Amos 8

1 Thus the Lord GOD showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit.

The Lord God showed me this: 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.

‘What do you see, Amos?’ he asked. I replied, ‘A basket of ripe summer fruit.’ Then the Lord said to me: The time is ripe for my people Israel, I will no longer overlook their crimes.

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.

The singing women in the palace will howl on that day, says the Lord: Corpses everywhere, thrown out in silence.

4 Hear this, you who desire to swallow up the needy, and cause the poor of the land to fail,

Listen to this, you who trample on the needy, who oppress the poor of the earth,

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;

saying: When will the feast of the new moon be over so that we may sell grain? And the sabbath ended so that we may offer wheat for sale? Reducing the measure and increasing the price, cheating with false scales,

6 that we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals, and sell the sweepings with the wheat?’”

mixing the sweepings in with the wheat. Then we can buy the poor for money, the needy for a pair of shoes.

7 The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob, “Surely I will never forget any of their works.

Now the Lord has taken an oath by the Pride of Jacob: I will never forget all their deeds!

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.

Because of this won’t the land quake, and all its inhabitants mourn? Won’t the whole of it rise like the Nile, churn and subside like the Nile in 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.

On that day, says the Lord God, I will make the sun set at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight.

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.

I will turn your feasts into mourning, all your songs into dirges. I will cause you to dress in sackcloth, every head shaved. I will make you mourn like you have lost your only son, all that happens will end in bitterness.

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.

The day is coming, says the Lord God, when I will send hunger in the land. Not a famine of bread or thirst for water, but for hearing the message of the Lord.

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.

Then they will wander from sea to sea, from the north to the east, to seek a message from the Lord, but they will not find it.

13 In that day the beautiful virgins and the young men will faint for thirst.

In that day beautiful girls and strong young men will faint from 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.”

Those who take oaths by the shameful idol of Samaria, who swear, “As surely as your God lives, O Dan!” and, “By the sacred way to Beer-sheba!” – they will fall and never rise again.