9:1Don’t rejoice, Israel, to jubilation like the nations; for you were unfaithful to your God. You love the wages of a prostitute at every grain threshing floor. 9:2The threshing floor and the wine press won’t feed them, and the new wine will fail her. 9:3They won’t dwell in Yahweh’s land; but Ephraim will return to Egypt, and they will eat unclean food in Assyria. 9:4They won’t pour out wine offerings to Yahweh, neither will they be pleasing to him. Their sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners; all who eat of it will be polluted; for their bread will be for their appetite. It will not come into Yahweh’s house. 9:5What will you do in the day of solemn assembly, and in the day of the feast of Yahweh? 9:6For, behold, they have gone away from destruction. Egypt will gather them up. Memphis will bury them. Nettles will possess their pleasant things of silver. Thorns will be in their tents. 9:7The days of visitation have come. The days of reckoning have come. Israel will consider the prophet to be a fool, and the man who is inspired to be insane, because of the abundance of your sins, and because your hostility is great. 9:8A prophet watches over Ephraim with my God. A fowler’s snare is on all of his paths, and hostility in the house of his God. 9:9They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their iniquity. He will punish them for their sins. 9:10I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness. I saw your fathers as the first ripe in the fig tree at its first season; but they came to Baal Peor, and consecrated themselves to the shameful thing, and became abominable like that which they loved. 9:11As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird. There will be no birth, no one with child, and no conception. 9:12Though they bring up their children, yet I will bereave them, so that not a man shall be left. Indeed, woe also to them when I depart from them! 9:13I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place; but Ephraim will bring out his children to the murderer. 9:14Give them—Yahweh what will you give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts. 9:15“All their wickedness is in Gilgal; for there I hated them. Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of my house! I will love them no more. All their princes are rebels. 9:16Ephraim is struck. Their root has dried up. They will bear no fruit. Even though they give birth, yet I will kill the beloved ones of their womb.” 9:17My God will cast them away, because they did not listen to him; and they will be wanderers among the nations.
10:1Israel is a luxuriant vine that produces his fruit. According to the abundance of his fruit he has multiplied his altars. As their land has prospered, they have adorned their sacred stones. 10:2Their heart is divided. Now they will be found guilty. He will demolish their altars. He will destroy their sacred stones. 10:3Surely now they will say, “We have no king; for we don’t fear Yahweh; and the king, what can he do for us?” 10:4They make promises, swearing falsely in making covenants. Therefore judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field. 10:5The inhabitants of Samaria will be in terror for the calves of Beth Aven; for its people will mourn over it, Along with its priests who rejoiced over it, for its glory, because it has departed from it. 10:6It also will be carried to Assyria for a present to a great king. Ephraim will receive shame, and Israel will be ashamed of his own counsel. 10:7Samaria and her king float away, like a twig on the water. 10:8The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, will be destroyed. The thorn and the thistle will come up on their altars. They will tell the mountains, “Cover us!” and the hills, “Fall on us!” 10:9“Israel, you have sinned from the days of Gibeah. There they remained. The battle against the children of iniquity doesn’t overtake them in Gibeah. 10:10When it is my desire, I will chastise them; and the nations will be gathered against them, when they are bound to their two transgressions. 10:11Ephraim is a trained heifer that loves to thresh; so I will put a yoke on her beautiful neck. I will set a rider on Ephraim. Judah will plow. Jacob will break his clods. 10:12Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap according to kindness. Break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek Yahweh, until he comes and rains righteousness on you. 10:13You have plowed wickedness. You have reaped iniquity. You have eaten the fruit of lies, for you trusted in your way, in the multitude of your mighty men. 10:14Therefore a battle roar will arise among your people, and all your fortresses will be destroyed, as Shalman destroyed Beth Arbel in the day of battle. The mother was dashed in pieces with her children. 10:15So Bethel will do to you because of your great wickedness. At daybreak the king of Israel will be destroyed.
11:1“When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. 11:2They called to them, so they went from them. They sacrificed to the Baals, and burned incense to engraved images. 11:3Yet I taught Ephraim to walk. I took them by his arms; but they didn’t know that I healed them. 11:4I drew them with cords of a man, with ties of love; and I was to them like those who lift up the yoke on their necks; and I bent down to him and I fed him. 11:5“They won’t return into the land of Egypt; but the Assyrian will be their king, because they refused to repent. 11:6The sword will fall on their cities, and will destroy the bars of their gates, and will put an end to their plans. 11:7My people are determined to turn from me. Though they call to the Most High, he certainly won’t exalt them. 11:8“How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim? My heart is turned within me, my compassion is aroused. 11:9I will not execute the fierceness of my anger. I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One among you; and I will not come in wrath. 11:10They will walk after Yahweh, who will roar like a lion; for he will roar, and the children will come trembling from the west. 11:11They will come trembling like a bird out of Egypt, and like a dove out of the land of Assyria; and I will settle them in their houses,” says Yahweh. 11:12Ephraim surrounds me with falsehood, and the house of Israel with deceit. Judah still strays from God, and is unfaithful to the Holy One.
