10:1Israel is a branching vine, full of fruit; as his fruit is increased, so the number of his altars is increased; as the land is fair, so they have made fair pillars. 10:2Their mind is taken away; now they will be made waste: he will have their altars broken down, he will give their pillars to destruction. 10:3Now, truly, they will say, We have no king, we have no fear of the Lord; and the king, what is he able to do for us? 10:4Their words are foolish; they make agreements with false oaths, so punishment will come up like a poison-plant in a ploughed field. 10:5The people of Samaria will be full of fear because of the ox of Beth-aven; its people will have sorrow for it, and its priests will give cries of grief for its glory, for the glory has gone in flight. 10:6And they will take it to Assyria and give it to the great king; shame will come on Ephraim, and Israel will be shamed because of its image. 10:7As for Samaria, her king is cut off, like mist on the water. 10:8And the high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, will come to destruction; thorns and waste plants will come up on their altars; they will say to the mountains, Be a cover over us; and to the hills, Come down on us. 10:9O Israel, you have done evil from the days of Gibeah; there they took up their position, so that the fighting against the children of evil might not overtake them in Gibeah. 10:10I will come and give them punishment; and the peoples will come together against them when I give them the reward of their two sins. 10:11And Ephraim is a trained cow, taking pleasure in crushing the grain; but I have put a yoke on her fair neck; I will put a horseman on the back of Ephraim; Judah will be working the plough, Jacob will be turning up the earth. 10:12Put in the seed of righteousness, get in your grain in mercy, let your unploughed earth be turned up: for it is time to make search for the Lord, till he comes and sends righteousness on you like rain. 10:13You have been ploughing sin, you have got in a store of evil, the fruit of deceit has been your food: for you put faith in your way, in the number of your men of war. 10:14So a great outcry will go up from among your people, and all your strong places will be broken, as Beth-arbel was broken by Shalman in the day of war, as the mother was broken on the rocks with her children. 10:15So will Beth-el do to you because of your evil-doing; at dawn will the king of Israel be cut off completely.
11:1When Israel was a child he was dear to me; and I took my son out of Egypt. 11:2When I sent for them, then they went away from me; they made offerings to the Baals, burning perfumes to images. 11:3But I was guiding Ephraim's footsteps; I took them up in my arms, but they were not conscious that I was ready to make them well. 11:4I made them come after me with the cords of a man, with the bands of love; I was to them as one who took the yoke from off their mouths, putting meat before them. 11:5He will go back to the land of Egypt and the Assyrian will be his king, because they would not come back to me. 11:6And the sword will go through his towns, wasting his children and causing destruction because of their evil designs. 11:7My people are given up to sinning against me; though their voice goes up on high, no one will be lifting them up. 11:8How may I give you up, O Ephraim? how may I be your saviour, O Israel? how may I make you like Admah? how may I do to you as I did to Zeboim? My heart is turned in me, it is soft with pity. 11:9I will not put into effect the heat of my wrath; I will not again send destruction on Ephraim; for I am God and not man, the Holy One among you; I will not put an end to you. 11:10They will go after the Lord; his cry will be like that of a lion; his cry will be loud, and the children will come from the west, shaking with fear; 11:11Shaking with fear like a bird, they will come out of Egypt, like a dove out of the land of Assyria: and I will give them rest in their houses, says the Lord. 11:12The deceit of Ephraim and the false words of Israel are about me on every side. ...
12:1Ephraim's food is the wind, and he goes after the east wind: deceit and destruction are increasing day by day; they make an agreement with Assyria, and take oil into Egypt. 12:2The Lord has a cause against Judah, and will give punishment to Jacob for his ways; he will give him the reward of his acts. 12:3In the body of his mother he took his brother by the foot, and in his strength he was fighting with God; 12:4He had a fight with the angel and overcame him; he made request for grace to him with weeping; he came face to face with him in Beth-el and there his words came to him; 12:5Even the Lord, the God of armies; the Lord is his name. 12:6So then, come back to your God; keep mercy and right, and be waiting at all times on your God. 12:7As for Canaan, the scales of deceit are in his hands; he takes pleasure in twisted ways. 12:8And Ephraim said, Now I have got wealth and much property; in all my works no sin may be seen in me. 12:9But I am the Lord your God from the land of Egypt; I will give you tents for your living-places again as in the days of the holy meeting. 12:10My word came to the ears of the prophets and I gave them visions in great number, and by the mouths of the prophets I made use of comparisons. 12:11In Gilead there is evil. They are quite without value; in Gilgal they make offerings of oxen; truly their altars are like masses of stones in the hollows of a ploughed field. 12:12And Jacob went in flight into the field of Aram, and Israel became a servant for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep. 12:13And by a prophet the Lord made Israel come up out of Egypt, and by a prophet he was kept safe. 12:14I have been bitterly moved to wrath by Ephraim; so that his blood will be on him, and the Lord will make his shame come back on him.
