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The Prophet Amos

⭑ Berean Study Bible :: World English Bible Catholic ⭑

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- Chapter 8 -

1
This is what the Lord GOD showed me: I saw a basket of summer fruit.(a)
2
“Amos, what do you see?” He asked. “A basket of summer fruit,” I replied. So the LORD said to me, “The end has come for My people Israel; I will no longer spare them.”
3
“In that day,” declares the Lord GOD, “the songs (b) of the temple (c) will turn to wailing. Many will be the corpses, strewn in silence everywhere!”
4
Hear this, you who trample the needy, who do away with the poor of the land,
5
asking, “When will the New Moon be over, that we may sell grain? When will the Sabbath end, that we may market wheat? Let us reduce the ephah and increase the shekel;(d) let us cheat with dishonest scales.
6
Let us buy the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the chaff with the wheat!”
7
The LORD has sworn by the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget any of their deeds.
8
Will not the land quake for this, and all its dwellers mourn? All of it will swell like the Nile; it will surge and then subside like the Nile in Egypt.
9
And in that day, declares the Lord GOD, I will make the sun go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the daytime.
10
I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation. I will cause everyone to wear sackcloth and every head to be shaved. I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son, and its outcome like a bitter day.
11
Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord GOD, when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.
12
People will stagger from sea to sea and roam from north to east, seeking the word of the LORD, but they will not find it.
13
In that day the lovely young women— the young men as well— will faint from thirst.
14
Those who swear by the guilt of Samaria and say, ‘As surely as your god lives, O Dan,’ or, ‘As surely as the way (e) of Beersheba lives’— they will fall, never to rise again.”

Footnotes

(a)8:1 Or ripe fruit; also in verse 2
(b)8:3 Or the singing women
(c)8:3 Or palace
(d)8:5 Or Let us reduce the measure and increase the price
(e)8:14 Or the god
1
Thus the Lord GOD showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit.
2
He said, “Amos, what do you see?” I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the LORD said to me, “The end has come on my people Israel. I will not again pass by them any more.
3
The songs of the temple will be wailing in that day,” says the Lord GOD. “The dead bodies will be many. In every place they will throw them out with silence.
4
Hear this, you who desire to swallow up the needy, and cause the poor of the land to fail,
5
saying, ‘When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may market wheat, making the ephah(a) small, and the shekel (b) large, and dealing falsely with balances of deceit;
6
that we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals, and sell the sweepings with the wheat?’”
7
The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob, “Surely I will never forget any of their works.
8
Won’t the land tremble for this, and everyone mourn who dwells in it? Yes, it will rise up wholly like the River; and it will be stirred up and sink again, like the River of Egypt.
9
It will happen in that day,” says the Lord GOD, “that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day.
10
I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will make you wear sackcloth on all your bodies, and baldness on every head. I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and its end like a bitter day.
11
Behold, the days come,” says the Lord GOD, “that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the LORD’s words.
12
They will wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they will run back and forth to seek the LORD’s word, and will not find it.
13
In that day the beautiful virgins and the young men will faint for thirst.
14
Those who swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, ‘As your god, Dan, lives,’ and, ‘As the way of Beersheba lives,’ they will fall, and never rise up again.”

Footnotes

(a)8:5 1 ephah is about 22 liters or about 2/3 of a bushel
(b)8:5 a normal shekel is about 10 grams or about 0.35 ounces.
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