of Egypt.
Tell them, “Gather yourselves together on the mountains of Samaria.
See the great confusion[aq] there
and the oppression in her midst.”
10 They do not know how to do what is right, declares the Lord.
They are storing up violence and destruction in their citadels.
11 Therefore, this is what the Lord God says:
An enemy is all over the land.
He will strip your strength from you,
and your citadels will be plundered.
12 This is what the Lord says:
Just as a shepherd rescues two legs or a tip of an ear
from the mouth of a lion,
so the Israelites who live in Samaria will be rescued
with only a corner of a bed or a piece of cloth[ar] from a couch.
13 Listen and testify against the house of Jacob,
declares the Lord God, the God of Armies.
14 Indeed, on the day when I punish the rebellious deeds of Israel,
I will punish the altars of Bethel.
The horns of the altar will be cut off,
and they will fall to the ground.
15 I will strike the winter house
along with the summer house.
The houses decorated with ivory will be destroyed,
and the great houses will come to an end,
declares the Lord.
4 Listen to this, you cows of Bashan,
who are on the mountain of Samaria,
you women who are oppressing the poor,
who are crushing the needy,
who say to your husbands, “Bring us more drinks!”
2 The Lord God swears by his holiness:
The days are surely coming against you,
when they will drag you away with hooks,
every last one of you with fishhooks.
3 You will go out through the broken-down walls.
Each woman will go straight ahead,
and you will be thrown out[as] toward Harmon,[at]
declares the Lord.
4 Go to Bethel and rebel.
Rebel even more at Gilgal.
Bring your sacrifices every morning,
your tithes every third day.
5 Burn some leavened bread as a thank offering,
and proclaim voluntary offerings—announce them!
For you love to do this, you people of Israel,
says the Lord God.
Warnings Produce No Repentance
6 I am the one who gave to you clean teeth[au] in all of your cities,
and lack of food in all your places,
but you did not return to me,
declares the Lord.
7 I am the one who withheld the rain from you
while there were still three months before the harvest.
I would send rain on one city,
but on another city I would not send rain.
One plot of ground would receive rain,
but another plot, on which it did not rain, would dry up.
8 Whenever people from two or three cities staggered to another city to get water to drink,
they would not have enough,
but you did not return to me,
declares the Lord.
9 I struck you with blight and mildew.
Your many gardens, your vineyards, your fig trees,
and your olive trees were devoured by locusts,
but you did not return to me,
declares the Lord.
10 I sent plagues against you like the plagues in Egypt.
I killed your best soldiers with the sword,
together with your captured horses.
I made the stench of your camp rise up into your nostrils,
but you did not return to me,
declares the Lord.
11 I overthrew some of you,
just as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,
and you became like a burning stick snatched from the fire,
but you did not return to me,
declares the Lord.
12 Therefore, this is what I will do to you, Israel.
Yes, this is what I will do to you:
Prepare to meet your God, O Israel!
13 Indeed, he who forms mountains and who creates wind,
who declares his thoughts to mankind,
who turns dawn into darkness,
and who treads down the high places of the earth,
the Lord, the God of Armies, is his name.
Mourning for Fallen Israel
5 Listen to this word that I am raising against you as a lament,[av] O house of Israel:
2 Virgin Israel has fallen, and she will not rise again.
She is abandoned on her own soil.
There is no one to lift her up.
3 For this is what the Lord God says:
A city that marches out with a thousand will have a hundred left.
A city that marches out with a hundred will have ten left for the house of Israel.
Seek the Lord and Live!
4 Listen, this is what the Lord says to the house of Israel:
Seek me and live!
5 But do not seek Bethel.
Do not go to Gilgal.
Do not travel to Beersheba,
because Gilgal surely will go into exile,
and Bethel will become nothing.
6 Seek the Lord and live,
or he will rush upon the house of Joseph like fire.
The fire will consume, and no one will extinguish it for Bethel.
7 There are some who turn justice into wormwood,[aw]
who throw righteousness to the ground.
8 There is one who made the Pleiades and Orion,
who turns the shadow of death into morning,
who darkens day into night,
who summons the waters of the seas,
who pours them out upon the face of the earth—
the Lord is his name.
9 He causes destruction to flash against a stronghold,
and destruction comes upon a fortress.
10 There are those who hate an arbitrator[ax] in the city gate.[ay]
They despise anyone who speaks honestly.
11 That is why you trample on the poor,
and you collect taxes on their grain.
You have built houses of cut stones,
but you will not live in them.
You have planted choice vineyards,
but you will not drink their wine.
12 For I know that your rebellious deeds are many,
and your sins are numerous,
you who are enemies of a righteous man,
you who take bribes.
They thrust away needy people in the city gate.
13 That is why a prudent man will be silent in that time,
because it is an evil time.
