Amos 8
8
The Vision of the Ripe Fruit
1This is what the Lord GOD showed me: I saw a basket of summer fruit. 2He said to me, “Amos, what do you see?”
I said, “A basket of summer fruit.”
Then the Lord said to me, “The end#8:2 end This Hebrew word sounds like the word for “summer fruit.” has come to my people Israel. I will not ignore their sins anymore. 3Their temple songs will become funeral songs.” This is what the Lord GOD said. “There will be dead bodies everywhere. In silence, people will take out the dead bodies and throw them onto the pile.#8:3 In silence … the pile Or “People will be saying, ‘Hush!’” See Amos 6:10.”
Merchants Only Want to Make Money
4Listen to me, you who trample on helpless people.
You are trying to destroy the poor of this country.
5You merchants say,
“When will the New Moon be over so that we can sell grain?
When will the Sabbath be over
so that we can bring out more wheat to sell?
We can raise the price
and make the measure smaller.#8:5 We … smaller Literally, “We will make the ephah small and the shekel large.”
We can fix the scales
and cheat the people.#8:5 We … people Literally, “Cheat with lying balances.”
6The poor cannot pay their loans,
so we will buy them as slaves.
We will buy those helpless people
for the price of a pair of sandals.
Oh, and we can sell the wheat
that was spilled on the floor.”
7The Lord made a promise. He used his name, “Pride of Jacob,” and made this promise:
“I will never forget what those people did.
8There will be an earthquake
that will shake the whole land because of what they did.
Everyone living there will cry for those who died.
The land will be tossed around.
The whole land will rise and fall like the Nile River in Egypt.”
9The Lord GOD also said,
“At that time I will make the sun set at noon
and make the land dark on a clear day.
10I will change your festivals into days of crying for the dead.
All your songs will be songs of sadness for those who are dead.
I will put mourning clothes on every body
and baldness on every head.#8:10 baldness … head People shaved their heads to show that they were very sad or upset.
I will cause mourning everywhere,
like that for an only son who has died.
It will be a very bitter end.”
A Famine of God’s Word
11The Lord GOD says,
“Look, the days are coming
when I will cause a famine in the land.
The people will not be hungry for bread.
They will not be thirsty for water.
No, they will be hungry for words from the Lord.
12The people will wander around the country,
from the Dead Sea to the Mediterranean Sea,
and from the north part of the country to the east.
They will go back and forth looking for a message from the Lord,
but they will not find it.
13At that time the beautiful young men and women
will become weak from thirst.
14They made promises by the sin of Samaria,#8:14 sin of Samaria The calf god in Samaria.
They said, ‘Dan,#8:14 Dan One of Israel’s holy places was in this city. as surely as your god lives, we promise ….’
And they said, ‘As surely as the god of Beersheba#8:14 Beersheba A town in Judah. This name means “well of the oath.” lives, we promise ….’
But they will fall
and never get up again.”
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© 1987, 2004 Bible League International
Amos 8
8
Amos 8
1¶ Thus hath the Lord GOD showed unto me: and behold a basket of summer fruit.
2And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the Lord unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass over them any more.
3And the cantors of the temple shall howl in that day, said the Lord GOD; there shall be many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them forth with silence.
4¶ Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, and cut off the poor of the land,
5saying, When the month is over, we will sell the wheat; and after the sabbath day we will open the storehouse of bread, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit;
6that we may buy the poor for money and the needy for a pair of shoes and sell the refuse of the wheat.
7The Lord has sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works.
8Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwells therein? and it shall all rise up as a flood, and it shall be cast out and sunk, as the river of Egypt.
9And it shall come to pass in that day, said the Lord GOD, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will cover the earth with darkness in the clear day;
10and I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation; and I will cause sackcloth to be brought up upon all loins and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son and the end thereof as a bitter day.
11¶ Behold, the days come, said the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine to the earth, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord:
12and they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.
13In that day the fair virgins and young men shall faint for thirst.
14Those that swear by the guiltiness of Samaria and say, As thy God of Dan lives; and, As the way of Beersheba lives, even they shall fall, and never rise up again.
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The Jubilee Bible 2000 (JUB) by Ransom Press International