Amos 8

Basket of Fruit and Israel’s Captivity

1Thus the Lord 1God showed me, and behold, there was a basket of summer fruit. 2He said, “What do you see, Amos?” And 2I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me, “The 3end has come for My people Israel. I will 45spare them no longer. 36The 7songs of the palace will turn to 8wailing in that day,” declares the Lord God. “Many will be the 9corpses; in every place 10they will cast them forth 11in silence.”

4Hear this, you who 1213trample the needy, to do away with the humble of the land, 5saying, “When will the 14new moon 15be over, So that we may sell grain, And the 16sabbath, that we may open the wheat market, To make the 17bushel smaller and the shekel bigger, And to 18cheat with 19dishonest scales,6So as to 20buy the helpless for 21money And the needy for a pair of sandals, And that we may sell the refuse of the wheat?”

7The Lord has 22sworn by the 23pride of Jacob, “Indeed, I will 24never forget any of their deeds.8Because of this will not the land 25quake And everyone who dwells in it 26mourn? Indeed, all of it will 27rise up like the Nile, And it will be tossed about And subside like the Nile of Egypt.9It will come about in that day,” declares the Lord God, “That I will make the 28sun go down at noon And 29make the earth dark in 30broad daylight.10Then I will 31turn your festivals into mourning And all your songs into 32lamentation; And I will bring 33sackcloth on everyone’s loins And baldness on every head. And I will make it 34like a time of mourning for an only son, And the end of it will be like a bitter day.

11“Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord God, “When I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, But rather 35for hearing the words of the Lord.12People will stagger from sea to sea And from the north even to the east; They will go to and fro to 36seek the word of the Lord, But they will not find it.13In that day the beautiful 37virgins And the young men will 38faint from thirst.14As for those who swear by the 3940guilt of Samaria, Who say, ‘As your god lives, O 41Dan,’ And, ‘As the way of 42Beersheba lives,’ They will fall and 43not rise again.”