5

1Listen to this word which I take up for a lamentation over you, O house of Israel:

2“The virgin of Israel has fallen;

She shall rise no more.

She is cast down on her land;

there is no one to raise her up.”

3For the Lord Yahweh says:

“The city that went out a thousand shall have a hundred left,

and that which went out one hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel.”

4For Yahweh says to the house of Israel:

“Seek me, and you will live;

5but don’t seek Bethel,

nor enter into Gilgal,

and don’t pass to Beersheba;

for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity,

and Bethel shall come to nothing.

6Seek Yahweh, and you will live,

lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph,

and it devour, and there be no one to quench it in Bethel.

7You who turn justice to wormwood,

and cast down righteousness to the earth!

8Seek him who made the Pleiades and Orion,

and turns the shadow of death into the morning,

and makes the day dark with night;

who calls for the waters of the sea,

and pours them out on the surface of the earth, Yahweh is his name,

9who brings sudden destruction on the strong,

so that destruction comes on the fortress.

10They hate him who reproves in the gate,

and they abhor him who speaks blamelessly.

11Therefore, because you trample on the poor and take taxes from him of wheat,

you have built houses of cut stone, but you will not dwell in them.

You have planted pleasant vineyards,

but you shall not drink their wine.

12For I know how many are your offenses,

and how great are your sins—

you who afflict the just,

who take a bribe,

and who turn away the needy in the courts.

13Therefore a prudent person keeps silent in such a time,

for it is an evil time.

14Seek good, and not evil,

that you may live;

and so Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be with you,

as you say.

15Hate evil, love good,

and establish justice in the courts.

It may be that Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”

16Therefore Yahweh, the God of Armies, the Lord, says:

“Wailing will be in all the wide ways.

They will say in all the streets, ‘Alas! Alas!’

They will call the farmer to mourning,

and those who are skillful in lamentation to wailing.

17In all vineyards there will be wailing,

for I will pass through the middle of you,” says Yahweh.

18“Woe to you who desire the day of Yahweh!

Why do you long for the day of Yahweh?

It is darkness,

and not light.

19As if a man fled from a lion,

and a bear met him;

or he went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall,

and a snake bit him.

20Won’t the day of Yahweh be darkness, and not light?

Even very dark, and no brightness in it?

21I hate, I despise your feasts,

and I can’t stand your solemn assemblies.

22Yes, though you offer me your burnt offerings and meal offerings,

I will not accept them;

neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat animals.

23Take away from me the noise of your songs!

I will not listen to the music of your harps.

24But let justice roll on like rivers,

and righteousness like a mighty stream.

25“Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, house of Israel? 26You also carried the tent of your king and the shrine of your images, the star of your god, which you made for yourselves. 27Therefore I will cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus,” says Yahweh, whose name is the God of Armies.

6

1Woe to those who are at ease in Zion,

and to those who are secure on the mountain of Samaria,

the notable men of the chief of the nations,

to whom the house of Israel come!

2Go to Calneh, and see.

From there go to Hamath the great.

Then go down to Gath of the Philistines.

Are they better than these kingdoms?

Is their border greater than your border?

3Alas for you who put far away the evil day,

and cause the seat of violence to come near,

4who lie on beds of ivory,

and stretch themselves on their couches,

and eat the lambs out of the flock,

and the calves out of the middle of the stall,

5who strum on the strings of a harp,

who invent for themselves instruments of music, like David;

6who drink wine in bowls,

and anoint themselves with the best oils,

but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.

7Therefore they will now go captive with the first who go captive.

The feasting and lounging will end.

8“The Lord Yahweh has sworn by himself,” says Yahweh, the God of Armies:

“I abhor the pride of Jacob,

and detest his fortresses.

Therefore I will deliver up the city with all that is in it.

9It will happen that if ten men remain in one house,

they will die.

10“When a man’s relative carries him, even he who burns him, to bring bodies out of the house, and asks him who is in the innermost parts of the house, ‘Is there yet any with you?’ And he says, ‘No;’ then he will say, ‘Hush! Indeed we must not mention Yahweh’s name.’

11“For, behold, Yahweh commands, and the great house will be smashed to pieces,

and the little house into bits.

12Do horses run on the rocky crags?

Does one plow there with oxen?

But you have turned justice into poison,

and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness,

13you who rejoice in a thing of nothing, who say,

‘Haven’t we taken for ourselves horns by our own strength?’

14For, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, house of Israel,”

says Yahweh, the God of Armies;

“and they will afflict you from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of the Arabah.”

