Amos 8:6-14

6 We can buy the poor with money and the needy for a pair of sandals. We can sell the husks mixed in with the wheat."

7 The LORD has sworn an oath by Jacob's pride: "I will never forget anything that they have done."

8 The land will tremble because of this. Everyone who lives in it will mourn. The entire land will rise like the Nile, be tossed about, and then sink like Egypt's river.

9 On that day, declares the Almighty LORD, I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight.

10 I will turn your festivals into funerals and all your songs into funeral songs. I will put sackcloth around everyone's waist and shave everyone's head. I will make that day seem like a funeral for an only child, and its end will be bitter.

11 The days are going to come, declares the Almighty LORD, when I will send a famine throughout the land. It won't be an ordinary famine or drought. Instead, there will be a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.

12 People will wander from sea to sea and roam from the north to the east, searching for the word of the LORD. But they won't find it.

13 On that day beautiful young women and strong young men will faint because of their thirst.

14 [How horrible it will be for] those who swear by Ashimah, the idol of Samaria, and say, "I solemnly swear, Dan, as your god lives...." "I solemnly swear as long as there is a road to Beersheba...." Those who say this will fall and never get up again.

Amos 8:6-14 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.