Amos
Chapter 1
1 The message of Amos, who was among the shepherds in Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and also in the days of Jeroboam son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. 2 He said,
“Yahweh will roar from Zion;
he will raise his voice from Jerusalem.
The pastures of the shepherds will wither;
the top of Carmel will dry up.”
3 This is what Yahweh says:
“For three sins of Damascus,
even for four,
I will not turn away punishment,
because they threshed Gilead with instruments of iron.
4 I will send a fire into the house of Hazael,
and it will devour the fortresses of Ben Hadad.
5 I will break the gate bars of Damascus
and cut off the one who rules over the Valley of Aven,
and also the one who holds the scepter in Beth Eden.
The people of Aram will go in captivity to Kir,”
says Yahweh.
6 This is what Yahweh says:
“For three sins of Gaza,
even for four,
I will not turn away punishment,
because they carried away captive a whole people,
to hand them over to Edom.
7 I will send fire on the walls of Gaza,
and it will devour her fortresses.
8 I will cut off the one who lives in Ashdod
and the one who holds the scepter from Ashkelon.
I will turn my hand against Ekron,
and the rest of the Philistines will perish,”
says the Lord Yahweh.
9 This is what Yahweh says:
“For three sins of Tyre,
even for four,
I will not turn away punishment,
because they had delivered up a whole people to Edom,
and they did not remember their covenant of brotherhood.
10 I will send fire on the walls of Tyre,
and it will devour her fortresses.”
11 This is what Yahweh says,
“For three sins of Edom,
even for four,
I will not turn away punishment,
because he pursued his brother with the sword
and cast off all pity.
His anger raged continually,
and his wrath lasted forever.
12 I will send fire on Teman,
and it will devour the palaces of Bozrah.”
13 This is what Yahweh says,
“For three sins of the sons of Ammon,
even for four,
I will not turn away punishment,
because they ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead,
that they may enlarge their borders.
14 I will light a fire in the walls of Rabbah,
and it will devour the palaces,
with a shout in the day of battle,
with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind.
15 Their king will go into captivity,
he and his officials together,”
says Yahweh.
Chapter 2
1 This is what Yahweh says:
“For three sins of Moab,
even for four,
I will not turn away punishment,
because he burned the bones
of the king of Edom to lime.
2 I will send fire on Moab,
and it will devour the fortresses of Kerioth.
Moab will die in an uproar,
with shouting and the sound of the horn.
3 I will destroy the judge in her,
and I will kill all the princes with him,”
says Yahweh.
4 This is what Yahweh says:
“For three sins of Judah,
even for four,
I will not turn away punishment,
because they rejected the law of Yahweh
and did not keep his statutes.
Their lies caused them to go astray,
after which their fathers had also walked.
5 I will send fire on Judah,
and it will devour the fortresses of Jerusalem.”
6 This is what Yahweh says:
“For three sins of Israel,
even for four,
I will not turn away punishment,
because they sold the innocent for silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals.
7 They trample the heads of the poor into the dust of the ground;
they thrust aside the way of the oppressed.
A man and his father go in to the same girl
and so profane my holy name.
8 They lie down beside every altar on clothes taken as pledges,
and in the house of their God they drink the wine of those who were fined.
9 Yet I destroyed the Amorites before them,
whose height was like the height of cedars;
he was strong as the oaks.
Yet I destroyed his fruit above
and his roots below.
10 Also, I brought you up out of the land of Egypt
and led you forty years in the wilderness
to possess the land of the Amorites.
11 I raised up prophets from among your sons
and Nazirites from your young men.
Is it not so,
sons of Israel?—
this is Yahweh’s declaration.
12 But you persuaded the Nazirites to drink wine
and commanded the prophets saying, “Do not prophesy!”
13 Behold, I will crush you
as a cart that is full of grain can crush someone.
14 A place of refuge will be lost by the swift;
the strong will not add to his own strength;
neither will the mighty save himself.
15 The one who holds the bow will not stand;
the one who is swift with his feet will not escape;
the one who rides the horse will not escape with his life.
16 Even the bravest warriors
will flee naked in that day—
this is Yahweh’s declaration.”
Chapter 3
1 Hear this word that Yahweh has spoken against you, people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt saying:
2 “I have chosen only you
from all the families of the earth.
Therefore I will punish you
for all your sins.”
3 Will two walk together
unless they have agreed?
4 Will a lion roar in the forest
when he has no victim?
Will a young lion growl from his den
if he has caught nothing?
5 Can a bird fall in a trap on the ground
when no bait is set for him?
Will a trap spring up from the ground
when it has not caught anything?
6 If a trumpet sounds in a city,
will the people not tremble?
If disaster overtakes a city,
has Yahweh not sent it?
7 Surely the Lord Yahweh will not do anything
unless he reveals his plan to his servants the prophets.
