Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

David wrote this song for the music leader, to ask God to help him.

A prayer for help^[a]

Who was Amos?

1 Amos was one of the shepherds who lived in the town of Tekoa.^[a] God spoke to him. He showed Amos the things that would happen to the people of Israel. God did that two years before the earthquake came. It was during the time that Uzziah was the king of Judah, and Joash's son, Jeroboam, was the king of Israel. This book tells about the message that Amos received from God.

² Amos said, ‘The Lord speaks loudly from Zion.^[b] Yes, he shouts from Jerusalem. As a result, the green fields will become dry and the grass will die. There will be nothing for the sheep to eat. Even the grass on Mount Carmel mountain will die.’

God will punish the nations near Israel

³ The Lord says, ‘The people in Damascus have done more and more wrong things.^[c] So I will certainly punish them!

They have been cruel to the people in Gilead. They used their iron weapons to tear them into pieces. ⁴ I will send a fire to destroy the palace that King Hazael built. It will destroy the strong buildings of King Ben-Hadad. ⁵ I will also break the strong gates of the city of Damascus. I will remove all the people who live in the Aven valley. I will remove the king of Beth-Eden. Their enemies will take the people of Syria far away to Kir as prisoners.’ That is what the Lord says.

⁶ The Lord says, ‘The people in Gaza have done more and more wrong things.^[d] So I will certainly punish them.

They caught my people and they took them away from their homes. They sold them to the people in Edom. ⁷ So I will send a fire to burn the walls of Gaza. It will destroy the strong buildings in Gaza. ⁸ I will remove the king of Ashdod city. And I will remove the king who rules in Ashkelon city. I will punish the people who live in Ekron city. All the Philistines who remain will die.’ That is what the Lord God says.

⁹ The Lord says, ‘The people in Tyre have done more and more wrong things. So I will certainly punish them.

Before, they had been friends with the people in Israel. They had promised to those people, “We will be like brothers.” But the people from Tyre did not do what they had promised. They took my people away. They sold my people to the people in Edom and my people became slaves. ¹⁰ So I will start a fire on the walls of Tyre city. And the fire will burn all the strong buildings. It will destroy them completely.’

¹¹ The Lord says, ‘The people in Edom have done more and more wrong things. So I will certainly punish them.

They took their swords and they chased after their cousins, the Israelites.^[e] They were not kind. Instead, they continued to be angry all the time. They did not stop attacking them. ¹² So I will start a fire. And the fire will destroy the big city of Teman. The fire will also burn the strong buildings of Bozrah city.’

¹³ The Lord says, ‘The people in Ammon have done more and more wrong things. So I will certainly punish them.

People from Ammon fought against the people in Gilead. Ammon's people wanted to get more land for themselves. While they were killing people there, they also cut pregnant women open. ¹⁴ So I will send fire. And the fire will destroy the walls of Rabbah city. It will destroy the strong buildings too. People will fight and they will shout. They will shout loudly, like the noise that a strong wind makes in a storm. ¹⁵ The enemies will take away their king and their leaders. They will take them to another country. The king and the leaders will not be free to return.’ That is what the Lord says.

2 The Lord says, ‘The people in Moab have done more and more wrong things. So I will certainly punish them.

They dug up the bones of Edom's king. They burned his bones until they became ashes. ² So I will send fire to the country called Moab. The fire will destroy the strong buildings in Kerioth town. The people will hear their enemies shout. And they will hear the sounds that their enemies' trumpets make. And the people will die. ³ I will let the enemies kill the ruler of Moab. And I will let them kill all its leaders too.’ That is what the Lord says.

A message to the people in Judah

⁴ The Lord says, ‘The people in Judah have done more and more wrong things. So I will certainly punish them.

They refused to obey my laws and my commands. They have listened to their false gods, Those are the same false gods that their ancestors served. ⁵ So I will send fire to Judah. The fire will completely burn the strong buildings that are in Jerusalem.’

The first four trumpets

⁶ Then the seven angels with the seven trumpets prepared to make a noise with their trumpets. ⁷ The first angel made a sound with his trumpet. Strong rain with stones of ice fell on the earth. The rain was mixed with fire and blood and it poured down. It burned a third of the earth. It destroyed a third of the trees and all the green grass.

⁸ Then the second angel made a sound with his trumpet. I saw something like a very big mountain that was burning with fire. This mountain fell down into the sea. A third of the sea became blood. ⁹ A third of the animals that lived in the sea died. It also destroyed a third of the ships on the sea.

¹⁰ Then the third angel made a sound with his trumpet. I saw a very big star, which was burning with a bright light. It fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and the springs of water. ¹¹ The name of the star means ‘It tastes bad’. A third of the water on the earth became bad. Many people died because they drank that bad water.

¹² Then the fourth angel made a sound with his trumpet. A third of the sun became dark. A third of the moon and a third of the stars also became dark. There was no light for a third of the day and there was no light for a third of the night.^[a]

¹³ Then I looked up. I saw an eagle that was flying high in the sky above me. I heard it say with a loud voice, ‘Great trouble! Great trouble! Yes, great trouble is coming to the people who live on the earth! Very bad things will happen when the other three angels make a sound with their trumpets!’

The fifth trumpet

9 The fifth angel made a sound with his trumpet. Then I saw a star that had fallen down from the sky to the earth. Someone gave a key to that star. The key could open the entrance to the deep hole.^{[b] 2} When the star opened the entrance, smoke came up out of the hole. It was like the smoke from a very big hot fire. The smoke caused the sun and the sky to become dark.

³ Then locusts came out of the smoke and they came down on the earth. They received power to cause great pain, like the power of scorpions. ⁴ They knew that they must not do anything bad to the grass on the earth. They must not attack any plant or any tree. They could only attack people who did not have God's seal on the front of their heads. ⁵ The locusts did not have authority to kill those people. But they could cause them very bad pain for five months. Their pain was like the great pain from a scorpion when it hurts someone. ⁶ During that time of great pain, people will want to kill themselves. They will want to die, but they will not find any way to die.

⁷ The locusts were like horses that were ready to fight in a war. They wore something on their heads that seemed to be gold crowns. Their faces looked like human faces. ⁸ Their hair was like women's hair. Their teeth were like lions' teeth. ⁹ They had shields over the front of their bodies, like shields made from iron. Their wings made a very loud noise. The sound was like many horses that are pulling chariots into a battle. ¹⁰ They had poison in their tails, like scorpions. They had power to attack people with their tails and to cause them pain for five months. ¹¹ The king that ruled them was the angel of the deep hole. His name is ‘Abaddon’ in the Hebrew language. In the Greek language his name is ‘Apollyon’.^[c]

¹² The first great trouble has now finished. But after all these things, there are two more great troubles still to come.