Judgment on Israel’s
Neighbors
1
*The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of
Teko'a, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzzi'ah king
of Judah and in the days of Jerobo'am the son of Jo'ash, king of
Israel, two years
a before the earthquake.
2And he
said:
“The LORD
roars from Zion,
and utters his voice from Jerusalem;
the pastures of the shepherds mourn,
and the top of Carmel withers.”
“For three transgressions of
Damascus,
and for four, I will not revoke the
punishment;
bbecause they have threshed Gilead
with threshing sledges of iron.
4So I will send a fire upon the house of
Haz'ael,
and it shall devour the strongholds of
Benha'dad.
5I will break the bar of Damascus,
and cut off the inhabitants from the Valley
of A'ven,
cand him that holds the scepter from
Beth-e'den;
and the people of Syria shall go into exile
to Kir,”
says the LORD.
“For three transgressions of
Gaza,
and for four, I will not revoke the
punishment;
bbecause they carried into exile a whole
people
to deliver them up to E'dom.
7So I will send a fire upon the wall of
Gaza,
and it shall devour her strongholds.
8I will cut off the inhabitants from
Ash'dod,
and him that holds the scepter from
Ash'kelon;
I will turn my hand against Ek'ron;
and the remnant of the Philis'tines shall
perish,”
says the Lord GOD.
“For three transgressions of
Tyre,
and for four, I will not revoke the
punishment;
bbecause they delivered up a whole people to
E'dom,
and did not remember the covenant of
brotherhood.
10So I will send a fire upon the wall of
Tyre,
and it shall devour her
strongholds.”
“For three transgressions of
E'dom,
and for four, I will not revoke the
punishment;
bbecause he pursued his brother with the
sword,
and cast off all pity,
and his anger tore perpetually,
and he kept his wrath
d for
ever.12So I will send a fire upon Te'man,
and it shall devour the strongholds of
Bozrah.”
“For three transgressions of the
Am'monites,
and for four, I will not revoke the
punishment;
bbecause they have ripped up women with child
in Gilead,
that they might enlarge their border.
14So I will kindle a fire in the wall of
Rabbah,
and it shall devour her strongholds,
with shouting in the day of battle,
with a tempest in the day of the
whirlwind;
15and their king shall go into exile,
he and his princes together,”
says the LORD.
Judgment on Israel, Judah, and the
Nations
“For three transgressions of
Moab,
and for four, I will not revoke the
punishment;
ebecause he burned to lime
the bones of the king of E'dom.
2So I will send a fire upon Moab,
and it shall devour the strongholds of
Ker'ioth,
and Moab shall die amid uproar,
amid shouting and the sound of the
trumpet;
3I will cut off the ruler from its
midst,
and will slay all its princes with
him,”
says the LORD.
4Thus says the LORD:
“For three transgressions of
Judah,
and for four, I will not revoke the
punishment;
ebecause they have rejected the law of the
LORD,
and have not kept his statutes,
but their lies have led them astray,
after which their fathers walked.
5So I will send a fire upon Judah,
and it shall devour the strongholds of
Jerusalem.”
6Thus says the LORD:
“For three transgressions of
Israel,
and for four, I will not revoke the
punishment;
ebecause they sell the righteous for
silver,
and the needy for a pair of
shoes—
7they that trample the head of the poor into
the dust of the earth,
and turn aside the way of the
afflicted;
a man and his father go in to the same
maiden,
so that my holy name is profaned;
8they lay themselves down beside every
altar
upon garments taken in pledge;
and in the house of their God they
drink
the wine of those who have been fined.
9“Yet I destroyed the Am'orite before
them,
whose height was like the height of the
cedars,
and who was as strong as the oaks;
I destroyed his fruit above,
and his roots beneath.
10Also I brought you up out of the land of
Egypt,
and led you forty years in the
wilderness,
to possess the land of the Am'orite.
11And I raised up some of your sons for
prophets,
and some of your young men for
Naz'irites.
Is it not indeed so, O people of
Israel?”
says the LORD.
