Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

A Vision of a Basket of Fruit

8 I had another vision from the Sovereign Lord. In it I saw a basket of fruit. ² The Lord asked, “Amos, what do you see?”

“A basket of fruit,” I answered.

The Lord said to me, “The end^[a] has come for my people Israel. I will not change my mind again about punishing them. ³ On that day the songs in the palace will become cries of mourning. There will be dead bodies everywhere. They will be cast out in silence.”^[b]

Israel's Doom

⁴ Listen to this, you that trample on the needy and try to destroy the poor of the country. ⁵ You say to yourselves, “We can hardly wait for the holy days to be over so that we can sell our grain. When will the Sabbath end, so that we can start selling again? Then we can overcharge, use false measures, and fix the scales to cheat our customers. ⁶ We can sell worthless wheat at a high price. We'll find someone poor who can't pay his debts, not even the price of a pair of sandals, and we'll buy him as a slave.”

⁷ The Lord, the God of Israel, has sworn, “I will never forget their evil deeds.

8 And Saul approved of his murder.

Saul Persecutes the Church

That very day the church in Jerusalem began to suffer cruel persecution. All the believers, except the apostles, were scattered throughout the provinces of Judea and Samaria. ² Some devout men buried Stephen, mourning for him with loud cries.

^3 (A)But Saul tried to destroy the church; going from house to house, he dragged out the believers, both men and women, and threw them into jail.

The Gospel Is Preached in Samaria

⁴ The believers who were scattered went everywhere, preaching the message. ⁵ Philip went to the principal city^[a] in Samaria and preached the Messiah to the people there. ⁶ The crowds paid close attention to what Philip said, as they listened to him and saw the miracles that he performed. ⁷ Evil spirits came out from many people with a loud cry, and many paralyzed and lame people were healed. ⁸ So there was great joy in that city.