Fourth Vision: A Basket of Summer Fruit

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

I replied, “A basket of summer fruit.” e

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

4 Hear this, you who trample on the needy m

and do away with the poor of the land, n

5 asking, “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 q

and cheat with dishonest scales. r

6 We can buy the poor with silver

and the needy for a pair of sandals s

and even sell the chaff!”

7 The Lord has sworn t by the Pride of Jacob: u v

I will never forget all their deeds. w

8 Because of this, won’t the land quake x

and all who dwell in it mourn? y

All of it will rise like the Nile; z

it will surge and then subside

like the Nile in Egypt. a

9 And in that day—

this is the declaration of the Lord God—

I will make the sun go down at noon; b

I will darken the land in the daytime. c

10 I will turn your feasts into mourning d

and all your songs into lamentation; e

I will cause everyone f to wear * sackcloth g

and every head to be shaved. h

I will make that grief

like mourning for an only son i

and its outcome like a bitter day.

11 Hear this! 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. j

12 People will stagger from sea to sea

and roam from north to east,

seeking the word of the Lord, k

but they will not find it.

13 In that day the beautiful young women, l

the young men also, will faint from thirst. m

14 Those who swear by the * guilt of Samaria n

and say, “As your god lives, Dan,” o

or “As the way p q of Beer-sheba lives” r—

they will fall, never to rise again. s