14 Seek good and not evil, so that you may live,
and then it will be like this for you:
The Lord, the God of Armies, will be with you, as you claim.
15 Hate evil and love good.
Establish justice in the city gate.
Perhaps the Lord, the God of Armies,
will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.
16 Therefore, this is what the Lord says,
the God of Armies, who is the Lord:
In the city squares there will be grief,
and in the streets they will say, “Woe, woe!”
They will summon the farmer to mourn
and the professional mourners to sing laments.
17 In all the vineyards there will be grief,
because I will pass through your midst, says the Lord.
The Day of the Lord Brings Darkness
18 Woe to those who long for the Day of the Lord!
What good will the Day of the Lord be for you?
It will be darkness and not light.
19 It will be as if a man flees from a lion,
but a bear meets him,
or he enters a house and rests his hand on a wall,
but a snake bites him.
20 Will not the Day of the Lord be darkness and not light,
gloom without a trace of brightness?
The Lord Hates Faithless Worship
21 I hate, I reject, your festivals!
I do not delight in the aroma of the sacrifices at your sacred convocations.
22 Even if you offer up to me your whole burnt offerings and your grain offerings,
I will not accept them.
I will not pay any attention to your fellowship offerings of fattened calves.
23 Get the noise of your songs away from me!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.
24 But let justice roll like the waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
25 Did you bring me sacrifices and grain offerings in the wilderness for forty years, O house of Israel?
26 You lifted up images of Sakkuth, your king,
and of Kiyyun, your star god, which you made for yourselves.[az]
27 So I will exile you beyond Damascus,
says the Lord, whose name is the God of Armies.
Judgment Against Complacency
6 Woe to[ba] you who are complacent in Zion,
you who feel secure on Mount Samaria,
you distinguished people of the leading nation,
to whom the house of Israel comes.
2 Travel to Kalneh and look.
Go from there to Hamath Rabbah,
and go down to Gath of the Philistines.
Are you better than those kingdoms?
Are their territories greater than your territory?[bb]
3 You who are trying to put off the evil day,
you bring near the session for violence!
4 Those who lie on ivory beds,
sprawling upon their couches,
eating lambs from the flock
and calves straight from the stall,
5 improvising tunes on the lyre,
composing music for themselves on musical instruments like David,
6 drinking large bowls of wine—
they slather[bc] themselves with the most expensive perfumed oils,
but they do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph.
7 That is why they will go into exile as the first of the exiles.
Those who sprawl out at their feasts for the dead will depart.
Certain Destruction for Proud Israel
8 The Lord God swears by himself,
declares the Lord, the God of Armies:
I detest the pride of Jacob,
and I hate his citadels,
so I will hand over the city and everything in it.
9 If ten men happen to survive in one house, they will die. 10 When a relative who burns the bodies[bd] comes to take away the bones from the house, he will say to whoever remains in the recesses of the house, “Is there anyone else still with you?” And they will say, “No one.” And he will say, “Silence! For you must not invoke the name of the Lord!”[be]
11 Look, the Lord is indeed giving a command, and he will smash the largest house into fragments and the smallest house into splinters.
12 Do horses run on a rocky cliff?
Does anyone plow the sea with an ox?[bf]
Yet you turn justice into poison
and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood.
13 You are rejoicing over Lo Debar.
You are saying, “Was it not by our strength that we captured Karnaim for ourselves?”
14 Indeed, I am about to raise up a nation against you, O house of Israel,
declares the Lord, the God of Armies.
They will oppress you from Lebo Hamath to the Canyon of the Arabah.[bg]
The First Vision: The Locusts
7 This is what the Lord God showed me: I saw that he was forming a locust swarm at the time when the late crops[bh] were beginning to sprout—the crops that were planted after the cuttings of hay for the king.
2 When the swarm had finished consuming the vegetation of the land, I said, “Lord God, please forgive! How can Jacob stand? Look, he is so small!”
3 The Lord changed his decree about this. “It will not happen,” said the Lord.
The Second Vision: The Fire
4 This is what the Lord God showed me: I saw the Lord God calling for a trial by fire, which devoured the great deep and started to consume the land.
5 I said, “Lord God, please stop! How can Jacob stand? Look, he is so small!”
6 The Lord changed his decree about this. “This will not happen,” said the Lord God.
The Third Vision: The Plumb Line
7 This is what he showed me: I saw the Lord standing by a wall that had been constructed with a plumb line. He had a plumb line in his hand.
8 The Lord said to me, “What do you see, Amos?”
I said, “A plumb line.”
Then the Lord said:
Look, I am about to set up a plumb line next to my people Israel.
I will no longer overlook their sin.
9 The high places of Isaac will be desolate,
and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined.
I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.
Amos and Amaziah
10 Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent a message to Jeroboam king of Israel:[bi]
Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to endure all of his words. 11 This is what Amos says: “Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will certainly go into exile away from its own soil.”
