Amos 8

Chapter 8

Basket of Fruit and Israel’s Captivity

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

²He said, “What do you see, Amos?” And ^aI said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me, “The ^bend has come for My people Israel. I will ^1cspare them no longer.

³“¹The ^asongs of the palace will turn to ^bwailing in that day,” declares the Lord God. “Many will be the ^ccorpses; in every place ²they will cast them forth ³in silence.”

⁴Hear this, you who ^1atrample the needy, to do away with the humble of the land,

⁵saying,

“When will the ^anew moon ¹be over,

So that we may sell grain,

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

To make the ²bushel smaller and the shekel bigger,

And to ^ccheat with ³dishonest scales,

⁶So as to ^abuy the helpless for ¹money

And the needy for a pair of sandals,

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

⁷The Lord has ^asworn by the ^bpride of Jacob,

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

⁸“Because of this will not the land ^aquake

And everyone who dwells in 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“It will come about in that day,” declares the Lord God,

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

And ^bmake the earth dark in ¹broad daylight.

¹⁰“Then I will ^aturn your festivals into mourning

And all your songs into ¹lamentation;

And I will bring ^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 the Lord God,

“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 the Lord.

¹²“People will stagger from sea to sea

And from the north even to the east;

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

But they will not find it.

¹³“In that day the beautiful ^avirgins

And the young 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.”