12“But you made the Naz'irites drink
wine,
and commanded the prophets,
saying, ‘You shall not
prophesy.’
13“Behold, I will press you down in
your place,
as a cart full of sheaves presses
down.
14Flight shall perish from the swift,
and the strong shall not retain his
strength,
nor shall the mighty save his life;
15he who handles the bow shall not
stand,
and he who is swift of foot shall not save
himself,
nor shall he who rides the horse save his
life;
16and he who is stout of heart among the
mighty
shall flee away naked in that
day,”
says the LORD.
Israel’s Transgression and
Punishment
3
Hear this word that the L
ORD has
spoken against you, O sons of Israel, against the whole family
which I brought up out of the land of Egypt:
2“You only have I known
of all the families of the earth;
therefore I will punish you
for all your iniquities.
3“Do two walk together,
unless they have made an appointment?
4Does a lion roar in the forest,
when he has no prey?
Does a young lion cry out from his
den,
if he has taken nothing?
5Does a bird fall in a snare on the
earth,
when there is no trap for it?
Does a snare spring up from the
ground,
when it has taken nothing?
6Is a trumpet blown in a city,
and the people are not afraid?
Does evil befall a city,
unless the LORD
has done it?
7Surely the Lord GOD does nothing,
without revealing his secret
to his servants the prophets.
who will not fear?
The Lord GOD has spoken;
who can but prophesy?”
9Proclaim to the strongholds in
Assyria,
f
and to the strongholds in the land of
Egypt,
and say, “Assemble yourselves upon the
mountains of Samar'ia,
and see the great tumults within her,
and the oppressions in her
midst.”
10“They do not know how to do
right,” says the LORD,
“those who store up violence and
robbery in their strongholds.”
11Therefore thus says the Lord GOD:
“An adversary shall surround the
land,
and bring down your defenses from you,
and your strongholds shall be
plundered.”
12 Thus says the L
ORD: “As the shepherd rescues from the
mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so shall the
people of Israel who dwell in Samar'ia be rescued, with the corner
of a couch and part
g of a
bed.”
13“Hear, and testify against the house
of Jacob,”
says the Lord GOD, the God of hosts,
14“that on the day I punish Israel for
his transgressions,
I will punish the altars of Bethel,
and the horns of the altar shall be cut
off
and fall to the ground.
15I will strike the winter house with the
summer house;
and the houses of ivory shall perish,
and the great houses
h shall come to
an end,”says the LORD.
Punishments of Israel
4
“Hear this word, you cows of Bashan,
who are in the mountain of Samar'ia,
who oppress the poor, who crush the
needy,
who say to their husbands, ‘Bring,
that we may drink!’
2The Lord GOD has sworn by his holiness
that, behold, the days are coming upon
you,
when they shall take you away with
hooks,
even the last of you with fishhooks.
3And you shall go out through the
breaches,
every one straight before her;
and you shall be cast forth into
Har'mon,”
says the LORD.
4“Come to Bethel, and transgress;
to Gilgal, and multiply transgression;
bring your sacrifices every morning,
your tithes every three days;
5offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that
which is leavened,
and proclaim freewill offerings, publish
them;
for so you love to do, O people of
Israel!”
says the Lord GOD.
6“I gave you cleanness of teeth in all
your cities,
and lack of bread in all your places,
yet you did not return to me,”
says the LORD.
7“And I also withheld the rain from
you
when there were yet three months to the
harvest;
I would send rain upon one city,
and send no rain upon another city;
one field would be rained upon,
and the field on which it did not rain
withered;
8so two or three cities wandered to one
city
to drink water, and were not
satisfied;
yet you did not return to me,”
says the LORD.
9“I struck you with blight and
mildew;
I laid waste
i your gardens
and your vineyards;your fig trees and your olive trees the
locust devoured;
yet you did not return to me,”
says the LORD.
10“I sent among you a pestilence after
the manner of Egypt;
I slew your young men with the sword;
I carried away your horses;
jand I made the stench of your camp go up
into your nostrils;
yet you did not return to me,”
says the LORD.
