Study Desk

The Lord God showed me this: A basket of summer fruit.

He asked me, "What do you see, Amos?"^(a) I replied, "A basket of summer fruit."^(b) The Lord said to me, "The end has come for My people Israel;^(c) I will no longer spare them.^(d)

In that day the temple^[a] songs^(e) will become wailing"^(f)—this is the Lord God 's declaration. "Many dead bodies, thrown everywhere!^(g) Silence!"^(h)

Hear this, you who trample on the needy⁽ⁱ⁾ and do away with the poor of the land,^(j)

asking, "When will the New Moon be over so we may sell grain,^(k) and the Sabbath, so we may market wheat?^(l) We can reduce the measure while increasing the price^[b] and cheat with dishonest scales.^(m)

We can buy the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals⁽ⁿ⁾ and even sell the chaff!"

The Lord has sworn^(o) by the Pride of Jacob:^[c](p) I will never forget all their deeds.^(q)

Because of this, won't the land quake^(r) and all who dwell in it mourn?^(s) All of it will rise like the Nile;^(t) it will surge and then subside like the Nile in Egypt.^(u)

And in that day— this is the declaration of the Lord God — I will make the sun go down at noon;^(v) I will darken the land in the daytime.^(w)

I will turn your feasts into mourning^(x) and all your songs into lamentation;^(y) I will cause everyone^[d] to wear sackcloth^(z) and every head to be shaved.^(aa) I will make that grief like mourning for an only son^(ab) and its outcome like a bitter day.

Hear this! The days are coming— this is the declaration of the Lord God — when I will send a famine through the land: not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord .^(ac)

People will stagger from sea to sea and roam from north to east, seeking the word of the Lord ,^(ad) but they will not find it.

In that day the beautiful young women,^(ae) the young men also, will faint from thirst.^(af)

Those who swear by the guilt of Samaria^(ag) and say, "As your god lives, Dan,"^(ah) or "As the way^[e][f] of Beer-sheba lives"^(ai)— they will fall, never to rise again.^(aj)