13:1When the words of my law came from Ephraim, he was lifted up in Israel; but when he did evil through the Baal, death overtook him. 13:2And now their sins are increased; they have made themselves a metal image, false gods from their silver, after their designs, all of them the work of the metal-workers; they say of them, Let them give offerings, let men give kisses to the oxen. 13:3So they will be like the morning cloud, like the dew which goes early away, like the dust of the grain which the wind is driving out of the crushing-floor, like smoke going up from the fireplace. 13:4But I am the Lord your God, from the land of Egypt; you have knowledge of no other God and there is no saviour but me. 13:5I had knowledge of you in the waste land where no water was. 13:6When I gave them food they were full, and their hearts were full of pride, and they did not keep me in mind. 13:7So I will be like a lion to them; as a cruel beast I will keep watch by the road; 13:8I will come face to face with them like a bear whose young ones have been taken from her, and their inmost hearts will be broken; there the dogs will make a meal of them; they will be wounded by the beasts of the field. 13:9I have sent destruction on you, O Israel; who will be your helper? 13:10Where is your king, that he may be your saviour? and all your rulers, that they may take up your cause? of whom you said, Give me a king and rulers. 13:11I have given you a king, because I was angry, and have taken him away in my wrath. 13:12The wrongdoing of Ephraim is shut up; his sin is put away in secret. 13:13The pains of a woman in childbirth will come on him: he is an unwise son, for at this time it is not right for him to keep his place when children come to birth. 13:14I will give the price to make them free from the power of the underworld, I will be their saviour from death: O death! where are your pains? O underworld! where is your destruction? my eyes will have no pity. 13:15Though he gives fruit among his brothers, an east wind will come, the wind of the Lord coming up from the waste land, and his spring will become dry, his fountain will be without water: it will make waste the store of all the vessels of his desire. 13:16Samaria will be made waste, for she has gone against her God: they will be cut down by the sword, their little children will be broken on the rocks, their women who are with child will be cut open.
14:1O Israel, come back to the Lord your God; for your evil-doing has been the cause of your fall. 14:2Take with you words, and come back to the Lord; say to him, Let there be forgiveness for all wrongdoing, so that we may take what is good, and give in payment the fruit of our lips. 14:3Assyria will not be our salvation; we will not go on horses; we will not again say to the work of our hands, You are our gods; for in you there is mercy for the child who has no father. 14:4I will put right their errors; freely will my love be given to them, for my wrath is turned away from him. 14:5I will be as the dew to Israel; he will put out flowers like a lily, and send out his roots like Lebanon. 14:6His branches will be stretched out, he will be beautiful as the olive-tree and sweet-smelling as Lebanon. 14:7They will come back and have rest in his shade; their life will be made new like the grain, and they will put out flowers like the vine; his name will be like the wine of Lebanon. 14:8As for Ephraim, what has he to do with false gods any longer? I have given an answer and I will keep watch over him; I am like a branching fir-tree, from me comes your fruit. 14:9He who is wise will see these things; he who has good sense will have knowledge of them. For the ways of the Lord are straight, and the upright will go in them, but sinners will be falling in them.
