Amos 6:1–9:15
6 Woe ato you who are at bease in Zion,
And ctrust in Mount Samaria,
Notable persons in the dchief nation,
To whom the house of Israel comes!
2 eGo over to fCalneh and see;
And from there go to gHamath the great;
Then go down to Gath of the Philistines.
hAre you better than these kingdoms?
Or is their territory greater than your territory?
3 Woe to you who iput far off the day of jdoom,
kWho cause lthe seat of violence to come near;
Stretch out on your couches,
Eat lambs from the flock
And calves from the midst of the stall;
5 mWho sing idly to the sound of stringed instruments,
And invent for yourselves nmusical instruments olike David;
6 Who pdrink wine from bowls,
And anoint yourselves with the best ointments,
qBut are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.
7 Therefore they shall now go rcaptive as the first of the captives,
And those who recline at banquets shall be removed.
8 sThe Lord God has sworn by Himself,
The Lord God of hosts says:
“I abhor tthe pride of Jacob,
And hate his palaces;
Therefore I will deliver up the city
And all that is in it.”
9 Then it shall come to pass, that if ten men remain in one house, they shall die. 10 And when 1a relative of the dead, with one who will burn the bodies, picks up the 2bodies to take them out of the house, he will say to one inside the house, “Are there any more with you?”
Then someone will say, “None.”
And he will say, u“Hold your tongue! vFor we dare not mention the name of the Lord.”
11 For behold, wthe Lord gives a command:
xHe will break the great house into bits,
And the little house into pieces.
Does one plow there with oxen?
Yet yyou have turned justice into gall,
And the fruit of righteousness into wormwood,
13 You who rejoice over 3Lo Debar,
Who say, “Have we not taken 4Karnaim for ourselves
By our own strength?”
14 “But, behold, zI will raise up a nation against you,
O house of Israel,”
Says the Lord God of hosts;
“And they will afflict you from the aentrance of Hamath
To the Valley of the Arabah.”
7 Thus the Lord God showed me: Behold, He formed locust swarms at the 1beginning of the late crop; indeed it was the late crop after the king’s mowings. 2 And so it was, when they had finished eating the grass of the land, that I said:
“O Lord God, forgive, I pray!
For he is small!”
3 So bthe Lord relented concerning this.
“It shall not be,” said the Lord.
4 Thus the Lord God showed me: Behold, the Lord God called 3for conflict by fire, and it consumed the great deep and devoured the 4territory. 5 Then I said:
“O Lord God, cease, I pray!
cOh, that Jacob may stand,
For he is small!”
6 So the Lord relented concerning this.
“This also shall not be,” said the Lord God.
7 Thus He showed me: Behold, the Lord stood on a wall made with a plumb line, with a plumb line in His hand. 8 And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?”
And I said, “A plumb line.”
Then the Lord said:
“Behold, dI am setting a plumb line
In the midst of My people Israel;
eI will not pass by them anymore.
9 fThe 5high places of Isaac shall be desolate,
And the 6sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste.
gI will rise with the sword against the house of Jeroboam.”
10 Then Amaziah the hpriest of iBethel sent to jJeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to 7bear all his words. 11 For thus Amos has said:
‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword,
And Israel shall surely be led away kcaptive
From their own land.’ ”
“Go, you seer!
Flee to the land of Judah.
There eat bread,
And there prophesy.
13 But lnever again prophesy at Bethel,
mFor it is the king’s 8sanctuary,
And it is the royal 9residence.”
14 Then Amos answered, and said to Amaziah:
“I was no prophet,
Nor was I na son of a prophet,
But I was a osheepbreeder
And a tender of sycamore fruit.
15 Then the Lord took me 1as I followed the flock,
And the Lord said to me,
‘Go, pprophesy to My people Israel.’
16 Now therefore, hear the word of the Lord:
You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel,
And qdo not 2spout against the house of Isaac.’
