Amos 6; Amos 7; Amos 8; Amos 9

Amos 6

1 How terrible it will be for those who have an easy life in Jerusalem, for those who feel safe living on Mount Samaria. You think you are the important people of the best nation in the world; the Israelites come to you for help.

2 Go look at the city of Calneh, and from there go to the great city Hamath; then go down to Gath of the Philistines. You are no better than these kingdoms. Your land is no larger than theirs.

3 You put off the day of punishment, but you bring near the day when you can do evil to others.

4 You lie on beds decorated with ivory and stretch out on your couches. You eat tender lambs and fattened calves.

5 You make up songs on your harps, and, like David, you compose songs on musical instruments.

6 You drink wine by the bowlful and use the best perfumed lotions. But you are not sad over the ruin of Israel,

7 so you will be some of the first ones taken as slaves. Your feasting and lying around will come to an end.

8 The Lord God made this promise; the Lord God All-Powerful says: "I hate the pride of the Israelites, and I hate their strong buildings, so I will let the enemy take the city and everything in it."

9 At that time there might be only ten people left alive in just one house, but they will also die.

10 When the relatives come to get the bodies to take them outside, one of them will call to the other and ask, "Are there any other dead bodies with you?" That person will answer, "No." Then the one who asked will say, "Hush! We must not say the name of the Lord."

11 The Lord has given the command; the large house will be broken into pieces, and the small house into bits.

12 Horses do not run on rocks, and people do not plow rocks with oxen. But you have changed fairness into poison; you have changed what is right into a bitter taste.

13 You are happy that the town of Lo Debar was captured, and you say, "We have taken Karnaimn by our own strength."

14 The Lord God All-Powerful says, "Israel, I will bring a nation against you that will make your people suffer from Lebo Hamath in the north to the valley south of the Dead Sea."

Amos 7

1 This is what the Lord God showed me: He was forming a swarm of locusts, after the king had taken his share of the first crop and the second crop had just begun growing.

2 When the locusts ate all the crops in the country, I said, "Lord God, forgive us. How could Israel live through this? It is too small already!"

3 So the Lord changed his mind about this. "It will not happen," said the Lord.

4 This is what the Lord God showed me: The Lord God was calling for fire to come down like rain. It burned up the deep water and was going to burn up the land.

5 Then I cried out, "Lord God, stop! How could Israel live through this? It is too small already."

6 So the Lord changed his mind about this too. "It will not happen," said the Lord God.

7 This is what he showed me: The Lord stood by a straight wall, with a plumb line in his hand.

8 The Lord said to me, "Amos, what do you see?" I said, "A plumb line." Then the Lord said, "See, I will put a plumb line among my people Israel to show how crooked they are. I will not look the other way any longer.

9 "The places where Isaac's descendants worship will be destroyed, Israel's holy places will be turned into ruins, and I will attack King Jeroboam's family with the sword."

10 Amaziah, a priest at Bethel, sent this message to Jeroboam king of Israel: "Amos is making evil plans against you with the people of Israel. He has been speaking so much that this land can't hold all his words.

11 This is what Amos has said: 'Jeroboam will die by the sword, and the people of Israel will be taken as captives out of their own country.'"

12 Then Amaziah said to Amos, "Seer, go back right now to Judah. Do your prophesying and earn your living there,

13 but don't prophesy anymore here at Bethel. This is the king's holy place, and it is the nation's temple."

14 Then Amos answered Amaziah, "I do not make my living as a prophet, nor am I a member of a group of prophets. I make my living as a shepherd, and I take care of sycamore trees.

15 But the Lord took me away from tending the flock and said to me, 'Go, prophesy to my people Israel.'

16 So listen to the Lord's word. You tell me, 'Don't prophesy against Israel, and stop prophesying against the descendants of Isaac.'

17 "Because you have said this, the Lord says: 'Your wife will become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and daughters will be killed with swords. Other people will measure your land and divide it among themselves, and you will die in a foreign country. from their own land as captives.'"

