Amos 8

FOURTH VISION: A BASKET OF SUMMER FRUIT

8The Lord God showed me this: a basket of summer fruit. ²He asked me, “What do you see, Amos?”^e

I replied, “A basket of summer fruit.”^Ef

The Lord said to me, “The end has come for my people Israel;^g I will no longer spare them.^{h 3}In that day the temple^F songsⁱ will become wailing”^j—this is the Lord God’s declaration. “Many dead bodies, thrown everywhere!^k Silence!”^l

⁴Hear this, you who trample on the needy^m

and do away with the poor of the land,ⁿ

⁵asking, “When will the New Moon be over

so we may sell grain,^o

and the Sabbath,

so we may market wheat?^p

We can reduce the measure

while increasing the price^A

and cheat with dishonest scales.^q

⁶We can buy the poor with silver

and the needy for a pair of sandals^r

and even sell the chaff!”

⁷The Lord has sworn^s by the Pride of Jacob:^Bt

I will never forget all their deeds.^u

⁸Because of this, won’t the land quake^v

and all who dwell in it mourn?^w

All of it will rise like the Nile;^x

it will surge and then subside

like the Nile in Egypt.^y

⁹And in that day—

this is the declaration of the Lord God—

I will make the sun go down at noon;^z

I will darken the land in the daytime.^aa

¹⁰I will turn your feasts into mourning^ab

and all your songs into lamentation;^ac

I will cause everyone^C to wear sackcloth^ad

and every head to be shaved.^ae

I will make that grief

like mourning for an only son^af

and its outcome like a bitter day.

¹¹Look, the days are coming—

this is the declaration of the Lord God—

when I will send a famine through the land:

not a famine of bread or a thirst for water,

but of hearing the words of the Lord.^ag

¹²People will stagger from sea to sea

and roam from north to east

seeking the word of the Lord,^ah

but they will not find it.

¹³In that day the beautiful young women,^ai

the young men also, will faint from thirst.^aj

¹⁴Those who swear by the guilt of Samaria^ak

and say, “As your god lives, Dan,”^al

or, “As the way^DE of Beer-sheba lives”^am—

they will fall, never to rise again.^an