8 The lion has roared;
who will not fear?
The Lord Yahweh has spoken;
who will not prophesy?
9 Proclaim this in the fortresses at Ashdod,
and in the fortresses in the land of Egypt;
say, “Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria
and see what great confusion is in her,
and what oppression is in her.
10 For they do not know how to do right—
this is Yahweh’s declaration—
They store up violence
and destruction in their fortresses.”
11 Therefore, this is what the Lord Yahweh says:
“An enemy will surround the land,
and pull down your strongholds
and plunder your fortresses.”
12 This is what Yahweh says:
“As the shepherd rescues out of the mouth of the lion
two legs only, or a piece of an ear;
so will the sons of Israel who live in Samaria be rescued with only the corner of a couch or a piece of a bed.”
13 Hear and testify
against the house of Jacob—
this is the declaration of the Lord Yahweh, the God of hosts:
14 “For on the day that I bring punishment for the sins of Israel on her,
I will also bring punishment on the altars of Bethel.
The horns of the altar will be cut off
and fall to the ground.
15 I will destroy the winter house
with the summer house.
The houses of ivory will perish,
and the large houses will vanish—
this is Yahweh’s declaration.”
Chapter 4
1 Listen to this word,
you cows of Bashan,
you who are in the mountain of Samaria,
you who oppress the poor,
you who crush the needy,
you who say to your husbands,
“Bring us drinks.”
2 The Lord Yahweh has sworn by his holiness saying,
“Behold, the days will come on you
when they will take you away with hooks,
the last of you with fishhooks.
3 You will go out through the breaks in the city wall,
each one going straight through,
and you will be thrown out toward Harmon—
this is Yahweh’s declaration.”
4 “Go to Bethel and sin,
to Gilgal and multiply sin,
bring your sacrifices every morning,
your tithes every three days.
5 Offer a thanksgiving sacrifice with bread;
proclaim freewill offerings; announce them,
for this pleases you,
you sons of Israel—
this is the declaration of the Lord Yahweh.
6 For I also gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities
and lack of bread in all your places.
Yet you have not returned to me—
this is Yahweh’s declaration.
7 I also withheld rain from you
when there were still three months to the harvest.
I caused it to rain on one city,
and caused it not to rain on another city.
One piece of land was rained on,
but the piece of land where he caused it not to rain on it dried up.
8 Two or three cities staggered to another city to drink water,
but were not satisfied.
Yet you have not returned to me—
this is Yahweh’s declaration.
9 I afflicted you with blight and mildew.
The multitude of your gardens,
your vineyards,
your fig trees,
and your olive trees—
the locusts devoured them all.
Yet you have not returned to me—
this is Yahweh’s declaration.
10 I sent a plague on you in the manner of Egypt.
I killed your young men with the sword,
carried away your horses,
and made the stench of your camp come up
to your nostrils.
Yet you have not returned to me—
this is Yahweh’s declaration.
11 I overthrew cities among you,
as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
You were like a burning stick snatched out of the fire.
Yet you have not returned to me—
this is Yahweh’s declaration.
12 Therefore I will do something terrible to you, Israel;
and because I will do something terrible to you,
prepare to meet your God, Israel!
13 For, behold, he who forms the mountains
also creates the wind,
reveals his thoughts to mankind,
makes the morning darkness,
and treads on the high places of the earth.
Yahweh, God of hosts, is his name.”
Chapter 5
1 Hear this word that I take up as a lament over you, house of Israel.
2 The virgin Israel has fallen;
she will rise no more;
she is forsaken on her land;
there is no one to raise her up.
3 For this is what the Lord Yahweh says:
“The city that went out with a thousand will have a hundred left,
and the one that went out with a hundred will have ten left
belonging to the house of Israel.”
4 For this is what Yahweh says to the house of Israel:
“Seek me and live!
5 Do not seek Bethel;
nor enter Gilgal;
do not journey to Beersheba.
For Gilgal will surely go into captivity,
and Bethel will become nothing.
6 Seek Yahweh and live,
or he will break out like fire
in the house of Joseph.
It will devour,
and there will be no one to quench it in Bethel.
7 Those people turn justice into a bitter thing
and throw righteousness down to the ground!”
8 God made the Pleiades and Orion;
he turns darkness into the morning;
he makes the day dark with night
and calls for the waters of the sea;
he pours them out on the surface of the earth.
Yahweh is his name!
9 He causes destruction to fall on the strong,
and destruction comes down on the fortresses.
10 They hate anyone who corrects them in the city gate,
and they abhor anyone who speaks the truth.
11 Therefore, because you trample down the poor
and take portions of wheat from him—
although you have built houses of worked stone,
you will not live in them.
You have delightful vineyards,
but you will not drink their wine.
12 For I know how many are your offenses
and how great are your sins—
you who afflict the just,
take bribes,
and turn aside the needy in the city gate.