Amos 8

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

2 He said to me, "Amos, what do you see?" I said, "A basket of summer fruit." Then the Lord said to me, "An endn has come for my people Israel, because I will not overlook their sins anymore.

3 "On that day the palace songs will become funeral songs," says the Lord God. "There will be dead bodies thrown everywhere! Silence!"

4 Listen to me, you who walk on helpless people, you who are trying to destroy the poor people of this country, saying,

5 "When will the New Moon festival be over so we can sell grain? so we can bring out wheat to sell? We can charge them more and give them less, and we can change the scales to cheat the people.

6 We will buy poor people for silver, and needy people for the price of a pair of sandals. We will even sell the wheat that was swept up from the floor."

7 The Lord has sworn by his name, the Pride of Jacob, "I will never forget everything that these people did.

8 The whole land will shake because of it, and everyone who lives in the land will cry for those who died. The whole land will rise like the Nile; it will be shaken, and then it will fall like the Nile River in Egypt."

9 The Lord God says: "At that time I will cause the sun to go down at noon and make the earth dark on a bright day.

10 I will change your festivals into days of crying for the dead, and all your songs will become songs of sadness. I will make all of you wear rough cloth to show your sadness; I will make you shave your heads as well. I will make it like a time of crying for the death of an only son, and its end like the end of an awful day."

11 The Lord God says: "The days are coming when I will cause a time of hunger in the land. The people will not be hungry for bread or thirsty for water, but they will be hungry for words from the Lord.

12 They will wander from the Mediterranean Sea to the Dead Sea, from the north to the east. They will search for the word of the Lord, but they won't find it.

13 At that time the beautiful young women and the young men will become weak from thirst.

14 They make promises by the idol in Samaria and say, 'As surely as the god of Dan lives . . . ' and, 'As surely as the god of Beersheban lives, we promise . . . ' So they will fall and never get up again."

Amos 9

1 I saw the Lord standing by the altar, and he said: "Smash the top of the pillars so that even the bottom of the doors will shake. Make the pillars fall on the people's heads; anyone left alive I will kill with a sword. Not one person will get away; no one will escape.

2 If they dig down as deep as the place of the dead, I will pull them up from there. If they climb up into heaven, I will bring them down from there.

3 If they hide at the top of Mount Carmel, I will find them and take them away. If they try to hide from me at the bottom of the sea, I will command a snake to bite them.

4 If they are captured and taken away by their enemies, I will command the sword to kill them. I will keep watch over them, but I will keep watch to give them trouble, not to do them good."

5 The Lord God All-Powerful touches the land, and the land shakes. Then everyone who lives in the land cries for the dead. and falls like the river of Egypt.

6 The Lord builds his upper rooms above the skies; he sets their foundations on the earth. He calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the land. The Lord is his name.

7 The Lord says, "Israel, you are no different to me than the people of Cush. I brought Israel out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Crete, and the Arameans from Kir.

8 I, the Lord God, am watching the sinful kingdom Israel. I will destroy it from off the earth, but I will not completely destroy Jacob's descendants," says the Lord.

9 "I am giving the command to scatter the nation of Israel among all nations. It will be like someone shaking grain through a strainer, but not even a tiny stone falls through.

10 All the sinners among my people will die by the sword -- those who say, 'Nothing bad will happen to us.'

11 "The kingdom of David is like a fallen tent, but in that day I will set it up again and mend its broken places. I will rebuild its ruins as it was before.

12 Then Israel will take over what is left of Edom and the other nations that belong to me," says the Lord, who will make it happen.

13 The Lord says, "The time is coming when there will be all kinds of food. People will still be harvesting crops when it's time to plow again. People will still be taking the juice from grapes when it's time to plant again. Wine will drip from the mountains and pour from the hills.

14 I will bring my people Israel back from captivity; they will build the ruined cities again, and they will live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink the wine from them; they will plant gardens and eat their fruit.

15 I will plant my people on their land, and they will not be pulled out again from the land which I have given them," says the Lord your God.