Joel
1:1The word of the Lord which came to Joel, the son of Pethuel. 1:2Give ear to this, you old men, and take note, you people of the land. Has this ever been in your days, or in the days of your fathers? 1:3Give the story of it to your children, and let them give it to their children, and their children to another generation. 1:4What the worm did not make a meal of, has been taken by the locust; and what the locust did not take, has been food for the plant-worm; and what the plant-worm did not take, has been food for the field-fly. 1:5Come out of your sleep, you who are overcome with wine, and give yourselves to weeping; give cries of sorrow, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine; for it has been cut off from your mouths. 1:6For a nation has come up over my land, strong and without number; his teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the back teeth of a great lion. 1:7By him my vine is made waste and my fig-tree broken: he has taken all its fruit and sent it down to the earth; its branches are made white. 1:8Make sounds of grief like a virgin dressed in haircloth for the husband of her early years. 1:9The meal offering and the drink offering have been cut off from the house of the Lord; the priests, the Lord's servants, are sorrowing. 1:10The fields are wasted, the land has become dry; for the grain is wasted, the new wine is kept back, the oil is poor. 1:11The farmers are shamed, the workers in the vine-gardens give cries of grief, for the wheat and the barley; for the produce of the fields has come to destruction. 1:12The vine has become dry and the fig-tree is feeble; the pomegranate and the palm-tree and the apple-tree, even all the trees of the field, are dry: because joy has gone from the sons of men. 1:13Put haircloth round you and give yourselves to sorrow, you priests; give cries of grief, you servants of the altar: come in, and, clothed in haircloth, let the night go past, you servants of my God: for the meal offering and the drink offering have been kept back from the house of your God. 1:14Let a time be fixed for going without food, have a holy meeting, let the old men, even all the people of the land, come together to the house of the Lord your God, crying out to the Lord. 1:15Sorrow for the day! for the day of the Lord is near, and as destruction from the Ruler of all it will come. 1:16Is not food cut off before our eyes? joy and delight from the house of our God? 1:17The grains have become small and dry under the spade; the store-houses are made waste, the grain-stores are broken down; for the grain is dry and dead. 1:18What sounds of pain come from the beasts! the herds of cattle are at a loss because there is no grass for them; even the flocks of sheep are no longer to be seen. 1:19O Lord, my cry goes up to you: for fire has put an end to the grass-lands of the waste, and all the trees of the field are burned with its flame. 1:20The beasts of the field are turning to you with desire: for the water-streams are dry and fire has put an end to the grass-lands of the waste.
2:1Let the horn be sounded in Zion, and a war-cry in my holy mountain; let all the people of the land be troubled: for the day of the Lord is coming; 2:2For a day of dark and deep shade is near, a day of cloud and black night: like a black cloud a great and strong people is covering the mountains; there has never been any like them and will not be after them again, from generation to generation. 2:3Before them fire sends destruction, and after them flame is burning: the land is like the garden of Eden before them, and after them an unpeopled waste; truly, nothing has been kept safe from them. 2:4Their form is like the form of horses, and they are running like war-horses. 2:5Like the sound of war-carriages they go jumping on the tops of the mountains; like the noise of a flame of fire burning up the grain-stems, like a strong people lined up for the fight. 2:6At their coming the people are bent with pain: all faces become red together. 2:7They are running like strong men, they go over the wall like men of war; every man goes straight on his way, their lines are not broken. 2:8No one is pushing against another; everyone goes straight on his way: bursting through the sword points, their order is not broken. 2:9They make a rush on the town, running on the wall; they go up into the houses and in through the windows like a thief. 2:10The earth is troubled before them and the heavens are shaking: the sun and the moon have become dark, and the stars keep back their shining: 2:11And the Lord is thundering before his forces; for very great is his army; for he is strong who gives effect to his word: for the day of the Lord is great and greatly to be feared, and who has strength against it? 2:12But even now, says the Lord, come back to me with all your heart, keeping from food, with weeping and with sorrow: 2:13Let your hearts be broken, and not your clothing, and come back to the Lord your God: for he is full of grace and pity, slow to be angry and great in mercy, ready to be turned from his purpose of punishment. 2:14May it not be that he will again let his purpose be changed and let a blessing come after him, even a meal offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God? 2:15Let a horn be sounded in Zion, let a time be fixed for going without food, have a holy meeting: 2:16Get the people together, make the mass of the people holy, send for the old men, get together the children and babies at the breast: let the newly married man come out of his room and the bride from her tent. 2:17Let the priests, the servants of the Lord, be weeping between the covered way and the altar, and let them say, Have mercy on your people, O Lord, do not give up your heritage to shame, so that the nations become their rulers: why let them say among the peoples, Where is their God? 2:18Then the Lord had a care for the honour of his land and had pity on his people. 