Amos 8
8
You Who Give Little and Take Much
1My Master God showed me this vision: A bowl of fresh fruit.
2He said, “What do you see, Amos?”
I said, “A bowl of fresh, ripe fruit.”
God said, “Right. So, I’m calling it quits with my people Israel. I’m no longer acting as if everything is just fine.”
3“The royal singers will wail when it happens.”
My Master God said so.
“Corpses will be strewn here, there, and everywhere.
Hush!”
4-6Listen to this, you who walk all over the weak,
you who treat poor people as less than nothing,
Who say, “When’s my next paycheck coming
so I can go out and live it up?
How long till the weekend
when I can go out and have a good time?”
Who give little and take much,
and never do an honest day’s work.
You exploit the poor, using them—
and then, when they’re used up, you discard them.
7-8 God swears against the arrogance of Jacob:
“I’m keeping track of their every last sin.”
God’s oath will shake earth’s foundations,
dissolve the whole world into tears.
God’s oath will sweep in like a river that rises,
flooding houses and lands,
And then recedes,
leaving behind a sea of mud.
9-10“On Judgment Day, watch out!”
These are the words of God, my Master.
“I’ll turn off the sun at noon.
In the middle of the day the earth will go black.
I’ll turn your parties into funerals
and make every song you sing a dirge.
Everyone will walk around in rags,
with sunken eyes and bald heads.
Think of the worst that could happen
—your only son, say, murdered.
That’s a hint of Judgment Day
—that and much more.
11-12“Oh yes, Judgment Day is coming!”
These are the words of my Master God.
“I’ll send a famine through the whole country.
It won’t be food or water that’s lacking, but my Word.
People will drift from one end of the country to the other,
roam to the north, wander to the east.
They’ll go anywhere, listen to anyone,
hoping to hear God’s Word—but they won’t hear it.
13-14“On Judgment Day,
lovely young girls will faint of Word-thirst,
robust young men will faint of God-thirst,
Along with those who take oaths at the Samaria Sin-and-Sex Center,
saying, ‘As the lord god of Dan is my witness!’
and ‘The lady goddess of Beer-sheba bless you!’
Their lives will fall to pieces.
They’ll never put it together again.”
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Amos 8
8
Vision of the Summer Fruit
1Thus the Lord God showed me: Behold, a basket of summer fruit. 2And He said, “Amos, what do you see?”
So I said, “A basket of summer fruit.”
Then the Lord said to me:
#Ezek. 7:2“The end has come upon My people Israel;
#Amos 7:8I will not pass by them anymore.
3And #Amos 5:23the songs of the temple
Shall be wailing in that day,”
Says the Lord God—
“Many dead bodies everywhere,
#Amos 6:9, 10They shall be thrown out in silence.”
4Hear this, you who swallow up the needy,
And make the poor of the land fail,
5Saying:
“When will the New Moon be past,
That we may sell grain?
And #Ex. 31:13–17; Neh. 13:15the Sabbath,
That we may trade wheat?
#Mic. 6:10, 11Making the ephah small and the shekel large,
Falsifying the scales by #Lev. 19:35, 36; Deut. 25:13–15deceit,
6That we may buy the poor for #Amos 2:6silver,
And the needy for a pair of sandals—
Even sell the bad wheat?”
7The Lord has sworn by #Deut. 33:26, 29; Ps. 68:34; Amos 6:8the pride of Jacob:
“Surely #Ps. 10:11; Hos. 7:2; 8:13I will never forget any of their works.
8#Hos. 4:3Shall the land not tremble for this,
And everyone mourn who dwells in it?
All of it shall swell like the River,
Heave and subside
#Jer. 46:7, 8; Amos 9:5Like the River of Egypt.
9“And it shall come to pass in that day,” says the Lord God,
#Job 5:14; Is. 13:10; 59:9, 10; Jer. 15:9; (Mic. 3:6); Matt. 27:45; Mark 15:32; Luke 23:44“That I will make the sun go down at noon,
And I will darken the earth in broad daylight;
10I will turn your feasts into #Lam. 5:15; Ezek. 7:18mourning,
#Is. 15:2, 3; Jer. 48:37; Ezek. 27:31And all your songs into lamentation;
#Jer. 6:26; (Zech. 12:10)I will bring sackcloth on every waist,
And baldness on every head;
I will make it like mourning for an only son,
And its end like a bitter day.
11“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord God,
“That I will send a famine on the land,
Not a famine of bread,
Nor a thirst for water,
But #1 Sam. 3:1; 2 Chr. 15:3; Ps. 74:9; Ezek. 7:26; Mic. 3:6of hearing the words of the Lord.
12They shall wander from sea to sea,
And from north to east;
They shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord,
But shall #Hos. 5:6not find it.
13“In that day the fair virgins
And strong young men
Shall faint from thirst.
14Those who #Hos. 4:15swear by #Deut. 9:21the sin of Samaria,
Who say,
‘As your god lives, O Dan!’
And, ‘As the way of #Amos 5:5Beersheba lives!’
They shall fall and never rise again.”
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The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.