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
Basket of Fruit
1#Am 7:1This is what the Lord God showed me: a basket of summer fruit. 2#Am 7:8; La 4:18; Mic 7:1He said, “Amos, what do you see?”
And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.”
Then the Lord said to me, “The end has come upon My people Israel. I will forgive them no more.
3#Am 5:23; 6:9–10“The songs of the temple shall become wailings on that day,” says the Lord God. “The corpses shall be many, cast down everywhere. Hush!”
Against the Greedy
4#Ps 14:4; Pr 30:14 Hear this, you who trample on the needy
to make the poor of the land fail,
5#Hos 12:7; 2Ki 4:23saying,
“When will the New Moon be over,
so that we may sell grain?
And the Sabbath,
that we may open the wheat sales,
making the ephah#A dry measure of about 3/5 bushel, or 22 liters. too small,
and the shekel#About 2/5 ounce, or 12 grams. too heavy,
cheating with dishonest scales,
6#Am 2:6 that we may buy the poor for silver,
the needy for a pair of sandals,
and sell the refuse as wheat?”
7#Hos 8:13; Am 6:8The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.
8#Am 9:5; Hos 4:3; Ps 18:7 Will not the land tremble because of this,
and everyone mourn who lives on it?
It will all rise up like the Nile,
and be tossed around, then sink
like the Nile of Egypt.
9#Jer 15:9; Am 5:8On that day, says the Lord God,
I will make the sun go down at noon,
and darken the earth in mid-daylight;
10#Jer 6:26; Zec 12:10 I will turn your feasts into mourning,
and all your songs into dirges;
I will put sackcloth upon all loins,
and baldness on every head;
I will make it like the mourning for an only child,
and its end like a bitter day.
11#1Sa 3:1; Ps 74:9 The time is coming, says the Lord God,
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 the Lord.
12They will wander from sea to sea,
and from north to east;
they will run back and forth to seek the word of the Lord,
but they will not find it.
13#Hos 2:3; La 1:18On that day
the beautiful maidens and the young men
will faint with thirst.
14#Dt 9:21; 1Ki 12:28–29 Those who swear by Ashimah of Samaria, and say,
“By the life of your god, O Dan,”
and, “By the life of the way of Beersheba”—
they shall fall
and never rise again.
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