Amos 8

CHAPTER 8

A Famine for Hearing the Words of Yahweh

¹Thus Lord Yahweh showed me, and behold, there was a basket of summer fruit.

²And he said, “What do you see, Amos?” And ^aI said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then Yahweh said to me, “The ^bend has come for My people Israel. I will ^cpass over them no longer.

³“And they will ^awail with the ^bsongs of the palace in that day,” declares Lord Yahweh. “Many will be the ^ccorpses; in every place ¹they will cast them forth ²in silence.”

⁴Hear this, you who ^1atrample the needy, even to cause the humble of the land to cease,

⁵saying,

“When will the ^anew moon pass over,

So that we may sell grain,

And the ^bsabbath, that we may open the wheat market,

To make the ¹bushel smaller and the ²shekel bigger,

And to ^ccheat with a deceptive balance,

⁶So as to ^abuy the poor for ¹money

And the needy for a pair of sandals,

And that we may sell the refuse of the wheat?”

⁷Yahweh has ^asworn by the ^blofty pride of Jacob,

“Indeed, I will ^cnever forget any of their works.

⁸“Because of this will not the land ^atremble

And everyone who inhabits it ^bmourn?

Indeed, all of it will ^crise up like the Nile,

And it will be tossed about

And subside like the Nile of Egypt.

⁹“And it will be in that day,” declares Lord Yahweh,

“That I will make the ^asun go down at noon

And ^bmake the earth dark in ¹broad daylight.

¹⁰“Then I will ^aoverturn your feasts into mourning

And all your songs into ¹lamentation;

And I will bring up ^bsackcloth on everyone’s loins

And baldness on every head.

And I will make it ^clike a time of mourning for an only son,

And the end of it will be like a bitter day.

¹¹“Behold, days are coming,” declares Lord Yahweh,

“When I will send a famine on the land,

Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water,

But rather ^afor hearing the words of Yahweh.

¹²“People will wander from sea to sea

And from the north even to the east;

They will go to and fro to ^aseek the word of Yahweh,

But they will not find it.

¹³“In that day the beautiful ^avirgins

And the choice men will ^bfaint from thirst.

¹⁴“As for those who swear by the ^1aguilt of Samaria,

Who say, ‘As your god lives, O ^bDan,’

And, ‘As the way of ^cBeersheba lives,’

They will fall and ^dnot rise again.”