Old/New Testament
Locusts and the Trial by Fire
7 This is what my Lord Adonai has shown me: Behold, He was forming locusts at the beginning of the spring crop—after the cutting of the king’s hay. 2 When the locust-swarm had finished devouring the vegetation of the land, I said:
“Adonai Elohim, please pardon!
How can Jacob stand, for he is small?”
3 Adonai relented concerning this.
“It shall not be,” Adonai said.
4 This is what my Lord Adonai has shown me: Behold, Adonai Elohim was calling for the trial by fire, and it would have devoured the great deep, and it would have devoured the territory. 5 But I said:
“My Lord Adonai, stop, please!
How can Jacob stand, for he is small?”
6 Adonai relented concerning this.
“This also shall not happen,”
says my Lord Adonai.
Plumb Line on a Wall
7 This is what He has revealed to me: Behold, my Lord was standing by a vertical wall, and in His hand was a plumb line. 8 Then Adonai said to me: “What do you see, Amos?”
I said: “A plumb line.”
Then my Lord said:
“Behold, I am setting a plumb line among My people Israel—
I will no longer pass over them.
9 So the high places of Isaac will become desolate,
the sanctuaries of Israel will be laid waste,
and I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”
10 Then Amaziah, the priest of Beth-el, sent word to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying: “Amos has been conspiring against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land cannot endure all his words. 11 For this is what Amos has said: ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will surely go captive from his land.’”
12 Then Amaziah said to Amos: “Seer, go away! Flee back to the land of Judah. Eat bread there, and prophesy there. 13 But at Bethel you are not to prophesy any more—for it is a royal sanctuary and a house of the kingdom.”
14 So Amos responded and said to Amaziah: “I am no prophet, nor am I a son of a prophet. Rather, I am a shepherd tending fig trees. 15 But Adonai took me from following the flock and Adonai said to me: ‘Go, prophesy to My people Israel.’ 16 So now, hear the word of Adonai: You are saying, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel and do not preach against the house of Isaac.’ 17 Therefore, this is what Adonai says:
‘Your wife shall become a prostitute in the city,
your sons and your daughters will fall by the sword,
and your land divided up by a measuring line.
Now, as for you—you will die in an unclean land,
and Israel will surely be led away captive out of its land.’”
A Basket of Summer Fruit
8 This is what my Lord Adonai has shown me: See, there was a basket of summer fruit. 2 He said: “Amos, what do you see?”
“A basket of summer fruit,” I said.
Then Adonai said to me:
“The end has come to My people Israel.
I will not again pass over them.
3 The songs of the palace will become howls in that day.”
It is a declaration of my Lord Adonai.
“So many corpses flung everywhere! Hush!
4 Hear this, you who trample the poor,
destroying the afflicted of the land
5 saying: ‘When will the New Moon be over,
so we may sell grain?
Or Shabbat, so we may open the wheat market?
—Let’s reduce the ephah measure
and increase the shekel,
cheat with deceitful balances,
6 buy the poor for silver,
the needy for a pair of sandals!
We’ll even sell the refuse of the grain!’”
7 Adonai swore by the Pride of Jacob:
“Never will I forget all their deeds!
8 Will not the land tremble over this?
Will not all who dwell in it mourn?
Yes, it will rise up like all the Nile
—it will surge and sink again like the Nile of Egypt.”
9 “It will be in that day”
—declares my Lord Adonai—
“I will make the sun go down at noon,
yes, I will darken the earth in daylight.
10 I will turn your festivals into mourning
and all your songs into a dirge.[a]
I will pull up sackcloth on every waist
and baldness on every head.
I will make it like the mourning for an only son—
its end a bitter day.”[b]
11 “Behold, days are coming”
—declares my Lord Adonai—
“when I will send a famine on the land
—not a famine of bread
nor a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of Adonai.[c]
12 So people will wander from sea to sea
and roam from north to east,
searching for the word of Adonai,
but they will not find it.
13 In that day, the fair virgins and the virile young men
will faint from thirst.
