Amos 8:1

Basket of Fruit and Israel's Captivity

1 Thus the Lord GOD showed me, and behold, there was a basket of summer fruit.

Amos 8:1 Meaning and Commentary

Amos 8:1

Thus hath the Lord God showed unto me
Another vision, which is the fourth, and after the following manner: and, behold, a basket of summer fruit;
not of the first ripe fruit, but of such as were gathered at the close of the summer, when autumn began. So the Targum,

``the last of the summer fruit;''
such as were fully ripe, and would not keep till winter; or, if kept, would rot; but must be eaten directly, as some sort of apples, grapes, &c. denoting the people of Israel being ripe for destruction, and would be quickly devoured by their enemies; and that, as they had had a summer of prosperity, they would now have a sharp winter of adversity.

Amos 8:1 In-Context

1 Thus the Lord GOD showed me, and behold, there was a basket of summer fruit.
2 He said, "What do you see, Amos?" And I said, "A basket of summer fruit." Then the LORD said to me, "The end has come for My people Israel. I will spare them no longer .
3 "The songs of the palace will turn to wailing in that day," declares the Lord GOD. "Many will be the corpses; in every place they will cast them forth in silence."
4 Hear this, you who trample the needy, to do away with the humble of the land,
5 saying, "When will the new moon be over, So that we may sell grain, And the sabbath, that we may open the wheat market, To make the bushel smaller and the shekel bigger, And to cheat with dishonest scales,

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Heb "YHWH," usually rendered LORD, and so throughout the ch
New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, California.  All rights reserved.