Amos 8:1-10

Fourth Vision: A Basket of Summer Fruit

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

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

3 In that day the temple^[b] songs will become wailing"-the Lord God 's declaration. "Many dead bodies, thrown everywhere!^[c] Silence!"^[d]

4 Hear this, you who trample on the needy and do away with the poor of the land,^[e]

5 asking, "When will the New Moon be over so we may sell grain, and the Sabbath, so we may market wheat? We can reduce the measure while increasing the price^[f] and cheat with dishonest scales.^[g]

6 We can buy the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals^[h] and even sell the wheat husks!"

7 The Lord has sworn by the Pride of Jacob:^[i] I will never forget all their deeds.

8 Because of this, won't the land quake and all who dwell in it mourn? All of it will rise like the Nile; it will surge and then subside like the Nile in Egypt.^[j]

9 And in that day- [this is]*The bracketed text has been added for clarity. the declaration of the Lord God - I will make the sun go down at noon;^[k] I will darken the land in the daytime.

10 I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation;^[l] I will cause everyone^[m] to wear sackcloth and every head to be shaved.^[n] I will make that grief like mourning for an only son^[o] and its outcome like a bitter day.

Amos 8:1-10 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.

Footnotes

• [a] Am 7:8
• [b] Or palace
• [c] Isa 34:3; Jr 33:5; Nah 3:3
• [d] Am 6:10
• [e] Isa 10:2
• [f] Lit reduce the ephah and make the shekel great
• [g] Dt 25:13-15; Pr 20:23; Hs 12:7
• [h] Am 2:6
• [i] the Lord or the promised land; Am 6:8; Ps 47:4; Nah 2:2
• [j] Am 9:5
• [k] Isa 13:10; Ezk 32:7; Jl 2:10,31
• [l] Lm 5:15; Hs 2:11; Jms 4:9
• [m] Lit every loin
• [n] Isa 22:12; Jr 48:37; Ezk 7:18
• [o] Zch 12:10-14