The Holy Bible

[4:4] The Sovereign Lord says, “People of Israel, go to the holy place in Bethel and sin, if you must! Go to Gilgal and sin with all your might! Go ahead and bring animals to be sacrificed morning after morning, and bring your tithes every third day.

[4:5] Go on and offer your bread in thanksgiving to God, and brag about the extra offerings you bring! This is the kind of thing you love to do.

[4:6] “I was the one who brought famine to all your cities, yet you did not come back to me.

[4:7] I kept it from raining when your crops needed it most. I sent rain on one city, but not on another. Rain fell on one field, but another field dried up.

[4:8] Weak with thirst, the people of several cities went to a city where they hoped to find water, but there was not enough to drink. Still you did not come back to me.

[4:9] “I sent a scorching wind to dry up your crops. The locusts ate up all your gardens and vineyards, your fig trees and olive trees. Still you did not come back to me.

[4:10] “I sent a plague on you like the one I sent on Egypt. I killed your young men in battle and took your horses away. I filled your nostrils with the stink of dead bodies in your camps. Still you did not come back to me.

[4:11] “I destroyed some of you as I destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Those of you who survived were like a burning stick saved from a fire. Still you did not come back to me,” says the Lord.

[4:12] “So then, people of Israel, I am going to punish you. And because I am going to do this, get ready to face my judgment!”

[4:13] God is the one who made the mountains and created the winds. He makes his thoughts known to people; he changes day into night. He walks on the heights of the earth. This is his name: the Lord God Almighty!

[5:1] Listen, people of Israel, to this funeral song which I sing over you:

[5:2] Virgin Israel has fallen, Never to rise again! She lies abandoned on the ground, And no one helps her up.

[5:3] The Sovereign Lord says, “A city in Israel sends out a thousand soldiers, but only a hundred return; another city sends out a hundred, but only ten come back.”

[5:4] The Lord says to the people of Israel, “Come to me, and you will live.

[5:5] Do not go to Beersheba to worship. Do not try to find me at Bethel—Bethel will come to nothing. Do not go to Gilgal—her people are doomed to exile.”

[5:6] Go to the Lord, and you will live. If you do not go, he will sweep down like fire on the people of Israel. The fire will burn up the people of Bethel, and no one will be able to put it out.

[5:7] You are doomed, you that twist justice and cheat people out of their rights!

[5:8] The Lord made the stars, the Pleiades and Orion. He turns darkness into daylight and day into night. He calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the earth. His name is the Lord.

[5:9] He brings destruction on the mighty and their strongholds.

[5:10] You people hate anyone who challenges injustice and speaks the whole truth in court.

[5:11] You have oppressed the poor and robbed them of their grain. And so you will not live in the fine stone houses you build or drink wine from the beautiful vineyards you plant.

[5:12] I know how terrible your sins are and how many crimes you have committed. You persecute good people, take bribes, and prevent the poor from getting justice in the courts.

[5:13] And so, keeping quiet in such evil times is the smart thing to do!

[5:14] Make it your aim to do what is right, not what is evil, so that you may live. Then the Lord God Almighty really will be with you, as you claim he is.

[5:15] Hate what is evil, love what is right, and see that justice prevails in the courts. Perhaps the Lord will be merciful to the people of this nation who are still left alive.

[5:16] And so the Sovereign Lord Almighty says, “There will be wailing and cries of sorrow in the city streets. Even farmers will be called to mourn the dead along with those who are paid to mourn.

[5:17] There will be wailing in all the vineyards. All this will take place because I am coming to punish you.” The Lord has spoken.

[5:18] How terrible it will be for you who long for the day of the Lord! What good will that day do you? For you it will be a day of darkness and not of light.

[5:19] It will be like someone who runs from a lion and meets a bear! Or like someone who comes home and puts his hand on the wall—only to be bitten by a snake!

[5:20] The day of the Lord will bring darkness and not light; it will be a day of gloom, without any brightness.

[5:21] The Lord says, “I hate your religious festivals; I cannot stand them!

[5:22] When you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; I will not accept the animals you have fattened to bring me as offerings.

[5:23] Stop your noisy songs; I do not want to listen to your harps.

[5:24] Instead, let justice flow like a stream, and righteousness like a river that never goes dry.

[5:25] “People of Israel, I did not demand sacrifices and offerings during those forty years that I led you through the desert.

[5:26] But now, because you have worshiped images of Sakkuth, your king god, and of Kaiwan, your star god, you will have to carry those images

[5:27] when I take you into exile in a land beyond Damascus,” says the Lord, whose name is Almighty God.

[6:1] How terrible it will be for you that have such an easy life in Zion and for you that feel safe in Samaria—you great leaders of this great nation Israel, you to whom the people go for help!

[6:2] Go and look at the city of Calneh. Then go on to the great city of Hamath and on down to the Philistine city of Gath. Were they any better than the kingdoms of Judah and Israel? Was their territory larger than yours?

[6:3] You refuse to admit that a day of disaster is coming, but what you do only brings that day closer.

[6:4] How terrible it will be for you that stretch out on your luxurious couches, feasting on veal and lamb!

[6:5] You like to compose songs, as David did, and play them on harps.

[6:6] You drink wine by the bowlful and use the finest perfumes, but you do not mourn over the ruin of Israel.

