Amos 8

A Basket of Ripe Fruit

This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me:^a a basket of ripe fruit. “What do you see,^b Amos?^c” he asked.

“A basket^d of ripe fruit,” I answered.

Then the Lord said to me, “The time is ripe for my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.^e

“In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “the songs in the temple will turn to wailing.^f Many, many bodies—flung everywhere! Silence!^g”

Hear this, you who trample the needy

and do away with the poor^h of the land,ⁱ

saying,

“When will the New Moon^j be over

that we may sell grain,

and the Sabbath be ended

that we may market^k wheat?”^l—

skimping on the measure,

boosting the price

and cheating^m with dishonest scales,ⁿ

buying the poor^o with silver

and the needy for a pair of sandals,

selling even the sweepings with the wheat.^p

The Lord has sworn by himself, the Pride of Jacob:^q “I will never forget^r anything they have done.^s

“Will not the land tremble^t for this,

and all who live in it mourn?

The whole land will rise like the Nile;

it will be stirred up and then sink

like the river of Egypt.^u

“In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord,

“I will make the sun go down at noon

and darken the earth in broad daylight.^v

I will turn your religious festivals^w into mourning

and all your singing into weeping.^x

I will make all of you wear sackcloth^y

and shave^z your heads.

I will make that time like mourning for an only son^a

and the end of it like a bitter day.^b

“The days are coming,”^c declares the Sovereign Lord,

“when I will send a famine through the land—

not a famine of food or a thirst for water,

but a famine^d of hearing the words of the Lord.^e

People will stagger from sea to sea

and wander from north to east,

searching for the word of the Lord,

but they will not find it.^f

“In that day

“the lovely young women and strong young men^g

will faint because of thirst.^h

Those who swear by the sin of Samariaⁱ—

who say, ‘As surely as your god lives, Dan,’^j

or, ‘As surely as the god of Beersheba^k lives’—

they will fall,^l never to rise again.^m”