The Daily Audio Bible

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^[a] 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^[b] 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^[c] 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^[d] 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^[e] my Lord Yahweh, “I^[f] 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^[g] 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^[h] 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^[i] Yahweh. “Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans^[j] 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^[k] 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,”^[l] declares^[m] Yahweh, who does this. ¹³ “Look, days are coming,” declares^[n] 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.

The Letter to the Church in Philadelphia

⁷ “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:

“This is what the holy one, the true one, the one who has the key of David, the one who opens and no one can shut, and who shuts and no one can open, says: ⁸ ‘I know your works (behold, I have put before you an opened door that no one is able to shut^[a]) that you have a little strength, and have kept my word, and did not deny my name. ⁹ Behold, I am causing those of the synagogue of Satan, the ones who call themselves Jews and are not, but are lying—behold, I will make them come^[b] and kneel down before your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you. ¹⁰ Because you have kept the word of my patient endurance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing that is about to come upon the whole inhabited world, to put to the test those who live on the earth. ¹¹ I am coming quickly! Hold fast to what you have, so that no one may take away your crown. ¹² The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will never go outside again, and I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem that comes down from heaven from my God, and my new name. ¹³ The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

The Letter to the Church in Laodicea

¹⁴ “And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write:

“This is what the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the originator^[c] of God’s creation, says: ¹⁵ ‘I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or hot! ¹⁶ Thus, because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I am about to vomit you out of my mouth! ¹⁷ Because you are saying, “I am rich, and have become rich, and I have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and pitiable and poor and blind and naked, ¹⁸ I advise you to buy from me gold refined by fire, in order that you may become rich, and white clothing, in order that you may be clothed and the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed, and eye salve to smear on your eyes, in order that you may see. ¹⁹ As many as I love, I reprove and discipline. Be zealous, therefore, and repent! ²⁰ Behold, I stand at the door and knock! If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, indeed I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with me. ²¹ The one who conquers, I will grant to him to sit down with me on my throne, as I also have conquered and have sat down with my Father on his throne. ²² The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

Calm Trust in Yahweh

A song of ascents. Of David.^[a]