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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Amos 8: ERV
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© 1987, 2004 Bible League International
Amos 8
8
A Basket of Summer Fruit
1This is what my Lord Adonai has shown me: See, there was a basket of summer fruit.
2He 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.
3The songs of the palace will become howls in that day.” It is a declaration of my Lord Adonai. “So many corpses flung everywhere! Hush!
4Hear this, you who trample the poor, destroying the afflicted of the land
5saying: ‘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,
6buy the poor for silver, the needy for a pair of sandals! We’ll even sell the refuse of the grain!’”
7Adonai swore by the Pride of Jacob: “Never will I forget all their deeds!
8Will 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.
10I will turn your festivals into mourning and all your songs into a dirge. 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.”
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.
12So 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.
13In that day, the fair virgins and the virile young men will faint from thirst.
14Those 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.”
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