The Bible in Basic English BBE
Good News Translation GNT
1 This is what the Lord God let me see: and I saw a basket of summer fruit.
1
I had another vision from the Sovereign Lord. In it I saw a basket of fruit.
2 And he said, Amos, what do you see? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then the Lord said to me, The end has come to my people Israel; never again will my eyes be shut to their sin.
2
The Lord asked, "Amos, what do you see?" "A basket of fruit," I answered. The Lord said to me, "The end has come for my people Israel. I will not change my mind again about punishing them.
3 And the songs of the king's house will be cries of pain in that day, says the Lord God: great will be the number of the dead bodies, and everywhere they will put them out without a word.
3
On that day the songs in the palace will become cries of mourning. There will be dead bodies everywhere. They will be cast out in silence."
4 Give ear to this, you who are crushing the poor, and whose purpose is to put an end to those who are in need in the land,
4
Listen to this, you that trample on the needy and try to destroy the poor of the country.
5 Saying, When will the new moon be gone, so that we may do trade in grain? and the Sabbath, so that we may put out in the market the produce of our fields? making the measure small and the price great, and trading falsely with scales of deceit;
5
You say to yourselves, "We can hardly wait for the holy days to be over so that we can sell our grain. When will the Sabbath end, so that we can start selling again? Then we can overcharge, use false measures, and fix the scales to cheat our customers.
6 Getting the poor for silver, and him who is in need for the price of two shoes, and taking a price for the waste parts of the grain.
6
We can sell worthless wheat at a high price. We'll find someone poor who can't pay his debts, not even the price of a pair of sandals, and we'll buy him as a slave."
7 The Lord has taken an oath by the pride of Jacob, Truly I will ever keep in mind all their works.
7
The Lord, the God of Israel, has sworn, "I will never forget their evil deeds.
8 Will not the land be shaking with fear because of this, and everyone in it have sorrow? and all of it will be overflowing like the River; and it will be troubled and go down again like the River of Egypt.
8
And so the earth will quake, and everyone in the land will be in distress. The whole country will be shaken; it will rise and fall like the Nile River.
9 And it will come about in that day, says the Lord God, that I will make the sun go down in the middle of the day, and I will make the earth dark in daylight:
9
The time is coming when I will make the sun go down at noon and the earth grow dark in daytime. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken.
10 Your feasts will be turned into sorrow and all your melody into songs of grief; everyone will be clothed with haircloth, and the hair of every head will be cut; I will make the weeping like that for an only son, and the end of it like a bitter day.
10
I will turn your festivals into funerals and change your glad songs into cries of grief. I will make you shave your heads and wear sackcloth, and you will be like parents mourning for their only child. That day will be bitter to the end.
11 See, the days are coming, says the Lord God, when I will send times of great need on the land, not need of food or desire for water, but for hearing the words of the Lord.
11
"The time is coming when I will send famine on the land. People will be hungry, but not for bread; they will be thirsty, but not for water. They will hunger and thirst for a message from the Lord. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken.
12 And they will go wandering from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, running here and there in search of the word of the Lord, and they will not get it.
12
People will wander from the Dead Sea to the Mediterranean and then on around from the north to the east. They will look everywhere for a message from the Lord, but they will not find it.
13 In that day the fair virgins and the young men will be feeble from need of water.
13
On that day even healthy young men and women will collapse from thirst.
14 Those who make their oaths by the sin of Samaria and say, By the life of your God, O Dan; and, By the living way of Beer-sheba; even they will go down, never again to be lifted up.
14
Those who swear by the idols of Samaria, who say, "By the god of Dan' or "By the god of Beersheba' - those people will fall and not rise again."
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.