7

1Thus the Lord Yahweh showed me: behold, he formed locusts in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and behold, it was the latter growth after the king’s harvest. 2When they finished eating the grass of the land, then I said, “Lord Yahweh, forgive, I beg you! How could Jacob stand? For he is small.”

3Yahweh relented concerning this. “It shall not be,” says Yahweh.

4Thus the Lord Yahweh showed me: behold, the Lord Yahweh called for judgment by fire; and it dried up the great deep, and would have devoured the land. 5Then I said, “Lord Yahweh, stop, I beg you! How could Jacob stand? For he is small.”

6Yahweh relented concerning this. “This also shall not be,” says the Lord Yahweh.

7Thus he showed me: behold, the Lord stood beside a wall made by a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. 8Yahweh said to me, “Amos, what do you see?”

I said, “A plumb line.”

Then the Lord said, “Behold, I will set a plumb line in the middle of my people Israel. I will not again pass by them any more. 9The high places of Isaac will be desolate, the sanctuaries of Israel will be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”

10Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the middle of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. 11For Amos says, ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of his land.’”

12Amaziah also said to Amos, “You seer, go, flee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there, 13but don’t prophesy again any more at Bethel; for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a royal house!”

14Then Amos answered Amaziah, “I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son, but I was a herdsman, and a farmer of sycamore figs; 15and Yahweh took me from following the flock, and Yahweh said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ 16Now therefore listen to Yahweh’s word: ‘You say, Don’t prophesy against Israel, and don’t preach against the house of Isaac.’ 17Therefore Yahweh says: ‘Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided by line; and you yourself shall die in a land that is unclean, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of his land.’”

8

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

2He said, “Amos, what do you see?”

I said, “A basket of summer fruit.”

Then Yahweh said to me,

“The end has come on my people Israel.

I will not again pass by them any more.

3The songs of the temple will be wailing in that day,” says the Lord Yahweh.

“The dead bodies will be many. In every place they will throw them out with silence.

4Hear this, you who desire to swallow up the needy,

and cause the poor of the land to fail,

5saying, ‘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;

6that we may buy the poor for silver,

and the needy for a pair of sandals,

and sell the sweepings with the wheat?’”

7Yahweh has sworn by the pride of Jacob,

“Surely I will never forget any of their works.

8Won’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.

9It will happen in that day,” says the Lord Yahweh,

“that I will cause the sun to go down at noon,

and I will darken the earth in the clear day.

10I 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.

11Behold, the days come,” says the Lord Yahweh,

“that I will send a famine in the land,

not a famine of bread,

nor a thirst for water,

but of hearing Yahweh’s words.

12They will wander from sea to sea,

and from the north even to the east;

they will run back and forth to seek Yahweh’s word,

and will not find it.

13In that day the beautiful virgins

and the young men will faint for thirst.

14Those 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.”

9

1I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said, “Strike the tops of the pillars, that the thresholds may shake. Break them in pieces on the head of all of them. I will kill the last of them with the sword. Not one of them will flee away. Not one of them will escape. 2Though they dig into Sheol, there my hand will take them; and though they climb up to heaven, there I will bring them down. 3Though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out from there; and though they be hidden from my sight in the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent, and it will bite them. 4Though they go into captivity before their enemies, there I will command the sword, and it will kill them. I will set my eyes on them for evil, and not for good. 5For the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, is he who touches the land and it melts, and all who dwell in it will mourn; and it will rise up wholly like the River, and will sink again, like the River of Egypt. 6It is he who builds his rooms in the heavens, and has founded his vault on the earth; he who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the surface of the earth—Yahweh is his name. 7Are you not like the children of the Ethiopians to me, children of Israel?” says Yahweh. “Haven’t I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir? 8Behold, the eyes of the Lord Yahweh are on the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the surface of the earth, except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,” says Yahweh. 9“For behold, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all the nations as grain is sifted in a sieve, yet not the least kernel will fall on the earth. 10All the sinners of my people will die by the sword, who say, ‘Evil won’t overtake nor meet us.’ 11In that day I will raise up the tent of David who is fallen and close up its breaches, and I will raise up its ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old, 12that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name,” says Yahweh who does this.

13“Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh,

“that the plowman shall overtake the reaper,

and the one treading grapes him who sows seed;

and sweet wine will drip from the mountains,

and flow from the hills.

14I will bring my people Israel back from captivity,

and they will rebuild the ruined cities, and inhabit them;

and they will plant vineyards, and drink wine from them.

They shall also make gardens,

and eat their fruit.

15I will plant them on their land,

and they will no more be plucked up out of their land which I have given them,”

says Yahweh your God.