Amos 8

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 small, and the shekel 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.”

¹ TThese things the Lord shewed to me: and behold a hook to draw down the fruit.

² And he said: What seest thou, Amos? And I said: A hook to draw down fruit. And the Lord said to me: The end is come upon my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more.

³ And the hinges of the temple shall screak in that day, saith the Lord God: many shall die: silence shall be cast in every place.

⁴ Hear this, you that crush the poor, and make the needy of the land to fail,

⁵ Saying: When will the month be over, and we shall sell our wares: and the sabbath, and we shall open the corn: that we may lessen the measure, and increase the sicle, and may convey in deceitful balances,

⁶ That we may possess the needy for money, and the poor for a pair of shoes, and may sell the refuse of the corn?

⁷ The Lord hath sworn against the pride of Jacob: surely I will never forget all their works.

⁸ Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein: and rise up altogether as a river, and be cast out, and run down as the river of Egypt?

⁹ And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that the sun shall go down at midday, and I will make the earth dark in the day of light:

¹⁰ And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation: and I will bring up sackcloth upon every back of yours, and baldness upon every head: and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the latter end thereof as a bitter day.

¹¹ Behold the days come, saith the Lord, and I will send forth a famine into the land: not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, but of hearing the word of the Lord.

¹² And they shall move from sea to sea, and from the north to the east: they shall go about seeking the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.

¹³ In that day the fair virgins, and the young men shall faint for thirst.

¹⁴ They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say: Thy God, O Dan, liveth: and the way of Bersabee liveth: and they shall fall, and shall rise no more.