17 “Therefore rthus says the Lord:
s‘Your wife shall be a harlot in the city;
Your sons and daughters shall fall by the sword;
Your land shall be divided by survey line;
You shall die in a tdefiled land;
And Israel shall surely be led away captive
From his own land.’ ”
8 Thus the Lord God showed me: Behold, a basket of summer fruit. 2 And He said, “Amos, what do you see?”
So I said, “A basket of summer fruit.”
Then the Lord said to me:
a“The end has come upon My people Israel;
bI will not pass by them anymore.
3 And cthe songs of the temple
Shall be wailing in that day,”
Says the Lord God—
“Many dead bodies everywhere,
dThey shall be thrown out in silence.”
4 Hear this, you who 1swallow up the needy,
And make the poor of the land fail,
“When will the New Moon be past,
That we may sell grain?
And ethe Sabbath,
That we may 2trade wheat?
fMaking the ephah small and the shekel large,
Falsifying the scales by gdeceit,
6 That we may buy the poor for hsilver,
And the needy for a pair of sandals—
Even sell the bad wheat?”
7 The Lord has sworn by ithe pride of Jacob:
“Surely jI will never forget any of their works.
8 kShall the land not tremble for this,
And everyone mourn who dwells in it?
All of it shall swell like 3the River,
Heave and subside
lLike the River of Egypt.
9 “And it shall come to pass in that day,” says the Lord God,
m“That I will make the sun go down at noon,
And I will darken the earth in 4broad daylight;
10 I will turn your feasts into nmourning,
oAnd all your songs into lamentation;
pI 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 qof hearing the words of the Lord.
12 They 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 rnot find it.
13 “In that day the fair virgins
And strong young men
Shall faint from thirst.
14 Those who sswear by tthe 5sin of Samaria,
Who say,
‘As your god lives, O Dan!’
And, ‘As the way of uBeersheba lives!’
They shall fall and never rise again.”
9 I saw the Lord standing by the altar, and He said:
“Strike the 1doorposts, that the thresholds may shake,
And abreak them on the heads of them all.
I will slay the last of them with the sword.
bHe who flees from them shall not get away,
And he who escapes from them shall not be delivered.
2 “Though cthey dig into 2hell,
From there My hand shall take them;
dThough they climb up to heaven,
From there I will bring them down;
3 And though they ehide themselves on top of Carmel,
From there I will search and take them;
Though they hide from My sight at the bottom of the sea,
From there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them;
4 Though they go into captivity before their enemies,
From there fI will command the sword,
And it shall slay them.
gI will set My eyes on them for harm and not for good.”
He who touches the earth and it hmelts,
iAnd all who dwell there mourn;
All of it shall swell like 3the River,
And subside like the River of Egypt.
6 He who builds His jlayers 4in the sky,
And has founded His strata in the earth;
Who kcalls for the waters of the sea,
And pours them out on the face of the earth—
lThe Lord is His name.
7 “Are you not like the 5people of Ethiopia to Me,
O children of Israel?” says the Lord.
“Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt,
The mPhilistines from nCaphtor, 6
And the Syrians from oKir?
8 “Behold, pthe eyes of the Lord God are on the sinful kingdom,
And I qwill destroy it from the face of the earth;
Yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,”
Says the Lord.
And will 7sift the house of Israel among all nations,
As grain is sifted in a sieve;
rYet not the smallest 8grain shall fall to the ground.
10 All the sinners of My people shall die by the sword,
sWho say, ‘The calamity shall not overtake nor confront us.’
11 “On tthat day I will raise up
The 9tabernacle of David, which has fallen down,
And 1repair its damages;
I will raise up its ruins,
And rebuild it as in the days of old;
12 uThat they may possess the remnant of vEdom, 2
And all the Gentiles who are called by My name,”
Says the Lord who does this thing.
13 “Behold, wthe days are coming,” says the Lord,
“When the plowman shall overtake the reaper,
And the treader of grapes him who sows seed;
xThe mountains shall drip with sweet wine,
And all the hills shall flow with it.
14 yI will bring back the captives of My people Israel;
zThey shall build the waste cities and inhabit them;
They shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them;
They shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them.
15 I will plant them in their land,
aAnd no longer shall they be pulled up
From the land I have given them,”
Says the Lord your God.