Amos 8

1 And behold a fowler's basket.

This is what the Lord GOD showed me: I saw a basket of summer fruit.

2 And he said, What see you, Amos? And I said, A fowler's basket. And the Lord said to me, The end is come upon my people Israel; I will not pass by them any more.

“Amos, what do you see?” He asked. “A basket of summer fruit,” I replied. So the LORD said to me, “The end has come for My people Israel; I will no longer spare them.”

3 And the ceilings of the temple shall howl in that day, says the Lord God: [there shall be] many a fallen one in every place; I will bring silence upon [them].

“In that day,” declares the Lord GOD, “the songs of the temple will turn to wailing. Many will be the corpses, strewn in silence everywhere!”

4 Hear now this, you that oppress the poor in the morning, and drive the needy ones by tyranny from the earth,

Hear this, you who trample the needy, who do away with the poor of the land,

5 saying, When will the month pass away, and we shall sell, and the sabbath, and we shall open the treasure, to make the measure small, and to enlarge the weight, and make the balance unfair?

asking, “When will the New Moon be over, that we may sell grain? When will the Sabbath end, that we may market wheat? Let us reduce the ephah and increase the shekel; let us cheat with dishonest scales.

6 That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for shoes; and we will trade in every kind of fruit.

Let us buy the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the chaff with the wheat!”

7 The Lord swears against the pride of Jacob, None of your works shall ever be forgotten.

The LORD has sworn by the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget any of their deeds.

8 And shall not the land be troubled for these things, and shall not every one who dwells in it mourn? whereas destruction shall come up as a river, and shall descend as the river of Egypt.

Will not the land quake for this, and all its dwellers mourn? All of it will swell like the Nile; it will surge and then subside like the Nile in Egypt.

9 And it shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord God, [that] the sun shall go down at noon, and the light shall be darkened on the earth by day:

And in that day, declares the Lord GOD, I will make the sun go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the daytime.

10 and I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth on all loins, and baldness on every head; and I will make them as the mourning of a beloved [friend], and those with them as a day of grief.

I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation. I will cause everyone to wear sackcloth and every head to be shaved. I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son, and its outcome like a bitter day.

11 Behold, the days come, says the Lord, that I will send forth a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord.

Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord GOD, when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.

12 And the waters shall be troubled from sea to sea, and from the north to the east shall [men] run hither and there, seeking the word of the Lord, and they shall not find [it].

People will stagger from sea to sea and roam from north to east, seeking the word of the LORD, but they will not find it.

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

In that day the lovely young women— the young men as well— will faint from thirst.

14 they who swear by the propitiation of Samaria, and who say, Your god, O Dan, lives; and, Your god, O Bersabee, lives; and they shall fall, and shall no more rise again.

Those who swear by the guilt of Samaria and say, ‘As surely as your god lives, O Dan,’ or, ‘As surely as the way of Beersheba lives’— they will fall, never to rise again.”