13 Therefore any prudent person is silent at such a time,
for it is an evil time.
14 Seek good and not evil,
so that you may live.
So Yahweh, the God of hosts, will really be with you,
as you say he is.
15 Hate evil, love good,
establish justice in the city gate.
Perhaps Yahweh, the God of hosts, will be gracious
to the remnant of Joseph.
16 Therefore, this is what Yahweh says,
the God of hosts, the Lord,
“Wailing will be in all the squares,
and they will say in all the streets,
‘Woe! Woe!’
They will call the farmers to mourning
and the mourners to wail.
17 In all vineyards there will be wailing,
for I will pass through your midst,”
says Yahweh.
18 Woe to you who desire the day of Yahweh!
Why do you long for the day of Yahweh?
It will be darkness and not light,
19 as when a man flees from a lion
and a bear meets him,
or he goes in a house and puts his hand on the wall
and a snake bites him.
20 Will not the day of Yahweh be darkness and not light?
Gloom and no brightness?
21 “I hate, I despise your festivals,
I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
22 Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them,
neither will I look at the fellowship offerings of your fattened animals.
23 Remove from me the noise of your songs;
I will not listen to the sound of your harps.
24 Instead, let justice flow like water,
and righteousness like a constantly flowing stream.
25 Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings
in the wilderness for forty years, house of Israel?
26 You have lifted up the images of Sikkuth, your king,
and Kaiwan, your star god,
which you made for yourselves.
27 Therefore I will exile you beyond Damascus,”
says Yahweh,
whose name is the God of hosts.
Chapter 6
1 Woe to those who are at ease in Zion,
and to those who are secure in the hill country of Samaria,
the notable men of the best of the nations,
to whom the house of Israel comes for help!
2 “Go to Kalneh and look;
from there go to Hamath, the great city;
then go down to Gath of the Philistines.
Are they better than your two kingdoms?
Is their border larger than your border?”
3 Woe to those who put off the day of disaster
and make the throne of violence come near.
4 They lie on beds of ivory
and lounge on their couches.
They eat lambs from the flock
and calves from the stall.
5 They sing foolish songs to the music of the harp;
they improvise on musical instruments as David did.
6 They drink wine from bowls
and anoint themselves with the finest oils,
but they do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph.
7 Therefore, now they will go into exile with the first exiles,
and the feasts of those who lounge about will pass away.
8 “I, the Lord Yahweh, have sworn by myself—
this is the declaration of Yahweh, the God of hosts,
I detest the pride of Jacob;
I hate his fortresses.
Therefore I will deliver up the city with all that is in it.” 9 It will come about that if there are ten men left in one house, they will all die. 10 When a man’s relative comes to take their bodies up—the one who is to cremate them after bringing the corpses out of the house—if he says to the person in the house, “Is there anyone with you?” What if that person says, “No.” Then he will say, “Be quiet, for we must not mention Yahweh’s name.”
11 For, behold, Yahweh will give a command,
and the big house will be smashed to pieces,
and the little house to bits.
12 Do horses run on the rocky cliffs?
Does one plow there with oxen?
Yet you have turned justice into poison
and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness.
13 You who rejoice over Lo Debar,
who say, “Have we not taken Karnaim by our own strength?”
14 Therefore, behold, I will raise up against you a nation,
house of Israel—this is the declaration of Yahweh, the God of hosts.
They will afflict you
from Lebo Hamath to the brook of the Arabah.”
Chapter 7
1 This is what the Lord Yahweh showed me. Behold, he formed a locust swarm when the spring crop began to come up, and, behold, it was the late crop after the king’s harvest. 2 When they finished eating the vegetation of the land, then I said, “Lord Yahweh, please forgive; how will Jacob survive? For he is so small.” 3 Yahweh relented concerning this. “It will not happen,” he said.
4 This is what the Lord Yahweh showed me: Behold, the Lord Yahweh called on fire to judge. It dried the vast, deep water under the earth and would have devoured the land, also. 5 But I said, “Lord Yahweh, please stop; how will Jacob survive? For he is so small.” 6 Yahweh relented concerning this, “This also will not happen,” said the Lord Yahweh.
7 This is what he showed me: Behold, the Lord stood beside a wall with a plumb line, and the plumb line was in his hand. 8 Yahweh said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said, “Behold, I will put a plumb line among my people Israel. Never again will I spare them.
9 The high places of Isaac will be destroyed,
the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined,
and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”
10 Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent a message to Jeroboam, king of Israel, saying: “Amos has conspired against you in the middle of the house of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words. 11 For this is what Amos said,
‘Jeroboam will die by the sword,
and Israel will surely go into exile away from his land.’” 12 Amaziah said to Amos, “Seer, go, run yourself back to the land of Judah, and there eat bread and prophesy. 13 But you must never again prophesy here at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a royal house.”