11“I overthrew some of you,
as when God overthrew Sodom and
Gomor'rah,
and you were as a brand plucked out of the
burning;
yet you did not return to me,”
says the LORD.
12“Therefore thus I will do to you, O
Israel;
because I will do this to you,
prepare to meet your God, O
Israel!”
13For behold, he who forms the mountains, and
creates the wind,
and declares to man what is his
thought;
who makes the morning darkness,
and treads on the heights of the
earth—
the LORD, the
God of hosts, is his name!
A Lamentation for Israel’s
Sins
5
Hear this word which I take up over you in lamentation, O house of
Israel:
2“Fallen, no more to rise,
is the virgin Israel;
forsaken on her land,
with none to raise her up.”
3For thus says the Lord GOD:
“The city that went forth a
thousand
shall have a hundred left,
and that which went forth a hundred
shall have ten left
to the house of Israel.”
4For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel:
“Seek me and live;
5 but do not seek Bethel,
and do not enter into Gilgal
or cross over to Be'er-she'ba;
for Gilgal shall surely go into exile,
and Bethel shall come to
nothing.”
6Seek the LORD and live,
lest he break out like fire in the house of
Joseph,
and it devour, with none to quench it for
Bethel,
7O you who turn justice to wormwood,
and cast down righteousness to the
earth!
8He who made the Pleiades and Orion,
and turns deep darkness into the
morning,
and darkens the day into night,
who calls for the waters of the sea,
and pours them out upon the surface of the
earth,
the LORD is his
name,
9who makes destruction flash forth against
the strong,
so that destruction comes upon the
fortress.
10They hate him who reproves in the
gate,
and they abhor him who speaks the
truth.
11Therefore because you trample upon the
poor
and take from him exactions of wheat,
you have built houses of hewn stone,
but you shall not dwell in them;
you have planted pleasant vineyards,
but you shall not drink their wine.
12For I know how many are your
transgressions,
and how great are your sins—
you who afflict the righteous, who take a
bribe,
and turn aside the needy in the gate.
13Therefore he who is prudent will keep
silent in such a time;
for it is an evil time.
14Seek good, and not evil,
that you may live;
and so the LORD, the God of hosts, will be with you,
as you have said.
15Hate evil, and love good,
and establish justice in the gate;
it may be that the LORD, the God of hosts,
will be gracious to the remnant of
Joseph.
16Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord:
“In all the squares there shall be
wailing;
and in all the streets they shall say,
‘Alas! alas!’
They shall call the farmers to
mourning
and to wailing those who are skilled in
lamentation,
17and in all vineyards there shall be
wailing,
for I will pass through the midst of
you,”
says the LORD.
18Woe to you who desire the day of the
LORD!
Why would you have the day of the
LORD?
It is darkness, and not light;
19 as if a man fled from a lion,
and a bear met him;
or went into the house and leaned with his
hand against the wall,
and a serpent bit him.
20Is not the day of the LORD darkness, and not light,
and gloom with no brightness in it?
21“I hate, I despise your feasts,
and I take no delight in your solemn
assemblies.
22Even though you offer me your burnt
offerings and cereal offerings,
I will not accept them,
and the peace offerings of your fatted
beasts
I will not look upon.
23Take away from me the noise of your
songs;
to the melody of your harps I will not
listen.
24But let justice roll down like
waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing
stream.
25 “Did you bring to me
sacrifices and offerings the forty years in the wilderness, O house
of Israel?
26You
shall take up Sakkuth your king, and Kai'wan your star-god, your
images,
k which
you made for yourselves; 27therefore I will take you into exile beyond
Damascus,” says the L
ORD,
whose name is the God of hosts.
Punishment of Complacency and
Pride
6
“Woe to those who are at ease in Zion,
and to those who feel secure on the mountain
of Samar'ia,
the notable men of the first of the
nations,
to whom the house of Israel come!
2Pass over to Cal'neh, and see;
and from there go to Ha'math the
great;
then go down to Gath of the
Philis'tines.
Are they better than these kingdoms?
Or is their territory greater than your
territory,
3O you who put far away the evil day,
and bring near the seat of violence?
