Chronological

1 ¶ The words of Amos, who was among the pastors of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.

² And he said, The LORD will roar from Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the habitations of the pastors shall be destroyed, and the top of Carmel shall wither.

³ ¶ Thus hath the LORD said: For three trans­gressions of Damascus and for the fourth, I will not convert her because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron.

⁴ But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, which shall devour the palaces of Benhadad.

⁵ I will also break the bar of Damascus and cut off the inhabitants of the plain of Aven and him that holds the sceptre from the house of Eden; and the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir.

⁶ Thus hath the LORD said: For three transgressions of Gaza and for the fourth, I will not convert her because they carried away captive the whole captivity, to deliver them up to Edom:

⁷ but I will send a fire in the wall of Gaza, which shall devour the palaces thereof.

⁸ And I will cut off the inhabitants of Ashdod and him that holds the sceptre from Ashkelon, and I will turn my hand against Ekron; and the remnant of the Palestinians shall perish, said the Lord GOD.

⁹ Thus hath the LORD said: For three transgressions of Tyre and for the fourth, I will not convert her because they delivered up the whole captivity to Edom and did not remember the brotherly covenant;

¹⁰ but I will send fire in the wall of Tyre, which shall devour its palaces.

¹¹ Thus hath the LORD said: For three transgressions of Edom and for the fourth, I will not convert her because she pursued her brother with the sword and cast off all mercy, and with her anger she stole from him perpetually, and she kept her wrath for ever:

¹² but I will send fire in Teman, which shall devour the palaces of Bozrah.

¹³ Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of the sons of Ammon and for the fourth, I will not convert her because they have ripped off the mountains of Gilead that they might enlarge their border:

¹⁴ but I will kindle fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it shall devour the palaces thereof as with shouting in the day of battle, as with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind;

¹⁵ and their king shall go into captivity, he and his princes together, said the LORD.

2 ¶ Thus hath the LORD said: For three trans­gressions of Moab and for the fourth, I will not convert her because she burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime;

² but I will send fire in Moab, and it shall devour the palaces of Kerioth; and Moab shall die in tumult, with shouting and with the sound of the shofar:

³ and I will cut off the judge from the midst thereof and will slay all the princes thereof with him, said the LORD.

⁴ Thus hath the LORD said: For three transgressions of Judah and for the fourth, I will not convert her because they have despised the law of the LORD and have not kept his statutes, and their lies caused them to err after which their fathers have walked:

⁵ but I will send fire in Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.

⁶ Thus hath the LORD said: For three transgressions of Israel and for the fourth, I will not convert her because they sold the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of shoes,

⁷ desiring that there be dust of the earth upon the head of the poor, and to twist the way of the humble: and the man and his father have gone in unto the same maid, profaning my holy name:

⁸ and they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by any altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god.

⁹ ¶ Yet I destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as an oak; yet I destroyed his fruit above and his roots beneath.

¹⁰ Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt and led you forty years through the wilderness that you might possess the land of the Amorite.

¹¹ And I raised up of your sons for prophets and of your young men for Nazarites. Is it not even thus, O ye sons of Israel? said the LORD.

¹² But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink, and commanded the prophets, saying, Do not prophesy.

¹³ Behold, I will press you in your place, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves.

¹⁴ Therefore the flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not strengthen his force, neither shall the mighty deliver his soul:

¹⁵ neither shall he that handles the bow stand; and he that is swift of foot shall not escape: neither shall he that rides the horse save his life.

¹⁶ And he that is strong among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, said the LORD.

3 ¶ Hear this word that the LORD hath spoken against you, O sons of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying,

² You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore, I will visit all your iniquities against you.

³ Can two walk together except they be agreed?

⁴ Will a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey? Will a young lion cry out of his den if he has taken nothing?

⁵ Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth without a fowler? Shall the snare rise up from the earth and have taken nothing at all?

⁶ Shall the shofar be blown in the city and the people not be afraid? Shall there be any evil in the city which the LORD has not done?

⁷ Because the Lord GOD will do nothing unless he reveals his secret to his slaves the prophets.

⁸ The lion has roared, who will not fear? the Lord GOD has spoken, who can but prophesy?

⁹ ¶ Publish upon the palaces of Ashdod and upon the palaces of the land of Egypt and say, Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria and behold the great oppression in the midst thereof and the great violence in the midst thereof.

