Amos 8:1-9

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.

Amos 8:1-9 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.