2:19And the Lord made answer and said to his people, See, I will send you grain and wine and oil in full measure: and I will no longer let you be shamed among the nations: 2:20I will send the one from the north far away from you, driving him into a dry and waste land, with his front to the sea of the east and his back to the sea of the west, and the smell of him will go up, even his evil smell will go up. 2:21Have no fear, O land; be glad with great joy; for the Lord has done great things. 2:22Have no fear, you beasts of the field, for the grass-lands of the waste are becoming green, for the trees are producing fruit, the fig-tree and the vine give out their strength. 2:23Be glad, then, you children of Zion, and have joy in the Lord your God: for he gives you food in full measure, making the rain come down for you, the early and the late rain as at the first. 2:24And the floors will be full of grain, and the crushing-places overflowing with wine and oil. 2:25I will give back to you the years which were food for the locust, the plant-worm, the field-fly, and the worm, my great army which I sent among you. 2:26You will have food in full measure, and give praise to the name of the Lord your God, who has done wonders for you: 2:27And you will be certain that I am in Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and there is no other: and my people will never be shamed. 2:28And after that, it will come about, says the Lord, that I will send my spirit on all flesh; and your sons and your daughters will be prophets, your old men will have dreams, your young men will see visions: 2:29And on the servants and the servant-girls in those days I will send my spirit. 2:30And I will let wonders be seen in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke. 2:31The sun will be made dark and the moon turned to blood, before the great day of the Lord comes, a day to be feared. 2:32And it will be that whoever makes his prayer to the name of the Lord will be kept safe: for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem some will be kept safe, as the Lord has said, and will be among the small band marked out by the Lord.
3:1For in those days and in that time, when I let the fate of Judah and Jerusalem be changed, 3:2I will get together all the nations, and make them come down into the valley of Jehoshaphat; and there I will take up with them the cause of my people and of my heritage Israel, whom they have sent wandering among the nations, and of my land which has been parted by them. 3:3And they have put the fate of my people to the decision of chance: giving a boy for the price of a loose woman and a girl for a drink of wine. 3:4And further, what are you to me, O Tyre and Zidon and all the circle of Philistia? will you give me back any payment? and if you do, quickly and suddenly I will send it back on your head, 3:5For you have taken my silver and my gold, putting in the houses of your gods my beautiful and pleasing things. 3:6And the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem you have given for a price to the sons of the Greeks, to send them far away from their land: 3:7See, I will have them moved from the place where you have sent them, and will let what you have done come back on your head; 3:8I will give your sons and your daughters into the hands of the children of Judah for a price, and they will give them for a price to the men of Sheba, a nation far off: for the Lord has said it. 3:9Give this out among the nations; make ready for war: get the strong men awake; let all the men of war come near, let them come up. 3:10Get your plough-blades hammered into swords, and your vine-knives into spears: let the feeble say, I am strong. 3:11Come quickly, all you nations round about, and get yourselves together there: make your strong ones come down, O Lord. 3:12Let the nations be awake, and come to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there I will be seated as judge of all the nations round about. 3:13Put in the blade, for the grain is ready: come, get you down, for the wine-crusher is full, the vessels are overflowing; for great is their evil-doing. 3:14Masses on masses in the valley of decision! for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. 3:15The sun and the moon have become dark, and the stars keep back their shining. 3:16And the Lord will be thundering from Zion, and his voice will be sounding from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth will be shaking: but the Lord will be a breastplate for his people and a strong place for the children of Israel. 3:17And you will be certain that I am the Lord your God, living in Zion, my holy mountain: and Jerusalem will be holy, and no strange person will ever again go through her. 3:18And it will come about in that day that the mountains will be dropping sweet wine, and the hills will be flowing with milk, and all the streams of Judah will be flowing with water; and a fountain will come out from the house of the Lord, watering the valley of acacia-trees. 3:19Egypt will be a waste and Edom a land of destruction, because of the evil done to the children of Judah, because they have let blood be drained out in their land without cause. 3:20But Judah will be peopled for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. 3:21And I will send punishment for their blood, for which punishment has not been sent, for the Lord is living in Zion.
