Chronological

Woe to the Complacent

6 Alas for those being at ease in Zion, and those who feel secure on Mount Samaria, the notables of the best of the nations! The house of Israel resorts to them. ² Cross over to Calneh and see, and go from there to Hamath Rabbah and go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are you better than these kingdoms, or is their territory greater than your territory? ³ You that put off the day of disaster and bring near a reign of violence! ⁴ Alas for those who lie on beds of ivory and lounge on their couches, and those eating young rams from the sheep and goats, and bull-calves from the middle of the animal stall. ⁵ Alas for those who sing to the tune of the harp; like David they improvise on instruments of music. ⁶ Alas for those who drink from sprinkling bowls of wine and anoint themselves with the best of olive oils and are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph. ⁷ Therefore, they shall now go into exile at the head of the exiles and the feast of lounging shall pass away.

Yahweh Abhors Israel’s Pride

⁸ My Lord Yahweh has sworn by himself, declares^[a] Yahweh, the God of hosts: “I abhor the pride of Jacob and I hate his citadel fortresses and I will deliver the city and its fullness!” ⁹ And then if ten people remain in one house, they too will die. ¹⁰ And if one’s relative, who burns the body, lifts it up and brings the body out of the house and he will say to someone in the innermost part of the house, “Are there any more with you?” and he will say, “None,” then he will say, “Silence,” because we must not invoke the name of Yahweh. ¹¹ Look, Yahweh is going to command and the great house will be destroyed to bits and the little house to pieces. ¹² Do horses run on rocks, or does one plow the sea with oxen?^[b] But you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood! ¹³ You who rejoice over Lo-Debar, who say, “Have we not taken Karnaim for ourselves by our strength?” ¹⁴ Indeed, I am going to raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, declares^[c] Yahweh, the God of hosts. And they shall oppress you from Lebo-hamath up to the wadi of the Arabah.

Warning Visions

7 This is what my Lord Yahweh showed me, and look, he is going to form locusts at the beginning of the sprouting of the second crop, and look, after the mowings of the king. ² And then when they^[d] finished eating the vegetation of the land, I said, “O Lord Yahweh, please forgive! How can Jacob stand, because he is small?” ³ Yahweh relented concerning this. “It will not be,” said Yahweh. ⁴ This is what my Lord Yahweh showed me, and look, my Lord Yahweh was going to call for a legal case with fire, and it devoured the great deep and it ate up the plots of ground. ⁵ Then I said, “O Lord Yahweh, please stop! How can Jacob stand, because he is small?” ⁶ Yahweh also relented concerning this. “This also will not be,” said my Lord Yahweh. ⁷ This is what he showed me: Behold, my Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plummet, and a plummet was in his hand. ⁸ And Yahweh said to me, “What do you see?” And I said, “A plummet.” And my Lord said, “Look, I am going to set a plummet in the midst of my people, Israel. I will not pass them by again. ⁹ The high places of Isaac shall become desolate and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste. And I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”

Amaziah’s Opposition

¹⁰ Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam the king of Israel, saying, “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 For this Amos has said, ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword and Israel will certainly go into exile away from his land.’” ¹² And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee to the land of Judah and earn food there and prophesy there!” ¹³ But do not prophesy again at Bethel, because this is a sanctuary of a king and this is a temple of a kingdom.” ¹⁴ And Amos answered and said to Amaziah, “I am not a prophet and I am not a son of a prophet, but I am a herdsman and I am one taking care of sycamore trees. ¹⁵ And Yahweh took me from following behind the sheep and goats and Yahweh said to me, “Go, prophesy to my people Israel! ¹⁶ And so then, hear the word of Yahweh! You are saying, ‘You must not prophesy against Israel and you must not preach against the house of Isaac!’ ¹⁷ Therefore, thus says Yahweh, ‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the city and your sons and your daughters will fall by the sword and your land will be divided with a line, and you^[e] will die in an unclean land and Israel will surely go into exile from this land.’”

