More Visions and Messages of Judgment

8:1 The sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw1 a basket of summer fruit.2

8:2 He said, “What do you see, Amos?” I replied, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me, “The end3 has come for my people Israel! I will no longer overlook their sins.4

8:3 The women singing in the temple5 will wail in that day.”

The sovereign Lord is speaking.

“There will be many corpses littered everywhere!6 Be quiet!”

8:4 Listen to this, you who trample7 the needy,

and do away with8 the destitute in the land.

8:5 You say,

“When will the new moon festival9 be over,10 so we can sell grain?

When will the Sabbath end,11 so we can open up the grain bins?12

We’re eager13 to sell less for a higher price,14

and to cheat the buyer with rigged scales!15

8:6 We’re eager to trade silver for the poor,16

a pair of sandals17 for the needy!

We want to mix in some chaff with the grain!”18

8:7 The Lord confirms this oath19 by the arrogance of Jacob:20

“I swear21 I will never forget all you have done!22

8:8 Because of this the earth23 will quake,24

and all who live in it will mourn.

The whole earth25 will rise like the River Nile,26

it will surge upward27 and then grow calm,28 like the Nile in Egypt.29

8:9 In that day,” says the sovereign Lord, “I will make the sun set at noon,

and make the earth dark in the middle of the day.30

8:10 I will turn your festivals into funerals,31

and all your songs into funeral dirges.

I will make everyone wear funeral clothes32

and cause every head to be shaved bald.33

I will make you mourn as if you had lost your only son;34

when it ends it will indeed have been a bitter day.35

8:11 Be certain of this,36 the time is37 coming,” says the sovereign Lord,

“when I will send a famine through the land—

not a shortage of food or water

but an end to divine revelation!38

8:12 People39 will stagger from sea to sea,40

and from the north around to the east.

They will wander about looking for a revelation from41 the Lord,

but they will not find any.42

8:13 In that day your43 beautiful young women44 and your45 young men will faint from thirst.46 8:14 These are the ones who now take oaths47 in the name of the sinful idol goddess48 of Samaria.

They vow,49 ‘As surely as your god50 lives, O Dan,’ or ‘As surely as your beloved one51 lives, O Beer Sheba!’

But they will fall down and not get up again.”

9:1 I saw the sovereign One1 standing by the altar2 and he said, “Strike the tops of the support pillars,3 so the thresholds shake!

Knock them down on the heads of all the people,4

and I will kill the survivors5 with the sword.

No one will be able to run away;6

no one will be able to escape.7

9:2 Even if they could dig down into the netherworld,8

my hand would pull them up from there.

Even if they could climb up to heaven,

I would drag them down from there.

9:3 Even if they were to hide on the top of Mount Carmel,

I would hunt them down and take them from there.

Even if they tried to hide from me9 at the bottom of the sea,

from there10 I would command the Sea Serpent11 to bite them.

9:4 Even when their enemies drive them into captivity,12

from there13 I will command the sword to kill them.

I will not let them out of my sight;

they will experience disaster, not prosperity.”14

9:5 The sovereign Lord who commands armies will do this.15

He touches the earth and it dissolves;16

all who live on it mourn.

The whole earth17 rises like the River Nile,18

and then grows calm19 like the Nile in Egypt.20

9:6 He builds the upper rooms of his palace21 in heaven

and sets its foundation supports22 on the earth.23

He summons the water of the sea

and pours it out on the earth’s surface.

The Lord is his name.

9:7 “You Israelites are just like the Ethiopians in my sight,”24 says the Lord.

“Certainly I brought Israel up from the land of Egypt,

but I also brought the Philistines from Caphtor25 and the Arameans from Kir.26

9:8 Look, the sovereign Lord is watching27 the sinful nation,28

and I will destroy it from the face of the earth.

But I will not completely destroy the family29 of Jacob,” says the Lord.

9:9 “For look, I am giving a command

and I will shake the family of Israel together with all the nations.

It will resemble a sieve being shaken,

when not even a pebble falls to the ground.30

9:10 All the sinners among my people will die by the sword—

the ones who say, ‘Disaster will not come near, it will not confront us.’