Amos 8

The Vision of the Ripe Fruit

8 <1> This is what the Lord showed me: I saw a basket of summer fruit. <2> He said to me, "Amos, what do you see?"

I said, "A basket of summer fruit."

Then the Lord said to me, "The end[97] has come to my people Israel. I will not ignore their sins any more. <3> Their temple songs will become funeral songs." This is what the Lord my Master said. "There will be dead bodies everywhere. In silence, people will take out the dead bodies and throw them onto the pile.[98]"

Merchants Only Want to Make Money

<4> Listen to me,

you who walk on helpless people.

You are trying to destroy the poor of this country.

<5> You merchants[99] say,

"When will the New Moon[100] be over so that we can sell grain?

When will the Sabbath be over

so that we can bring out more wheat to sell?

We can raise the price

and make the measure smaller.[101]

We can adjust the scales

and cheat the people.[102]

<6> The poor cannot pay their loans,

so we will buy them as slaves.

We will buy those helpless people

for the price of a pair of sandals.

Oh, and we can sell the wheat

that was spilled on the floor."

<7> The Lord made a promise. He used his name, "Pride of Jacob," and made this promise:

"I will never forget what those people did.

<8> There will be an earthquake

that will shake the whole land because of what they did.

Everyone living there will cry

for those who died.

The land will be tossed around.

The whole land will rise and fall

like the Nile River in Egypt."

<9> The Lord also said: "At that time

I will make the sun set at noon

and make the land dark on a clear day.

<10> I will change your festivals

into days of crying for the dead.

All your songs will be songs of sadness

for dead people.

I will put mourning clothes on every body,

and baldness on every head.[103]

I will cause there to be mourning everywhere,

like that for an only son who died.

It will be a very bitter end."

A Famine of God's Word

<11> The Lord My Master says:

"Look, the days are coming

when I will cause a famine[104] in the land.

The people will not be hungry for bread.

They will not be thirsty for water.

No, they will be hungry

for words from the Lord.

<12> The people will wander around the country,

from the Dead Sea to the Mediterranean Sea,

and from the north part of the country to the east.

They will go back and forth

looking for a message from the Lord, but they will not find it.

<13> At that time the beautiful young men and women

will become weak from thirst.

<14> They made promises

by the sin of Samaria,[105]

They said,

'Dan,[106] as surely as your god lives,

we promise ..'

And they said,

'As surely as the god of Beersheba[107] lives,

we promise ..'

But they will fall

and never get up again."