Amos 7; Amos 8; Amos 9; Revelation 8

1 This is what the LORD God showed me: The LORD God was forming locusts at the time the late grass began to sprout. (It was the late grass after the king's harvest.)

2 When they had finished eating the green plants of the land, I said, "LORD God, please forgive! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!"

3 The LORD relented concerning this: "It won't take place,"

4 says the LORD. This is what the LORD God showed me: The LORD God was calling for judgment with fire, and it devoured the great deep and was eating up part of the land.

5 Then I said, "LORD God, I beg you, stop! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!"

6 The LORD relented concerning this: "This also won't take place,"

7 says the LORD God. This is what the LORD showed me: The LORD was standing by a wall, with a plumb line in his hand.

8 The LORD said to me, "Amos, what do you see?" "A plumb line," I said. Then the LORD said, "See, I am setting a plumb line in the middle of my people Israel. I will never again forgive them.

9 The shrines of Isaac will be made desolate, and the holy places of Israel will be laid waste, and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword."

10 Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, reported to Israel's King Jeroboam, "Amos has plotted against you within the house of Israel. The land isn't able to cope with everything that he is saying.

11 Amos has said, ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will be forced out of its land.'"

12 Amaziah said to Amos, "You who see things, go, run away to the land of Judah, eat your bread there, and prophesy there;

13 but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king's holy place and his royal house."

14 Amos answered Amaziah, "I am not a prophet, nor am I a prophet's son; but I am a shepherd, and a trimmer of sycamore trees.

15 But the LORD took me from shepherding the flock, and the LORD said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.'

16 “Now then hear the LORD's word. You say, ‘Don't prophesy against Israel, and don't preach against the house of Isaac.'

17 “Therefore, the LORD proclaims: ‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters will fall by the sword, and your land will be measured and divided up; you yourself will die in an unclean land, and Israel will surely be taken away from its land.'"

1 This is what the LORD God showed me: a basket of summer fruit.

2 He said, "Amos, what do you see?" I said, "A basket of summer fruit." Then the LORD said to me, "The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again forgive them.

3 On that day, the people will wail the temple songs," says the LORD God; "there will be many corpses, thrown about everywhere. Silence."

4 Hear this, you who trample on the needy and destroy the poor of the land,

5 saying, "When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath so that we may offer wheat for sale, make the ephah smaller, enlarge the shekel, and deceive with false balances,

6 in order to buy the needy for silver and the helpless for sandals, and sell garbage as grain?"

7 The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget what they have done.

8 Will not the land tremble on this account, and all who live in it mourn, as it rises and overflows like the Nile, and then falls again, like the River of Egypt?

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

10 I will turn your feasts into sad affairs and all your singing into a funeral song; I will make people wear mourning clothes and shave their heads; I will make it like the loss of an only child, and the end of it like a bitter day.

11 The days are surely coming, says the LORD God, when I will send hunger and thirst on the land; neither a hunger for bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the LORD 's words.

12 They will wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they will roam all around, seeking the LORD's word, but they won't find it.

13 On that day the beautiful young women and the young men will faint with thirst.

14 Those who swear by the guilt of Samaria, and say, "As your god lives, Dan," and, "As the way of Beer-sheba lives"— even they will fall and never rise again.

1 I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and the Lord said: Strike the pillars until the foundations shake, shatter them on the heads of all the people. With the sword, I will kill the last of them; not one of them will flee, not one of them will escape.

2 If they dig through into the underworld, from there my hand will take them. If they climb up to the heavens, from there I will bring them down.

3 If they hide themselves on the top of Carmel, I will search for them there and remove them. If they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea, I will give an order to the sea serpent, and it will bite them.

4 If they are forced from their homes before their enemies, there I will give an order to the sword, and it will kill them. I will fix my eyes on them for harm and not for good.

5 The LORD, God of heavenly forces, touches the earth and it melts, and all who live in it are sick to death. All of it rises up like the Nile and sinks again, like the Nile of Egypt.

6 It is the LORD who builds his upper rooms in the heavens and establishes his residence upon the earth; who summons the waters of the sea, and pours them out upon the face of the earth— the LORD is his name.

7 Aren't you like the Cushites to me, people of Israel? says the LORD. Haven't I brought Israel up from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir?

8 Look, the LORD God is eyeing the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth. However, I won't destroy fully the house of Jacob, says the LORD.

9 Look, I am giving orders, and I will shake the house of Israel among all the nations as one sifts dirt with a screen, but no pebble will fall to the ground.

10 All the sinners of my people will die by the sword, those who say, "Evil won't overtake or meet us."

11 On that day I will raise up the meeting tent of David that has fallen, and repair its broken places. I will raise up its ruins, and I will rebuild it like a long time ago;

12 so that they may possess what is left of Edom, as well as all the nations who are called by my name, says the LORD who will do this.

13 The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when the one who plows will overtake the one who gathers, when the one who crushes grapes will overtake the one who sows the seed. The mountains will drip wine, and all the hills will flow with it.

14 I will improve the circumstances of my people Israel; they will rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; and they will make gardens and eat their fruit.

15 I will plant them upon their land, and they will never again be plucked up out of the land that I have given them, says the LORD your God.

1 Then, when the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

2 Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.

3 Another angel came and stood at the altar, and he held a gold bowl for burning incense. He was given a large amount of incense, in order to offer it on behalf of the prayers of all the saints on the gold altar in front of the throne.

4 The smoke of the incense offered for the prayers of the saints rose up before God from the angel's hand.

5 Then the angel took the incense container and filled it with fire from the altar. He threw it down to the earth, and there were thunder, voices, lightning, and an earthquake.

6 Then the seven angels who held the seven trumpets got ready to blow them.

7 The first angel blew his trumpet, and hail and fire mixed with blood appeared, and was thrown down to the earth. A third of the earth was burned up. A third of the trees were burned up. All the green grass was burned up.

8 Then the second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain burning with fire was thrown down into the sea. A third of the sea became blood,

9 a third of the creatures living in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

10 Then the third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star, burning like a torch, fell from heaven. It fell on a third of the rivers and springs of water.

11 The star's name is Wormwood, and a third of the waters became wormwood, and many people died from the water, because it became so bitter.

12 Then the fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars so that a third of them became dark. The day lost a third of its light, and the night lost a third of its light too.

13 Then I looked and I heard an eagle flying high overhead. It said with a loud voice, "Horror, horror, oh! The horror for those who live on earth because of the blasts of the remaining trumpets that the three angels are about to blow!"