Amos
1:1The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of Tekoa; what he saw about Israel in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earth-shock. 1:2And he said, The Lord will give a lion's cry from Zion, his voice will be sounding from Jerusalem; and the fields of the keepers of sheep will become dry, and the top of Carmel will be wasted away. 1:3These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of Damascus, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because they have been crushing Gilead with iron grain-crushing instruments. 1:4And I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, burning up the great houses of Ben-hadad. 1:5And I will have the locks of the door of Damascus broken, and him who is seated in power cut off from the valley of Aven, and him in whose hand is the rod from the house of Eden; and the people of Aram will go away as prisoners into Kir, says the Lord. 1:6These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of Gaza, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because they took all the people away prisoners, to give them up to Edom. 1:7And I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, burning up its great houses: 1:8Him who is seated in power I will have cut off from Ashdod, and him in whose hand is the rod from Ashkelon; and my hand will be turned against Ekron, and the rest of the Philistines will come to destruction, says the Lord God. 1:9These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of Tyre, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because they gave up all the people prisoners to Edom, without giving a thought to the brothers' agreement between them. 1:10And I will send a fire on the wall of Tyre, burning up its great houses. 1:11These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of Edom, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because his sword was turned against his brother, without pity, and his wrath was burning at all times, and he was angry for ever. 1:12And I will send a fire on Teman, burning up the great houses of Bozrah. 1:13These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of the children of Ammon, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because in Gilead they had women with child cut open, so that they might make wider the limits of their land. 1:14And I will make a fire in the wall of Rabbah, burning up its great houses, with loud cries in the days of war, with a storm in the day of the great wind: 1:15And their king will be made prisoner, he and his captains together, says the Lord.
2:1These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of Moab, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because he had the bones of the king of Edom burned to dust. 2:2And I will send a fire on Moab, burning up the great houses of Kerioth: and death will come on Moab with noise and outcries and the sound of the horn: 2:3And I will have the judge cut off from among them, and all their captains I will put to death with him, says the Lord. 2:4These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of Judah, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because they have given up the law of the Lord, and have not kept his rules; and their false ways, in which their fathers went, have made them go out of the right way. 2:5And I will send a fire on Judah, burning up the great houses of Jerusalem. 2:6These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of Israel, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because they have given the upright man for silver, and the poor for the price of two shoes; 2:7Crushing the head of the poor, and turning the steps of the gentle out of the way: and a man and his father go in to the same young woman, putting shame on my holy name: 2:8By every altar they are stretched on clothing taken from those who are in their debt, drinking in the house of their god the wine of those who have made payment for wrongdoing. 2:9Though I sent destruction on the Amorite before them, who was tall as the cedar and strong as the oak-tree, cutting off his fruit from on high and his roots from under the earth. 2:10And I took you up out of the land of Egypt, guiding you for forty years in the waste land, so that you might take for your heritage the land of the Amorite. 2:11And some of your sons I made prophets, and some of your young men I made separate for myself. Is it not even so, O children of Israel? says the Lord. 2:12But to those who were separate you gave wine for drink; and to the prophets you said, Be prophets no longer. 2:13See, I am crushing you down, as one is crushed under a cart full of grain. 2:14And flight will be impossible for the quick-footed, and the force of the strong will become feeble, and the man of war will not get away safely: 2:15And the bowman will not keep his place; he who is quick-footed will not get away safely: and the horseman will not keep his life. 2:16And he who is without fear among the fighting men will go in flight without his clothing in that day, says the Lord.
3:1Give ear to this word which the Lord has said against you, O children of Israel, against all the family which I took up out of the land of Egypt, saying, 3:2You only of all the families of the earth have I taken care of: for this reason I will send punishment on you for all your sins. 3:3Is it possible for two to go walking together, if not by agreement? 3:4Will a lion give his loud cry in the woodland when no food is there? will the voice of the young lion be sounding from his hole if he has taken nothing? 3:5Is it possible for a bird to be taken in a net on the earth where no net has been put for him? will the net come up from the earth if it has taken nothing at all? 3:6If the horn is sounded in the town will the people not be full of fear? will evil come on a town if the Lord has not done it? 3:7Certainly the Lord will do nothing without making clear his secret to his servants, the prophets. 3:8The cry of the lion is sounding; who will not have fear? The Lord God has said the word; is it possible for the prophet to keep quiet? 3:9Give out the news in the great houses of Assyria and in the land of Egypt, and say, Come together on the mountains of Samaria, and see what great outcries are there, and what cruel acts are done in it. 3:10For they have no knowledge of how to do what is right, says the Lord, who are storing up violent acts and destruction in their great houses. 3:11For this reason, says the Lord, an attacker will come, shutting in the land on every side; and your strength will come down and your great houses will be made waste. 3:12These are the words of the Lord: As the keeper of sheep takes out of the mouth of the lion two legs or part of an ear; so will the children of Israel be made safe, who are resting in Samaria on seats of honour or on the silk cushions of a bed. 3:13Give ear now, and give witness against the family of Jacob, says the Lord God, the God of armies; 3:14For in the day when I give Israel punishment for his sins, I will send punishment on the altars of Beth-el, and the horns of the altar will be cut off and come down to the earth. 3:15And I will send destruction on the winter house with the summer house; the ivory houses will be falling down and the great houses will come to an end, says the Lord.