12 Then Amaziah said to Amos, “You seer, get out of here! Flee to the land of Judah. You may eat food and prophesy there. 13 But you must never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the sanctuary of the king and the national temple.”
14 Then Amos responded to Amaziah:
I was not a prophet, nor was I a son of a prophet. Rather, I was a sheep breeder and I took care of sycamore fig trees. 15 But the Lord took me from tending flocks, and the Lord said to me, “Go, prophesy to my people Israel.”
16 But now, hear the word of the Lord, you who are saying, “Do not prophesy against Israel” and “Do not preach[bj] against the house of Isaac.”
17 This is what the Lord says: “Your wife will be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters will fall by the sword. Your land will be parceled out with a measuring line, and as for you, you will die upon unclean soil. And Israel will certainly go into exile far away from its own soil.”
The Fourth Vision: The Basket of Summer Fruit
8 This is what the Lord God showed me: I saw a basket of ripe summer fruit. 2 Then he asked, “What do you see, Amos?”
I said, “A basket of ripe summer fruit.”
Then the Lord said to me, “The end is coming upon my people Israel.[bk] I will no longer overlook their sin. 3 The singing women of the palace[bl] will wail on that day, declares the Lord God. Many corpses—all over! Silence!”
Fraud and Hypocrisy on Holy Days
4 Listen to this, you who trample on the needy
to wipe out the oppressed from the land,
5 who say, “When will the New Moon be over so that we can sell grain?
When will the Sabbath end so that we can open the grain bins?
Then we will make the bushel[bm] smaller and make the shekel weight heavier.[bn]
We will cheat with dishonest scales.
6 We will buy the poor for silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals.
We will sell the chaff with the grain.”
A Famine of the Lord’s Word
7 The Lord swears by the Pride of Jacob,
“I will never forget any of their deeds!”
8 Because of this, the land will shake,
and everyone living in it will mourn.
The whole land will rise up like the Nile.
It will surge and sink down again like the Nile of Egypt.
9 Here is what will happen on that day, declares the Lord God:
I will make the sun set at noon,
and I will bring darkness on the earth when it should be light.
10 I will turn your festivals into mourning
and all of your songs into a lamentation.
I will put sackcloth on all your waists
and baldness on every head.
I will make that day like the mourning for an only son,
and it will end like a bitter day.
11 Look, the days are coming, declares the Lord God,
when I will send a famine into the land—
not a famine of bread
nor a thirst for water,
but rather a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.
12 People will stumble from sea to sea
and from north to east.
They will roam back and forth seeking the word of the Lord,
but they will not find it.
13 On that day the beautiful virgins will faint,
and the young men will grow weak from thirst.
14 Those who swear by the shameful guilt[bo] of Samaria,
those who say, “As your god lives, Dan,”
or, “The way of Beersheba lives”—
they will fall, and they will never rise again.
The Fifth Vision: The Lord Topples the Temple
9 I saw the Lord standing by the altar, and he said:
Strike the capitals on top of the pillars so that the thresholds shake.
Cut them off so that they fall on the heads of all the people,
and those who survive I will kill with the sword.
No one who flees from there will get away,
and not a single fugitive from among them will escape.
2 Even if they dig down to hell,[bp]
from there my hand will seize them.
And even if they ascend to heaven,
from there I will bring them down.
3 Even if they hide themselves on the top of Mount Carmel,
from there I will search for them, and I will seize them.
Even if they hide themselves from my sight at the bottom of the sea,
from there I will command the serpent, and it will bite them.
4 Even if they go into captivity in the presence of their enemies,
from there I will command the sword, and it will kill them.
And I will set my eye upon them for disaster and not for good.
The Lord Shakes the Earth
5 The Lord God of Armies is the one who touches the earth, so that it melts.
All who dwell on it mourn.
All of it rises like the Nile,
and like the Nile of Egypt it sinks down again.
6 He is the one who builds his upper chambers in heaven.
He set the foundation for his vault upon the earth.
He is the one who summons the waters of the sea
and pours them out over the face of the earth—
the Lord is his name.
The Final Judgment
7 Are you not like Cushites[bq] to me, you children of Israel?
declares the Lord.
Did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt
and the Philistines from Caphtor[br]
and the Arameans from Kir?[bs]
8 Look, the eyes of the Lord God are on the sinful kingdom,
and I will destroy it from the face of the earth.
But I will never completely destroy the house of Jacob,
declares the Lord.
9 Listen! I am giving a command,
and among all the nations I will shake the house of Israel
as the contents of a sieve are shaken,
and not even one pebble[bt] will fall out to the ground.[bu]
10 By a sword, all the sinners among my people will die,
those who are saying, “Disaster will not overtake us. It will not confront us.”
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.