AmosChapter 8
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1This is what the Lord GOD showed me. I saw a basket of summer fruit. 2He asked, "Amos, what do you see?" "A basket of summer fruit," I answered. Then the LORD said to me, "The end has come for my people Israel. I will not spare them any longer."a 3"On that day," declares the Lord GOD,
"the songs in the temple will turn to crying.
There will be many dead bodies.
They will be thrown out everywhere in silence!" 4Listen to this, you who stomp on the needy.
You try to get rid of the poor people of the land. 5You ask, "When will the New Moon festival be over
so we can sell grain?
When will the Sabbath end
so we can sell wheat?
Let's make the measuring basket smaller
and raise the price.
Let's cheat with scales that are not honest."b 6"Let's buy the poor with silver.
Let's buy the needy for a pair of sandals.
Let's even sell the husks along with the wheat!" 7The LORD has made a promise by the Pride of Jacob:
"I will never forget anything they have done. 8Won't the land shake because of this?
Won't everyone who lives in it mourn?
The whole land will rise like the Nile River.
It will be tossed up and then sink down
like the Nile in Egypt. 9On that day," declares the Lord GOD,
"I will make the sun go down at noon.
I will make the earth dark in the middle of the day. 10I will turn your feasts into times of sadness.
I will turn all your songs into crying.
I will make all of you wear sackcloth.
I will make you shave your heads.
I will make it like the sadness for an only son who has died.
The end of it will be like a bitter day. 11Look! The days are coming," declares the Lord GOD,
"when I will send a famine on the land.
It will not be a hunger for bread
or a thirst for water.
It will be a hunger for hearing the words of the LORD. 12People will wander weakly from sea to sea.
They will roam from the north to the east.
They will search for the word of the LORD,
but they will not find it. 13On that day the lovely young women
and the young men too
will faint from thirst. 14Some people make promises by the guilt of Samaria.
They say, 'As surely as your god lives, Dan,'
or, 'As surely as the way to Beersheba lives.'
They will fall and never get up again."c