4:1Give ear to this word, you cows of Bashan, who are in the hill of Samaria, by whom the poor are kept down, and those in need are crushed; who say to their lords, Get out the wine and give us drink. 4:2The Lord God has taken an oath by his holy name, that the days are coming when they will take you away with hooks, and the rest of you with fish-hooks. 4:3And you will go out through the broken places, every one going straight before her, and you will be sent into Harmon, says the Lord. 4:4Come to Beth-el and do evil; to Gilgal, increasing the number of your sins; come with your offerings every morning and your tenths every three days: 4:5Let that which is leavened be burned as a praise-offering, let the news of your free offerings be given out publicly; for this is pleasing to you, O children of Israel, says the Lord. 4:6But in all your towns I have kept food from your teeth, and in all your places there has been need of bread: and still you have not come back to me, says the Lord. 4:7And I have kept back the rain from you, when it was still three months before the grain-cutting: I sent rain on one town and kept it back from another: one part was rained on, and the part where there was no rain became a waste. 4:8So two or three towns went wandering to one town looking for water, and did not get enough: and still you have not come back to me, says the Lord. 4:9I have sent destruction on your fields by burning and disease: the increase of your gardens and your vine-gardens, your fig-trees and your olive-trees, has been food for worms: and still you have not come back to me, says the Lord. 4:10I have sent disease among you, as it was in Egypt: I have put your young men to the sword, and have taken away your horses; I have made the evil smell from your tents come up to your noses: and still you have not come back to me, says the Lord. 4:11And I have sent destruction among you, as when God sent destruction on Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a burning stick pulled out of the fire: and still you have not come back to me, says the Lord. 4:12So this is what I will do to you, O Israel: and because I will do this to you, be ready for a meeting with your God, O Israel. 4:13For see, he who gave form to the mountains and made the wind, giving knowledge of his purpose to man, who makes the morning dark, and is walking on the high places of the earth: the Lord, the God of armies, is his name.
5:1Give ear to this word, my song of sorrow over you, O children of Israel. 5:2The virgin of Israel has been made low, never again to be lifted up: she is stretched out by herself on her land; there is no one to put her on her feet again. 5:3For these are the words of the Lord God: The town which was able to send out a thousand, will have only a hundred; and that which sent out a hundred, will have only ten, in Israel. 5:4For these are the words of the Lord to the children of Israel: Let your hearts be turned to me, so that you may have life: 5:5Do not be looking for help to Beth-el, and do not go to Gilgal, or make your way to Beer-sheba: for Gilgal will certainly be taken prisoner, and Beth-el will come to nothing. 5:6Go to the Lord for help so that you may have life; for fear that he may come like fire bursting out in the family of Joseph, causing destruction, and there will be no one to put it out in Beth-el. 5:7You who make the work of judging a bitter thing, crushing down righteousness to the earth; 5:8Go for help to him who makes Orion and the Pleiades, by whom the deep dark is turned into morning, who makes the day black with night; whose voice goes out to the waters of the sea, sending them out over the face of the earth: the Lord is his name; 5:9Who sends sudden destruction on the strong, so that destruction comes on the walled town. 5:10They have hate for him who makes protest against evil in the public place, and he whose words are upright is disgusting to them. 5:11So because the poor man is crushed under your feet, and you take taxes from him of grain: you have made for yourselves houses of cut stone, but you will not take your rest in them; the fair vine-gardens planted by your hands will not give you wine. 5:12For I have seen how your evil-doing is increased and how strong are your sins, you troublers of the upright, who take rewards and do wrong to the cause of the poor in the public place. 