14 Those swearing by Samaria’s guilt will say,
‘As your gods live, Dan!’
or ‘As the way of Beersheba lives!’
But they will fall,
never to rise again.”
No Escaping His Eyes
9 I saw my Lord standing by the altar, and He said:
“Strike the tops of the pillars,
so the porches shake!
Break all of them off at the head!
Then the last of them I will slay with the sword—
none of them fleeing will escape
and no fugitive will slip away.
2 If they should dig down to Sheol,
from there My hand will take them.
If they should go up to heaven,
from there will I bring them down.
3 If they should hide themselves at the top of Carmel,
I will search them out and take them from there.
If they hide themselves from My eyes at the bottom of the sea,
from there I will command the sea serpent to bite them.
4 If they should go into captivity before their enemies,
from there I will command the sword to slay them.
I will set My eyes upon them for calamity
and not for prosperity.”
5 My Lord is Adonai-Tzva’ot.
It is He who touches the land so it melts,
and all its inhabitants will mourn.
Then it will surge like all the Nile,
and sink again like the Nile of Egypt.
6 He who builds His upper stories in heaven
fitted its vault over the earth.
He who summons the waters of the sea
and pours them out on the face of the earth
—Adonai is His Name.
7 “Are you not like the children
of the Cushites to Me, Bnei-Yisrael?”
It is the declaration of Adonai.
“Did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt,
the Philistines from Caphtor, and Aram from Kir?”
8 Behold, the eyes of my Lord Adonai are on the sinful kingdom.
So I will utterly destroy it from the face of the earth.
Nevertheless, I will not annihilate the house of Jacob.”
It is a declaration of Adonai.
9 “For behold, I have commanded,
and I will shake the house of Israel among all the nations,
like grain being tossed in a sieve,
without a pebble falling to the ground.
10 By the sword shall all the sinners
of My people die,
those who say:
‘The calamity will not overtake or confront us.’
David’s Sukkah Restored
11 “In that day I will raise up David’s fallen sukkah.[d]
I will restore its breaches,
raise up its ruins,
and rebuild it as in days of old
12 —so they may possess the remnant of Edom
and all the nations called by My Name.”
It is a declaration of Adonai, the One who will do this.
13 “Behold, days are soon coming”
—it is a declaration of Adonai—
“when the plowman will overtake the reaper
and the one treading grapes, the one sowing seed.
The mountains will drip sweet wine
and all the hills will melt over.
14 Yes, I will restore the captivity of My people Israel.
They will rebuild desolated cities and dwell in them.
They will plant vineyards and drink their wine.
They will also make gardens and eat their fruit.
15 Yes, I will plant them on their land,
and they will never again be plucked up
out of their land that I have given to them.”
Adonai, your God, has said it.
The Seventh Seal and Seven Trumpets
8 Now when the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. 2 Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets[a] were given to them. 3 Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden incense burner.[b] He was given much incense to offer up along with the prayers of all the kedoshim upon the golden altar before the throne. 4 And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the kedoshim,[c] rose before God from the angel’s hand. 5 Then the angel took the incense burner and filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it to the earth; and there were clashes of thunder and rumblings and flashes of lightning and earthquakes.[d]
6 Then the seven angels holding the seven trumpets prepared to sound them. 7 The first trumpeted,[e] and there was hail and fire mixed with blood, and they were thrown upon the earth.[f] A third of the earth burned up, a third of the trees burned up, and all the green grass burned up.
8 The second angel trumpeted, and something like a huge mountain[g] ablaze with fire was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, 9 a third of the creatures living in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
10 The third angel trumpeted, and a great star fell from the heavens, burning like a torch. It fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. 11 Now the name of the star is Wormwood; and a third of the waters became wormwood, and many people died from the waters that were made bitter.[h]
12 The fourth angel trumpeted, and a third of the sun and a third of the moon and a third of the stars were struck, so that a third of them were darkened.[i] A third of the day would not shine, as well as a third of the night.
13 Then I looked, and I heard an eagle crying out with a loud voice as it flew high in the sky, saying, “Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpets the three angels are about to sound!”
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.