4“Woe to those who lie upon beds of
ivory,
and stretch themselves upon their
couches,
and eat lambs from the flock,
and calves from the midst of the
stall;
5who sing idle songs to the sound of the
harp,
and like David invent for themselves
instruments of music;
6who drink wine in bowls,
and anoint themselves with the finest
oils,
but are not grieved over the ruin of
Joseph!
7Therefore they shall now be the first of
those to go into exile,
and the revelry of those who stretch
themselves shall pass away.”
8The Lord GOD has sworn by himself
(says the LORD,
the God of hosts):
“I abhor the pride of Jacob,
and hate his strongholds;
and I will deliver up the city and all that
is in it.”
Oppression and Devastation to
Come
9 And if ten men remain in one house, they
shall die.
10And
when a man’s kinsman, he who burns him,
l shall take
him up to bring the bones out of the house, and shall say to him
who is in the innermost parts of the house, “Is there still
any one with you?” he shall say, “No”; and he
shall say, “Hush! We must not mention the name of the
LORD.”
11For behold, the LORD commands,
and the great house shall be struck down
into fragments,
and the little house into bits.
12Do horses run upon rocks?
Does one plow the sea with oxen?
But you have turned justice into
poison
and the fruit of righteousness into
wormwood—
13you who rejoice in Lo-de'bar,
n
who say, “Have we not by our own
strength
taken Karna'im
o for
ourselves?”14“For behold, I will raise up against
you a nation,
O house of Israel,” says the
LORD, the God of hosts;
“and they shall oppress you from the
entrance of Ha'math
to the Brook of the Ar'abah.”
Locusts and Fire
7
Thus the Lord GOD showed me: behold, he was forming locusts in the
beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and behold, it
was the latter growth after the king’s mowings.
2When they had
finished eating the grass of the land, I said,
“O Lord GOD, forgive, I beg you!
How can Jacob stand?
He is so small!”
3The LORD
repented concerning this;
“It shall not be,” said the
LORD.
4 Thus the Lord GOD showed
me: behold, the Lord GOD was calling for a judgment by fire, and it
devoured the great deep and was eating up the land. 5Then I said,
“O Lord GOD, cease, I beg you!
How can Jacob stand?
He is so small!”
6The LORD
repented concerning this;
“This also shall not be,” said
the Lord GOD.
The Plumb Line
7 He showed me: behold, the Lord was
standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line
in his hand. 8And the LORD
said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said,
“A plumb line.” Then the Lord said,
“Behold, I am setting a plumb
line
in the midst of my people Israel;
I will never again pass by them;
9the high places of Isaac shall be made
desolate,
and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid
waste,
and I will rise against the house of
Jerobo'am with the sword.”
Amaziah’s Complaint
10 Then Amazi'ah the priest of Bethel sent
to Jerobo'am king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired
against you in the midst of the house of Israel; the land is not
able to bear all his words. 11For thus Amos has said,
‘Jerobo'am shall die by the
sword,
and Israel must go into exile away from his
land.’”
12And Amazi'ah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away
to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there;
13but never
again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and
it is a temple of the kingdom.”
Amos’ Reply
14 Then Amos answered Amazi'ah, “I am
no prophet, nor a prophet’s son;
p but I am a
herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, 15and the
L
ORD took me from following the flock,
and the L
ORD said to me, ‘Go,
prophesy to my people Israel.’
16“Now therefore hear the word of the
LORD.
You say, ‘Do not prophesy against
Israel,
and do not preach against the house of
Isaac.’
17Therefore thus says the LORD:
‘Your wife shall be a harlot in the
city,
and your sons and your daughters shall fall
by the sword,
and your land shall be parceled out by
line;
you yourself shall die in an unclean
land,
and Israel shall surely go into exile away
from its land.’”
The Basket of Summer Fruit
8 Thus
the Lord GOD showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit.
q 2And he said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I
said, “A basket of summer fruit.”q Then the L
ORD said to me,
“The end
r has come upon
my people Israel;I will never again pass by them.