14 Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, “I am not a prophet nor am I a prophet’s son, for I am a herdsman, and I take care of sycamore fig trees. 15 But Yahweh took me from tending the flock, and Yahweh said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ 16 Now hear the word of Yahweh. You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not speak against the house of Isaac.’ 17 Therefore this is what Yahweh says,
‘Your wife will be a prostitute in the city;
your sons and your daughters will fall by the sword;
your land will be measured and divided up;
you will die in an unclean land,
and Israel will surely go into exile from his land.’”
Chapter 8
1 This is what the Lord Yahweh showed me. Behold, a basket of summer fruit! 2 He said, “What do you see, Amos?” I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then Yahweh said to me,
“The end has come for my people Israel;
I will spare them no longer.
3 The songs of the temple will become wailings in that day—
this is the declaration of the Lord Yahweh—
many dead bodies, they are thrown everywhere!
Silence!”
4 Listen to this, you who trample the needy
and remove the poor of the land. 5 They say,
“When will the new moon be over,
so we can sell grain again?
When will the Sabbath day be over,
so that we can sell wheat?
We will make the measure small
and increase the price,
as we cheat with false scales.
6 This is so we can sell bad wheat, buy the poor with silver,
and the needy for a pair of sandals.” 7 Yahweh has sworn by the pride of Jacob, “Surely I will never forget any of their actions.”
8 Will not the land quake for this,
and every one who lives in it mourn?
All of it will rise up like the Nile River,
and it will be tossed about and settle again,
like the river of Egypt.
9 “It will come in that day—
this is the declaration of the Lord Yahweh—
that I will make the sun set at noon,
and I will darken the earth at daylight.
10 I will turn your festivals into mourning
and all your songs into lamentation.
I will make all of you wear sackcloth
and have baldness on every head.
I will make it like mourning for an only son,
and a bitter day to its end.
11 Behold, the days are coming—
this is the declaration of the Lord Yahweh—
when I will send a famine in the land,
not a famine for bread,
nor of thirst for water,
but for hearing the words of Yahweh.
12 They will stagger from sea to sea;
they will run from the north to the east
to seek the word of Yahweh,
but they will not find it.
13 In that day the beautiful virgins
and the young men will faint from thirst.
14 Those who swear by the sin of Samaria [1]
and say, ‘As your god lives, Dan,’
and, ‘As the way to Beersheba exists’— [2]
they will fall and never rise again.”
Chapter 9
1 I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said, “Strike the tops of the pillars so that the foundations will shake.
Break them in pieces on all of their heads,
and I will kill the last of them with the sword.
Not one of them will get away,
not one of them will escape.
2 Though they dig into Sheol,
there my hand will take them.
Though they climb up to heaven,
there I will bring them down.
3 Though they hide on the top of Carmel,
there I will search and take them.
Though they are hidden from my sight in the bottom of the sea,
there will I give orders to the serpent, and it will bite them.
4 Though they go into captivity, driven by their enemies before them,
there will I give orders to the sword, and it will kill them.
I will keep my eyes on them for harm and not for good.”
5 The Lord Yahweh of hosts
touches the land and it melts;
all who live in it mourn;
all of it will rise up like the River,
and sink again like the river of Egypt.
6 It is he who builds his steps in the heavens,
and has established his vault over the earth.
He calls for the waters of the sea,
and pours them out on the surface of the earth,
Yahweh is his name.
7 “Are you not like the sons of Cush to me,
sons of Israel—
this is Yahweh’s declaration—
did I not bring up Israel out of the land of Egypt,
the Philistines from Crete,
and the Arameans from Kir?
8 Behold, the eyes of the Lord Yahweh are on the sinful kingdom,
and I will destroy it from the face of the earth,
except that I will not totally destroy the house of Jacob—
this is Yahweh’s declaration.
9 For, behold, I will give a command,
and I will shake the house of Israel among all the nations,
as one shakes grain in a sieve,
so that not the smallest stone will fall to the ground.
10 All the sinners of my people will die by the sword,
those who say, ‘Disaster will not overtake or meet us.’
11 In that day I will raise up the tent of David that has fallen,
and close up its breaches.
I will raise up its ruins,
and rebuild it as in the days of old,
12 That they may possess the remnant of Edom,
and all the nations that are called by my name after them—
this is Yahweh’s declaration—he does this.
13 Behold, the days will come—this is Yahweh’s declaration—
when the plowman will overtake the reaper,
and the treader of grapes will overtake him who plants seed.
The mountains will drip sweet wine,
and all the hills will flow with it.
14 I will bring back from captivity my people Israel.
They will build the ruined cities and inhabit them,
they will plant vineyards and drink their wine,
and they will make gardens and eat their fruit.
15 I will plant them upon their land,
and they will never again be uprooted from the land
that I have given them,”
says Yahweh your God.