5:13So the wise will say nothing in that time; for it is an evil time. 5:14Go after good and not evil, so that life may be yours: and so the Lord, the God of armies, will be with you, as you say. 5:15Be haters of evil and lovers of good, and let right be done in the public place: it may be that the Lord, the God of armies, will have mercy on the rest of Joseph. 5:16So these are the words of the Lord, the God of armies, the Lord: There will be weeping in all the open spaces; and in all the streets they will say, Sorrow! sorrow! and they will get in the farmer to the weeping, and the makers of sad songs to give cries of grief. 5:17In all the vine-gardens there will be cries of grief: for I will go through among you, says the Lord. 5:18Sorrow to you who are looking for the day of the Lord! what is the day of the Lord to you? it is dark and not light. 5:19As if a man, running away from a lion, came face to face with a bear; or went into the house and put his hand on the wall and got a bite from a snake. 5:20Will not the day of the Lord be dark and not light? even very dark, with no light shining in it? 5:21Your feasts are disgusting to me, I will have nothing to do with them; I will take no delight in your holy meetings. 5:22Even if you give me your burned offerings and your meal offerings, I will not take pleasure in them: I will have nothing to do with the peace-offerings of your fat beasts. 5:23Take away from me the noise of your songs; my ears are shut to the melody of your instruments. 5:24But let the right go rolling on like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. 5:25Did you come to me with offerings of beasts and meal offerings in the waste land for forty years, O Israel? 5:26Truly, you will take up Saccuth your king and Kaiwan your images, the star of your god, which you made for yourselves. 5:27And I will send you away as prisoners farther than Damascus, says the Lord, whose name is the God of armies.
6:1Sorrow to those who are resting in comfort in Zion, and to those who have no fear of danger in the mountain of Samaria, the noted men of the chief of the nations, to whom the people of Israel come! 6:2Go on to Calneh and see; and from there go to Hamath the great; then go down to Gath of the Philistines: are you better than these kingdoms? or is your land wider than theirs? 6:3You who put far away the evil day, causing the rule of the violent to come near; 6:4Who are resting on beds of ivory, stretched out on soft seats, feasting on lambs from the flock and young oxen from the cattle-house; 6:5Making foolish songs to the sound of corded instruments, and designing for themselves instruments of music, like David; 6:6Drinking wine in basins, rubbing themselves with the best oils; but they have no grief for the destruction of Joseph. 6:7So now they will go away prisoners with the first of those who are made prisoners, and the loud cry of those who were stretched out will come to an end. 6:8The Lord God has taken an oath by himself, says the Lord, the God of armies: the pride of Jacob is disgusting to me, and I have hate for his great houses: so I will give up the town with everything in it. 6:9Then it will come about that if there are still ten men in a house, death will overtake them. 6:10And when a man's relation, even the one who is responsible for burning his body, lifting him up to take his bones out of the house, says to him who is in the inmost part of the house, Is there still anyone with you? and he says, No; then he will say, Keep quiet, for the name of the Lord may not be named. 6:11For see, at the order of the Lord the great house will be full of cracks and the little house will be broken. 6:12Is it possible for horses to go running on the rock? may the sea be ploughed with oxen? for the right to be turned by you into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into a bitter plant? 6:13You whose joy is in a thing of no value, who say, Have we not taken for ourselves horns by the strength which is ours? 6:14For see, I will send against you a nation, O Israel, says the Lord, the God of armies, ruling you cruelly from the way into Hamath as far as the stream of the Arabah.