[6:7] So you will be the first to go into exile. Your feasts and banquets will come to an end.

[6:8] The Sovereign Lord Almighty has given this solemn warning: “I hate the pride of the people of Israel; I despise their luxurious mansions. I will give their capital city and everything in it to the enemy.”

[6:9] If there are ten men left in a family, they will die.

[6:10] The dead man's relative, the one in charge of the funeral, will take the body out of the house. The relative will call to whoever is still left in the house, “Is anyone else there with you?” The person will answer, “No!” Then the relative will say, “Be quiet! We must be careful not even to mention the Lord's name.”

[6:11] When the Lord gives the command, houses large and small will be smashed to pieces.

[6:12] Do horses gallop on rocks? Does anyone plow the sea with oxen? Yet you have turned justice into poison, and right into wrong.

[6:13] You brag about capturing the town of Lodebar. You boast, “We were strong enough to take Karnaim.”

[6:14] The Lord God Almighty himself says, “People of Israel, I am going to send a foreign army to occupy your country. It will oppress you from Hamath Pass in the north to the Brook of the Arabah in the south.”

[7:1] I had a vision from the Sovereign Lord. In it I saw him create a swarm of locusts just after the king's share of the hay had been cut and the grass was starting to grow again.

[7:2] In my vision I saw the locusts eat up every green thing in the land, and then I said, “Sovereign Lord, forgive your people! How can they survive? They are so small and weak!”

[7:3] The Lord changed his mind and said, “What you saw will not take place.”

[7:4] I had another vision from the Sovereign Lord. In it I saw him preparing to punish his people with fire. The fire burned up the great ocean under the earth and started to burn up the land.

[7:5] Then I said, “Stop, O Sovereign Lord! How can your people survive? They are so small and weak!”

[7:6] The Lord changed his mind again and said, “This will not take place either.”

[7:7] I had another vision from the Lord. In it I saw him standing beside a wall that had been built with the use of a plumb line, and there was a plumb line in his hand.

[7:8] He asked me, “Amos, what do you see?” “A plumb line,” I answered. Then he said, “I am using it to show that my people are like a wall that is out of line. I will not change my mind again about punishing them.

[7:9] The places where Isaac's descendants worship will be destroyed. The holy places of Israel will be left in ruins. I will bring the dynasty of King Jeroboam to an end.”

[7:10] Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, then sent a report to King Jeroboam of Israel: “Amos is plotting against you among the people. His speeches will destroy the country.

[7:11] This is what he says: ‘Jeroboam will die in battle, and the people of Israel will be taken away from their land into exile.’”

[7:12] Amaziah then said to Amos, “That's enough, prophet! Go on back to Judah and do your preaching there. Let them pay you for it.

[7:13] Don't prophesy here at Bethel any more. This is the king's place of worship, the national temple.”

[7:14] Amos answered, “I am not the kind of prophet who prophesies for pay. I am a herdsman, and I take care of fig trees.

[7:15] But the Lord took me from my work as a shepherd and ordered me to come and prophesy to his people Israel.

[7:16] So now listen to what the Lord says. You tell me to stop prophesying, to stop raving against the people of Israel.

[7:17] And so, Amaziah, the Lord says to you, ‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the city, and your children will be killed in war. Your land will be divided up and given to others, and you yourself will die in a heathen country. And the people of Israel will certainly be taken away from their own land into exile.’”

[8:1] I had another vision from the Sovereign Lord. In it I saw a basket of fruit.

[8:2] 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.

[8:3] 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.”

[8:4] Listen to this, you that trample on the needy and try to destroy the poor of the country.

[8:5] 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.

[8:6] 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.”

[8:7] The Lord, the God of Israel, has sworn, “I will never forget their evil deeds.

[8:8] 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.

[8:9] 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.

[8:10] 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.

[8:11] “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.

[8:12] 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.

[8:13] On that day even healthy young men and women will collapse from thirst.

[8:14] 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.”

[9:1] I saw the Lord standing by the altar. He gave the command: “Strike the tops of the Temple columns so hard that the foundation will shake. Break them off and let them fall on the heads of the people. I will kill the rest of the people in war. No one will get away; not one will escape.

[9:2] Even if they dig their way down to the world of the dead, I will catch them. Even if they climb up to heaven, I will bring them down.

[9:3] If they hide on the top of Mount Carmel, I will search for them and catch them. If they hide from me at the bottom of the sea, I will command the sea monster to bite them.

[9:4] If they are taken away into captivity by their enemies, I will order them to be put to death. I am determined to destroy them, not to help them.”

[9:5] The Sovereign Lord Almighty touches the earth, and it quakes; all who live there mourn. The whole world rises and falls like the Nile River.

[9:6] The Lord builds his home in the heavens, and over the earth he puts the dome of the sky. He calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the earth. His name is the Lord!

[9:7] The Lord says, “People of Israel, I think as much of the people of Ethiopia as I do of you. I brought the Philistines from Crete and the Syrians from Kir, just as I brought you from Egypt.

[9:8] I, the Sovereign Lord, am watching this sinful kingdom of Israel, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth. But I will not destroy all the descendants of Jacob.

[9:9] “I will give the command and shake the people of Israel like grain in a sieve. I will shake them among the nations to remove all who are worthless.

[9:10] The sinners among my people will be killed in war—all those who say, ‘God will not let any harm come near us.’”