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A Basket of Summer Fruit

This is what my Lord Adonai has shown me: See, there was a basket of summer fruit. He said: “Amos, what do you see?”

“A basket of summer fruit,” I said.
Then Adonai said to me:
“The end has come to My people Israel.
I will not again pass over them.
The songs of the palace will become howls in that day.”
It is a declaration of my Lord Adonai.
“So many corpses flung everywhere! Hush!
Hear this, you who trample the poor,
destroying the afflicted of the land
saying: ‘When will the New Moon be over,
so we may sell grain?
Or Shabbat, so we may open the wheat market?
—Let’s reduce the ephah measure
    and increase the shekel,
    cheat with deceitful balances,
buy the poor for silver,
    the needy for a pair of sandals!
We’ll even sell the refuse of the grain!’”
Adonai swore by the Pride of Jacob:
“Never will I forget all their deeds!
Will not the land tremble over this?
Will not all who dwell in it mourn?
Yes, it will rise up like all the Nile
—it will surge and sink again like the Nile of Egypt.”
“It will be in that day”
—declares my Lord Adonai
“I will make the sun go down at noon,
yes, I will darken the earth in daylight.
10 I will turn your festivals into mourning
    and all your songs into a dirge.[a]
I will pull up sackcloth on every waist
    and baldness on every head.
I will make it like the mourning for an only son—
    its end a bitter day.”[b]
11 “Behold, days are coming”
—declares my Lord Adonai
“when I will send a famine on the land
—not a famine of bread
    nor a thirst for water,
    but of hearing the words of Adonai.[c]
12 So people will wander from sea to sea
and roam from north to east,
searching for the word of Adonai,
but they will not find it.
13 In that day, the fair virgins and the virile young men
will faint from thirst.
14 Those swearing by Samaria’s guilt will say,
‘As your gods live, Dan!’
or ‘As the way of Beersheba lives!’
But they will fall,
never to rise again.”

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.[a](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)
10 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(AA)
    and the end of it like a bitter day.(AB)

11 “The days are coming,”(AC) 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(AD) of hearing the words of the Lord.(AE)
12 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.(AF)

13 “In that day

“the lovely young women and strong young men(AG)
    will faint because of thirst.(AH)
14 Those who swear by the sin of Samaria(AI)
    who say, ‘As surely as your god lives, Dan,’(AJ)
    or, ‘As surely as the god[b] of Beersheba(AK) lives’—
    they will fall,(AL) never to rise again.(AM)

Footnotes

  1. Amos 8:3 Or “the temple singers will wail
  2. Amos 8:14 Hebrew the way