Amos 6; Amos 7; Amos 8; Amos 9

Amos 6

1 Woe to you that are wealthy in Sion, and to you that have confidence in the mountain of Samaria: ye great men, heads of the people, that go in with state into the house of Israel.

2 Pass ye over to Chalane, and see, and go from thence into Emath the great: and go down into Geth of the Philistines, and to all the best kingdoms of these: if their border be larger than your border.

3 You that are separated unto the evil day: and that approach to the throne of iniquity;

4 You that sleep upon beds of ivory, and are wanton on your couches: that eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the herd;

5 You that sing to the sound of the psaltery: they have thought themselves to have instruments of music like David;

6 That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the best ointments: and they are not concerned for the affliction of Joseph.

7 Wherefore now they shall go captive at the head of them that go into captivity: and the faction of the luxurious ones shall be taken away.

8 The Lord God hath sworn by his own soul, saith the Lord the God of hosts: I detest the pride of Jacob, and I hate his houses, and I will deliver up the city with the inhabitants thereof.

9 And if there remain ten men in one house, they also shall die.

10 And a man’s kinsman shall take him up, and shall burn him, that he may carry the bones out of the house; and he shall say to him that is in the inner rooms of the house: Is there yet any with thee? (6-11) And he shall answer: There is an end. And he shall say to him: Hold thy peace, and mention not the name of the Lord.

11 (6-12) For behold the Lord hath commanded, and he will strike the greater house with breaches, and the lesser house with clefts.

12 (6-13) Can horses run upon the rocks, or can any one plough with buffles? for you have turned judgment into bitterness, and the fruit of justice into wormwood.

13 (6-14) You that rejoice in a thing of nought: you that say: Have we not taken unto us horns by our own strength?

14 (6-15) But behold, I will raise up a nation against you, O house of Israel, saith the Lord the God of hosts; and they shall destroy you from the entrance of Emath, even to the torrent of the desert.

Amos 7

1 These things the Lord God shewed to me: and behold the locust was formed in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter rain, and lo, it was the latter rain after the king’s mowing.

2 And it came to pass, that when they had made an end of eating the grass of the land, I said: O Lord God, be merciful, I beseech thee: who shall raise up Jacob, for he is very little?

3 The Lord had pity upon this: It shall not be, said the Lord.

4 These things the Lord God shewed to me: and behold the Lord called for judgment unto fire, and it devoured the great deep, and ate up a part at the same time.

5 And I said: O Lord God, cease, I beseech thee, who shall raise up Jacob, for he is a little one?

6 The Lord had pity upon this. Yea this also shall not be, said the Lord God.

7 These things the Lord shewed to me: and behold the Lord was standing upon a plastered wall, and in his hand a mason’s trowel.

8 And the Lord said to me: What seest thou, Amos? And I said: A mason’s trowel. And the Lord said: Behold, I will lay down the trowel in the midst of my people Israel. I will plaster them over no more.

9 And the high places of the idol shall be thrown down, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste: and I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.

10 And Amasias the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying: Amos hath rebelled against thee in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words.

11 For thus saith Amos: Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall be carried away captive out of their own land.

12 And Amasias said to Amos: Thou seer, go, flee away into the land of Juda: and eat bread there, and prophesy there.

13 But prophesy not again any more in Bethel: because it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is the house of the kingdom.

14 And Amos answered and said to Amasias: I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet: but I am a herdsman plucking wild figs.

15 And the Lord took me when I followed the flock, and the Lord said to me: Go, prophesy to my people Israel.

16 And now hear thou the word of the Lord: Thou sayest, thou shalt not prophesy against Israel, and thou shalt not drop thy word upon the house of the idol.

17 Therefore thus saith the Lord: Thy wife shall play the harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be measured by a line: and thou shalt die in a polluted land, and Israel shall go into captivity out of their land.

Amos 8

1 These things the Lord shewed to me: and behold a hook to draw down the fruit.

2 And he said: What seest thou, Amos? And I said: A hook to draw down fruit. And the Lord said to me: The end is come upon my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more.

3 And the hinges of the temple shall screak in that day, saith the Lord God: many shall die: silence shall be cast in every place.

4 Hear this, you that crush the poor, and make the needy of the land to fail,

5 Saying: When will the month be over, and we shall sell our wares: and the sabbath, and we shall open the corn: that we may lessen the measure, and increase the sicle, and may convey in deceitful balances,

6 That we may possess the needy for money, and the poor for a pair of shoes, and may sell the refuse of the corn?

7 The Lord hath sworn against the pride of Jacob: surely I will never forget all their works.

8 Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein: and rise up altogether as a river, and be cast out, and run down as the river of Egypt?

9 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that the sun shall go down at midday, and I will make the earth dark in the day of light:

10 And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation: and I will bring up sackcloth upon every back of yours, and baldness upon every head: and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the latter end thereof as a bitter day.

11 Behold the days come, saith the Lord, and I will send forth a famine into the land: not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, but of hearing the word of the Lord.

12 And they shall move from sea to sea, and from the north to the east: they shall go about seeking the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.

13 In that day the fair virgins, and the young men shall faint for thirst.

14 They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say: Thy God, O Dan, liveth: and the way of Bersabee liveth: and they shall fall, and shall rise no more.

Amos 9

1 I saw the Lord standing upon the altar, and he said: Strike the hinges, and let the lintels be shook: for there is covetousness in the head of them all, and I will slay the last of them with the sword: there shall be no flight for them: they shall flee, and he that shall flee of them shall not be delivered.

2 Though they go down even to hell, thence shall my hand bring them out: and though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down.

3 And though they be hid in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them away from thence: and though they hide themselves from my eyes in the depth of the sea, there will I command the serpent and he shall bite them.

4 And if they go into captivity before their enemies, there will I command the sword, and it shall kill them. And I will set my eyes upon them for evil, and not for good.

5 And the Lord the God of hosts is he who toucheth the earth, and it shall melt: and all that dwell therein shall mourn: and it shall rise up as a river, and shall run down as the river of Egypt.

6 He that buildeth his ascension in heaven, and hath founded his bundle upon the earth: who calleth the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth, the Lord is his name.

7 Are not you as the children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel, saith the Lord? did not I bring up Israel, out of the land of Egypt: and the Philistines out of Cappadocia, and the Syrians out of Cyrene?

8 Behold the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth: but yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the Lord.

9 For behold I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, as corn is sifted in a sleve: and there shall not a little stone fall to the ground.

10 All the sinners of my people shall fall by the sword: who say: The evils shall not approach, and shall not come upon us.

11 In that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David, that is fallen: and I will close up the breaches of the walls thereof, and repair what was fallen: and I will rebuild it as in the days of old.

12 That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and all nations, because my name is invoked upon them: saith the Lord that doth these things.

13 Behold the days come, saith the Lord, when the ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed: and the mountains shall drop sweetness, and every hill shall be tilled.

14 And I will bring back the captivity of my people Israel: and they shall build the abandoned cities, and inhabit them: and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine of them: and shall make gardens, and eat the fruits of them.

15 (9-14) And I will plant them upon their own land: and I will no more pluck them out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God.