3The songs of the temple
s shall become
wailings in that day,”
says the Lord GOD;
“the dead bodies shall be many;
in every place they shall be cast out in
silence.”
t4Hear this, you who trample upon the
needy,
and bring the poor of the land to an
end,
5saying, “When will the new moon be
over,
that we may sell grain?
And the sabbath,
that we may offer wheat for sale,
that we may make the ephah small and the
shekel great,
and deal deceitfully with false
balances,
6that we may buy the poor for silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals,
and sell the refuse of the
wheat?”
7The LORD
has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
“Surely I will never forget any of
their deeds.
8Shall not the land tremble on this
account,
and every one mourn who dwells in it,
and all of it rise like the Nile,
and be tossed about and sink again, like the
Nile of Egypt?”
9“And on that day,” says the Lord
GOD,
“I will make the sun go down at
noon,
and darken the earth in broad
daylight.
10I will turn your feasts into
mourning,
and all your songs into lamentation;
I will bring sackcloth upon all loins,
and baldness on every head;
I will make it like the mourning for an only
son,
and the end of it like a bitter day.
11“Behold, the days are coming,”
says the Lord GOD,
“when I will send a famine on the
land;
not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for
water,
but of hearing the words of the
LORD.
12They shall wander from sea to sea,
and from north to east;
they shall run back and forth, to seek the
word of the LORD,
but they shall not find it.
13“In that day the fair virgins and the
young men
shall faint for thirst.
14Those who swear by Ash'imah of
Samar'ia,
and say, ‘As your god lives, O
Dan,’
and, ‘As the way of Be'er-she'ba
lives,’
they shall fall, and never rise
again.”
Destruction, Captivity, and
Restoration
9 I saw
the L
ORD standing beside
u the altar, and he said:
“Strike the capitals until the
thresholds shake,
and shatter them on the heads of all the
people;
vand what are left of them I will slay with
the sword;
not one of them shall flee away,
not one of them shall escape.
2“Though they dig into Sheol,
from there shall my hand take them;
though they climb up to heaven,
from there I will bring them down.
3Though they hide themselves on the top of
Carmel,
from there I will search out and take
them;
and though they hide from my sight at the
bottom of the sea,
there I will command the serpent, and it
shall bite them.
4And though they go into captivity before
their enemies,
there I will command the sword, and it shall
slay them;
and I will set my eyes upon them for evil
and not for good.”
5The Lord, GOD of hosts,
he who touches the earth and it melts,
and all who dwell in it mourn,
and all of it rises like the Nile,
and sinks again, like the Nile of
Egypt;
6who builds his upper chambers in the
heavens,
and founds his vault upon the earth;
who calls for the waters of the sea,
and pours them out upon the surface of the
earth—
the LORD is his
name.
7“Are you not like the Ethiopians to
me,
O people of Israel?” says the
LORD.
“Did I not bring up Israel from the
land of Egypt,
and the Philis'tines from Caphtor and the
Syrians from Kir?
8Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are upon
the sinful kingdom,
and I will destroy it from the surface of
the ground;
except that I will not utterly destroy the
house of Jacob,”
says the LORD.
9“For behold, I will command,
and shake the house of Israel among all the
nations
as one shakes with a sieve,
but no pebble shall fall upon the
earth.
10All the sinners of my people shall die by
the sword,
who say, ‘Evil shall not overtake or
meet us.’
11“In that day I will raise up
the booth of David that is fallen
and repair its breaches,
and raise up its ruins,
and rebuild it as in the days of old;
12that they may possess the remnant of
E'dom
and all the nations who are called by my
name,”
says the LORD
who does this.
13“Behold, the days are coming,”
says the L
ORD,
“when the plowman shall overtake the
reaper
and the treader of grapes him who sows the
seed;
the mountains shall drip sweet wine,
and all the hills shall flow with it.
14I will restore the fortunes of my people
Israel,
and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and
inhabit them;
they shall plant vineyards and drink their
wine,
and they shall make gardens and eat their
fruit.
15I will plant them upon their land,
and they shall never again be plucked
up
out of the land which I have given
them,”
says the LORD
your God.