7:1This is what the Lord God let me see: and I saw that, when the growth of the late grass was starting, he made locusts; it was the late growth after the king's cutting was done. 7:2And it came about that after they had taken all the grass of the land, I said, O Lord God, have mercy: how will Jacob be able to keep his place? for he is small. 7:3The Lord, changing his purpose about this, said, It will not be. 7:4This is what the Lord let me see: and I saw that the Lord God sent for a great fire to be the instrument of his punishment; and, after burning up the great deep, it was about to put an end to the Lord's heritage. 7:5Then said I, O Lord God, let there be an end: how will Jacob be able to keep his place? for he is small. 7:6The Lord, changing his purpose about this, said, And this will not be. 7:7This is what he let me see: and I saw the Lord stationed by a wall made straight by a weighted line, and he had a weighted line in his hand. 7:8And the Lord said to me, Amos, what do you see? And I said, A weighted line. Then the Lord said, See, I will let down a weighted line among my people Israel; never again will my eyes be shut to their sin: 7:9And the high places of Isaac will be unpeopled, and the holy places of Israel will be made waste; and I will come up against the family of Jeroboam with the sword. 7:10Then Amaziah, the priest of Beth-el, sent to Jeroboam, king of Israel, saying, Amos has made designs against you among the people of Israel: the land is troubled by his words. 7:11For Amos has said, Jeroboam will be put to the sword, and Israel will certainly be taken away as a prisoner out of his land. 7:12And Amaziah said to Amos, O seer, go in flight into the land of Judah, and there get your living by working as a prophet: 7:13But be a prophet no longer at Beth-el: for it is the holy place of the king, and the king's house. 7:14Then Amos in answer said to Amaziah, I am no prophet, or one of the sons of the prophets; I am a herdman and one who takes care of sycamore-trees: 7:15And the Lord took me from the flock, and the Lord said to me, Go, be a prophet to my people Israel. 7:16Now then, give ear to the word of the Lord: You say, Be no prophet to Israel, and say not a word against the people of Isaac. 7:17So this is what the Lord has said: Your wife will be a loose woman in the town, and your sons and your daughters will be put to the sword, and your land will be cut up into parts by a line; and you yourself will come to your end in an unclean land, and Israel will certainly be taken away a prisoner out of his land.
8:1This is what the Lord God let me see: and I saw a basket of summer fruit. 8:2And 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. 8:3And 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. 8:4Give 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, 8:5Saying, 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; 8:6Getting 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. 8:7The Lord has taken an oath by the pride of Jacob, Truly I will ever keep in mind all their works. 8:8Will 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. 8:9And 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: 8:10Your 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. 8:11See, 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. 8:12And 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. 8:13In that day the fair virgins and the young men will be feeble from need of water. 8:14Those 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.
9:1I saw the Lord stationed by the side of the altar, giving blows to the tops of the pillars so that the doorsteps were shaking: and he said, I will let all of them be broken with earth-shocks; I will put the last of them to the sword: if any one of them goes in flight he will not get away, not one of them will be safe. 9:2Even if they go deep into the underworld, my hand will take them up from there; if they go up to heaven, I will get them down: 9:3Though they take cover on the top of Carmel, I will go in search of them and get them out; though they keep themselves from my eyes in the bed of the sea, I will give orders to the great snake there and he will give them a bite: 9:4And though they are taken away as prisoners by their attackers, even there will I give orders to the sword to put them to death: my eyes will be fixed on them for evil and not for good. 9:5For the Lord, the God of armies, is he at whose touch the land is turned to water, and everyone in it will be given up to sorrow; all of it will be overflowing like the River, and will go down again like the River of Egypt; 9:6It is he who makes his rooms in the heaven, basing his arch on the earth; whose voice goes out to the waters of the sea, and sends them flowing over the face of the earth; the Lord is his name. 9:7Are you not as the children of the Ethiopians to me, O children of Israel? says the Lord. Have I not taken Israel up out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Aramaeans from Kir? 9:8See, the eyes of the Lord are on the evil kingdom, and I will put an end to it in all the earth; but I will not send complete destruction on Jacob, says the Lord. 9:9For see, I will give orders, and I will have Israel moved about among all the nations, as grain is moved about by the shaking of the tray, but not the smallest seed will be dropped on the earth. 9:10All those sinners among my people will be put to the sword who say, Evil will not overtake us or come face to face with us. 9:11In that day I will put up the tent of David which has come down, and make good its broken places; and I will put up again his damaged walls, building it up as in the past; 9:12So that the rest of Edom may be their heritage, and all the nations who have been named by my name, says the Lord, who is doing this. 9:13See, the days will come, says the Lord, when the ploughman will overtake him who is cutting the grain, and the crusher of the grapes him who is planting seed; and sweet wine will be dropping from the mountains, and the hills will be turned into streams of wine. 9:14And I will let the fate of my people Israel be changed, and they will be building up again the waste towns and living in them; they will again be planting vine-gardens and taking the wine for their drink; and they will make gardens and get the fruit of them. 9:15And I will have them planted in their land, and never again will they be uprooted from their land which I have given them, says the Lord your God.