Amos 8:1-9

The Coming Day of Bitter Mourning

1 ¹This is what the Lord GOD showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit.

2 And he said, ²"Amos, what do you see?" And I said, ³"A basket of summer fruit." Then the LORD said to me, ⁴"The end^[a] has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass by them.

3 ⁵The songs of the temple^[b]⁶shall become wailings^[c] in that day," declares the Lord GOD. ⁷"So many dead bodies!" "They are thrown everywhere!" ⁸"Silence!"

4 Hear this, ⁹you who trample on the needy and bring the poor of the land to an end,

5 saying, "When will ¹⁰the new moon be over, that we may sell grain? And ¹¹the Sabbath, that we may offer wheat for sale, that we may make ¹²the ephah small and the shekel^[d] great and deal deceitfully with false balances,

6 that we may buy the poor for ¹³silver and the needy for a pair of sandals and sell the chaff of the wheat?"

7 The LORD has sworn by ¹⁴the pride of Jacob: "Surely ¹⁵I will never forget any of their deeds.

8 ¹⁶Shall not the land tremble on this account, and everyone mourn who dwells in it, ¹⁷and all of it rise like the Nile, and be tossed about ¹⁸and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?"

9 "And on that day," declares the Lord GOD, ¹⁹"I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight.

Read Chapter Compare

Amos 8:1-9 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO AMOS 8

In this chapter a fourth vision is delivered, the vision of a "basket of summer fruit"; signifying the destruction of the ten tribes, for which they were ripe, and which would quickly come upon them, Am 8:1-3; the rich are reproved for their oppression of the poor, their covetousness and earthly mindedness, Am 8:4-6; for which they are threatened with entire ruin, sudden calamities, and very mournful times, instead of light, joy, and gladness, Am 8:7-10; and particularly with a famine of hearing the word of God, Am 8:11,12; the consequence of which would be, a fainting of the young men and virgins for thirst, and the utter and irrecoverable ruin of all idolaters, Am 8:13,14.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 19

1. Amos 7:1
2. Amos 7:8
3. [Jeremiah 24:1; Micah 7:1]
4. Lamentations 4:18
5. [Amos 5:23]
6. [Jeremiah 47:2]
7. [Amos 6:9]
8. [Amos 6:10; Jeremiah 16:4, 6]
9. [Psalms 14:4]
10. See Numbers 28:11
11. [Nehemiah 13:15, 16]
12. Ezekiel 45:10; Micah 6:10, 11; See Hosea 12:7
13. Amos 2:6
14. Amos 6:8
15. Hosea 8:13; Hosea 9:9
16. [Hosea 4:3]
17. Amos 9:5
18. [Zechariah 10:11]
19. Jeremiah 15:9; Micah 3:6; Matthew 24:29; [Amos 4:13; Amos 5:8]

Footnotes 4

[a]. The Hebrew words for end and summer fruit sound alike
[b]. Or palace
[c]. Or The singing women of the palace shall wail
[d]. An ephah was about 3/5 bushel or 22 liters; a shekel was about 2/5 ounce or 11 grams

The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.