Amos 8

1 Thus hath the Lord Jehovah shewed me, and, lo, a basket of summer-fruit.

This is what the Lord God showed me. I saw a basket of fruit.

2 And He saith, 'What art thou seeing, Amos?' and I say, 'A basket of summer-fruit.' And Jehovah saith unto me: 'The end hath come unto My people Israel, I do not add any more to pass over to it.

He asked me, “What do you see, Amos?” I said, “A basket of fruit.” Then the Lord told me, “This is the end of my people Israel! I won't ignore their sins anymore.

3 And howled have songstresses of a palace in that day, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah, Many [are] the carcases, into any place throw — hush!

On that day the Temple songs will become sorrowful wailing. There will be dead bodies scattered everywhere. Silence!” declares the Lord.

4 Hear this, ye who are swallowing up the needy, To cause to cease the poor of the land,

Listen to this, you who trample down the needy, and wipe out the poor of the land.

5 Saying, When doth the new moon pass, And we sell ground corn? And the sabbath, and we open out pure corn? To make little the ephah, And to make great the shekel, And to use perversely balances of deceit.

You who ask, “When will the holy day be over so we can get back to selling grain? When will the Sabbath be over so we can open our storehouses, and cheat people with short measures and unfair scales?”

6 To purchase with money the poor, And the needy for a pair of sandals, Yea, the refuse of the pure corn we sell.

You buy the poor for silver, the needy for a pair of sandals, and you sell grain mixed with chaff.

7 Sworn hath Jehovah by the excellency of Jacob: 'I forget not for ever any of their works.

The Lord God, of whom the descendants of Jacob are so proud, has sworn an oath: I will never forget the evil you have done.

8 For this doth not the land tremble, And mourned hath every dweller in it? And come up as a flood hath all of it. And it hath been cast out, and hath sunk, Like the flood of Egypt.

Shall not the land tremble because of this, and everyone who lives there mourn? The earth will rise up like the Nile river in flood, be tossed around, and then fall again.

9 And it hath come to pass in that day, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah, I have caused the sun to go in at noon, And caused darkness on the land in a day of light,

On that day, declares the Lord God, I will make the sun go down at noon, and darken the land during the daytime.

10 And have turned your festivals to mourning, And all your songs to lamentation, And caused sackcloth to come up on all loins, And on every head — baldness, And made it as a mourning [of] an only one, And its latter end as a day of bitterness.

I will turn your festivals into times of mourning, your happy songs into laments. I will make you wear sackcloth and shave your heads. I will make your mourning like that for an only son. At the end of it all it will be a bitter day.

11 Lo, days are coming, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah, And I have sent a famine into the land, Not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water But of hearing the words of Jehovah.

The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will send a famine on the land—not a famine of bread, or a lack of water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.

12 And they have wandered from sea unto sea, And from north even unto east, They go to and fro to seek the word of Jehovah, And they do not find.

People will wander from sea to sea, from north to east, running to and fro searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it.

13 In that day faint do the fair virgins, And the young men, with thirst.

On that day, even the beautiful girls and healthy young men will collapse from thirst.

14 Those swearing by the guilt of Samaria, And have said, Live doth thy god, O Dan, And, Live doth the way of Beer-Sheba, And they have fallen — and rise not again!'

Those who swear by the disgraceful idols of Samaria, who take oaths like, “By the life of your god, Dan,” or “A pilgrimage to the god of Beersheba”—they will fall, and never rise again.