¹⁰ For they do not know to do right, said the LORD, storing up violence and robbery in their palaces.

¹¹ Therefore thus said the Lord GOD: An adversary there shall be even round about the land, and he shall bring down thy strength from thee, and thy palaces shall be spoiled.

¹² Thus hath the LORD said: As the pastor takes out of the mouth of the lion two legs or a piece of an ear, so shall the sons of Israel escape that dwell in Samaria in the corner of the bed and at the border of the couch.

¹³ Hear ye, and protest in the house of Jacob, said the Lord GOD, the God of the hosts,

¹⁴ that in the day that I shall visit the rebellions of Israel upon him, I will also visit upon the altars of Bethel, and the horns of the altar shall be cut off and fall to the ground.

¹⁵ And I will smite the winter house with the summer house, and the houses of ivory shall perish, and many houses shall be cut off, said the LORD.

4 ¶ Hear this word, ye cows of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink.

² The Lord GOD has sworn by his holiness that, behold, the days shall come upon you that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity in fishing boats.

³ And ye shall go forth by the breaches one after another, and ye shall be cast out of the palace, saith the LORD.

⁴ Go to Bethel, and transgress; at Gilgal increase the rebellion; and bring your sacrifices early in the morning and your tithes every three years:

⁵ and offer a sacrifice of praise with leaven, and proclaim and publish the free will offerings for this is the way you like it, O ye sons of Israel, said the Lord GOD.

⁶ ¶ I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities and want of bread in all your places: yet ye have not returned unto me, said the LORD.

⁷ And also I have withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest, and I caused it to rain upon one city and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece upon which it did not rain withered.

⁸ So two or three cities wandered unto one city to drink water, but they were not satisfied, yet ye have not returned unto me, said the LORD.

⁹ I have smitten you with the east wind and with the caterpillar; your many gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees were devoured by the locust; yet ye have never returned unto me, said the LORD.

¹⁰ I have sent among you the pestilence in the way to Egypt; your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses; and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils; and ye never returned unto me, said the LORD.

¹¹ I have overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the fire; and ye never returned unto me, said the LORD.

¹² Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel; and because I must do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.

¹³ For, behold, he that forms the mountains and creates the wind and declares unto man what is his thought, that makes the darkness into morning and treads above the high places of the earth, The LORD, The God of the hosts, is his name.

5 ¶ Hear ye this word, because I raise up a lamentation upon you, O house of Israel.

² The virgin of Israel has fallen; she shall not be able to rise again: she was forsaken upon her land; there is no one to raise her up.

³ For thus hath the Lord GOD said: The city that sent out a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which sent forth a hundred shall have ten, in the house of Israel.

⁴ ¶ But thus hath the LORD said unto the house of Israel, Seek me, and ye shall live:

⁵ but do not seek Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and do not pass to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought.

⁶ Seek the LORD, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph and devour it, and there be no one to quench it in Bethel.

⁷ Ye who turn judgment to wormwood and leave off doing righteousness in the earth,

⁸ look unto him that makes the seven stars and Orion and turns the shadow of death into the morning and makes the day dark with night, that calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name;

⁹ that strengthens the spoiler against the strong, so that the spoiler shall come against the fortress.

¹⁰ They hate him that rebukes in the gate, and they abhor him that speaks uprightly.

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

¹² For I have known of your many rebellions and your great sins that afflict the just and take a ransom and turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.

¹³ Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time, for it is an evil time.

¹⁴ Seek that which is good, and not that which is evil that ye may live; and so the LORD, the God of the hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.

¹⁵ Hate the evil and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate; it may be that the LORD God of the hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.

¹⁶ ¶ Therefore the LORD, the God of the hosts, the Lord, said this: Wailing shall be in all streets, and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing.

¹⁷ And in all vineyards shall be wailing, for I will pass through the midst of thee, said the LORD.

¹⁸ Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD shall be darkness, and not light.

¹⁹ As if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall and a serpent bit him.

²⁰ Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?

²¹ ¶ I hate, I despise your solemnities, and I will not savour your assemblies.

²² Though ye offer me your burnt offerings and your presents, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.

²³ Take away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy instruments.

²⁴ But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.

²⁵ Did you perchance offer me any sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness in forty years, O house of Israel?

²⁶ But ye have offered unto Sicut your king, and unto Chiun your idols, the star of your gods which ye made.

²⁷ Therefore I will cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, said the LORD, whose name is The God of the hosts.