A Basket of Ripe Fruit

8 My Lord Yahweh showed me this, and there was a basket of summer fruit. ² And he said, “What do you see, Amos?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” And Yahweh said to me, “The end has come upon my people Israel. I will not pass by them again!” ³ “And the songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day,” declares^[f] my Lord Yahweh. “The corpses are numerous; he throws them in every place. Be quiet!” ⁴ Hear this, those who trample on the poor and who annihilate the afflicted of the land, ⁵ saying, “When will the new moon be over, so that we can sell grain? And the Sabbath, so that we can open the grain bins, that we can make the ephah small and make the shekel large, and can practice deceit with a set of scales of deceit? ⁶ That we can^[g] buy the powerless with silver and the poor for the sake of a pair of sandals, and we can sell the waste of the grain?” ⁷ Yahweh has sworn by the pride of Jacob, “Surely I will never forget any of their deeds! ⁸ On account of this, will not the land tremble and will not every living thing in it mourn? And all of it will rise like the Nile and it will be tossed about and subside like the Nile of Egypt. ⁹ And then in that day,” declares^[h] my Lord Yahweh, “I^[i] will make the sun go down at noon and I will darken the land on a day of light. ¹⁰ And I will turn your feasts into mourning and all of your songs into lament, and I will put sackcloth on all loins and baldness on every head. And I will make it like the mourning for an only child, and its end like a bitter day. ¹¹ Look, the days are coming,” declares^[j] my Lord Yahweh, “when I will send a famine in the land, not a famine for bread and not a thirst for water, but of hearing^[k] the words of Yahweh! ¹² And they will wander from sea to sea and from the north and to the east. They will roam about to seek the word of Yahweh, but they will not find it! ¹³ In that day the beautiful young women and the young men will faint because of thirst. ¹⁴ These are those who swear by the guilt of Samaria and say, ‘By the life of your gods, O Dan,’ and ‘By the life of the way of Beersheba,’ they will fall and they will not rise again.”

Destruction of Israel

9 I saw my Lord standing by the altar and he said, “Strike the capitals so that the thresholds will shake, and shatter them on the head of all of them, and I will kill the rest of them with the sword. A fugitive belonging to them will not run away, and a survivor belonging to them will not escape. ² If they dig into Sheol, from there my hand will take them, and even if they climb up to heaven, from there I will bring them down. ³ And even if they hide themselves on the top of Carmel, from there I will search and will take them, and even if they hide from before my eyes at the bottom of the sea, from there I will command the sea serpent and it will bite them. ⁴ And even if they go into captivity before their enemies, from there I will command the sword and it will kill them, and I will fix my eyes on them for harm and not for good.” ⁵ And thus will do the Lord Yahweh of hosts, who touches the earth and it melts, and all of those living in it mourn, and all of it rises like the Nile and it sinks down like the Nile of Egypt, ⁶ who builds his upper chambers in the heavens and lays the foundation of his vault on the earth, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them on the surface of the earth—Yahweh is his name. ⁷ “Are you not like the Cushites to me, O people of Israel?” declares^[l] Yahweh. “Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans^[m] from Kir? ⁸ Look, the eyes of my Lord Yahweh are on the kingdom of sin, and I will destroy it from the surface of the earth. However, I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,” declares^[n] Yahweh. ⁹ “Yes, look, I am going to command and I will shake the house of Israel among all the nations like one who shakes with a sieve, but not a pebble will fall to the ground. ¹⁰ All the sinners of my people will die by the sword, who say, ‘Evil will not overtake or confront us.’

Restoration of Israel

¹¹ On that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen, and I will repair its breaches and will raise up its ruins and will build it like the days of old. ¹² Thus they may take possession of the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name,”^[o] declares^[p] Yahweh, who does this. ¹³ “Look, days are coming,” declares^[q] Yahweh, “when the one who plows will overtake the one who reaps, the one who treads grapes will catch up with the one who sows the seed. And the mountains will drip sweet wine and all of the hills will flow with it. ¹⁴ And I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they will rebuild the desolated cities and will inhabit them. And they will plant vineyards and will drink their wine, and they will make gardens and will eat their fruit. ¹⁵ And I will plant them on their land and they will not be uprooted again from their land that I have given to them,” says Yahweh your God.