12:1Ephraim feeds on wind, and chases the east wind. He continually multiplies lies and desolation. They make a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried into Egypt. 12:2Yahweh also has a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his deeds he will repay him. 12:3In the womb he took his brother by the heel; and in his manhood he contended with God. 12:4Indeed, he struggled with the angel, and prevailed; he wept, and made supplication to him. He found him at Bethel, and there he spoke with us, 12:5even Yahweh, the God of Armies; Yahweh is his name of renown! 12:6Therefore turn to your God. Keep kindness and justice, and wait continually for your God. 12:7A merchant has dishonest scales in his hand. He loves to defraud. 12:8Ephraim said, “Surely I have become rich, I have found myself wealth. In all my wealth they won’t find in me any iniquity that is sin.” 12:9“But I am Yahweh your God from the land of Egypt. I will yet again make you dwell in tents, as in the days of the solemn feast. 12:10I have also spoken to the prophets, and I have multiplied visions; and by the ministry of the prophets I have used parables. 12:11If Gilead is wicked, surely they are worthless. In Gilgal they sacrifice bulls. Indeed, their altars are like heaps in the furrows of the field. 12:12Jacob fled into the country of Aram, and Israel served to get a wife, and for a wife he tended flocks and herds. 12:13By a prophet Yahweh brought Israel up out of Egypt, and by a prophet he was preserved. 12:14Ephraim has bitterly provoked anger. Therefore his blood will be left on him, and his Lord will repay his contempt.
13:1When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling. He exalted himself in Israel, but when he became guilty in Baal, he died. 13:2Now they sin more and more, and have made themselves molten images of their silver, even idols according to their own understanding, all of them the work of the craftsmen. They say of them, ‘They offer human sacrifice and kiss the calves.’ 13:3Therefore they will be like the morning mist, and like the dew that passes away early, like the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the threshing floor, and like the smoke out of the chimney. 13:4“Yet I am Yahweh your God from the land of Egypt; and you shall acknowledge no god but me, and besides me there is no savior. 13:5I knew you in the wilderness, in the land of great drought. 13:6According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted. Therefore they have forgotten me. 13:7Therefore I am like a lion to them. Like a leopard, I will lurk by the path. 13:8I will meet them like a bear that is bereaved of her cubs, and will tear the covering of their heart. There I will devour them like a lioness. The wild animal will tear them. 13:9You are destroyed, Israel, because you are against me, against your help. 13:10Where is your king now, that he may save you in all your cities? And your judges, of whom you said, ‘Give me a king and princes?’ 13:11I have given you a king in my anger, and have taken him away in my wrath. 13:12The guilt of Ephraim is stored up. His sin is stored up. 13:13The sorrows of a travailing woman will come on him. He is an unwise son; for when it is time, he doesn’t come to the opening of the womb. 13:14I will ransom them from the power of Sheol. I will redeem them from death! Death, where are your plagues? Sheol, where is your destruction? “Compassion will be hidden from my eyes. 13:15Though he is fruitful among his brothers, an east wind will come, the breath of Yahweh coming up from the wilderness; and his spring will become dry, and his fountain will be dried up. He will plunder the storehouse of treasure. 13:16Samaria will bear her guilt; for she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women will be ripped open.”
14:1Israel, return to Yahweh your God; for you have fallen because of your sin. 14:2Take words with you, and return to Yahweh. Tell him, “Forgive all our sins, and accept that which is good: so we offer our lips like bulls. 14:3Assyria can’t save us. We won’t ride on horses; neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, ‘Our gods!’ for in you the fatherless finds mercy.” 14:4“I will heal their waywardness. I will love them freely; for my anger is turned away from him. 14:5I will be like the dew to Israel. He will blossom like the lily, and send down his roots like Lebanon. 14:6His branches will spread, and his beauty will be like the olive tree, and his fragrance like Lebanon. 14:7Men will dwell in his shade. They will revive like the grain, and blossom like the vine. Their fragrance will be like the wine of Lebanon. 14:8Ephraim, what have I to do any more with idols? I answer, and will take care of him. I am like a green cypress tree; from me your fruit is found.” 14:9Who is wise, that he may understand these things? Who is prudent, that he may know them? For the ways of Yahweh are right, and the righteous walk in them; But the rebellious stumble in them.
Joel
1:1Yahweh’s word that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel. 1:2Hear this, you elders, And listen, all you inhabitants of the land. Has this ever happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers? 1:3Tell your children about it, and have your children tell their children, and their children, another generation. 1:4What the swarming locust has left, the great locust has eaten. What the great locust has left, the grasshopper has eaten. What the grasshopper has left, the caterpillar has eaten. 1:5Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine; for it is cut off from your mouth. 1:6For a nation has come up on my land, strong, and without number. His teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a lioness. 1:7He has laid my vine waste, and stripped my fig tree. He has stripped its bark, and thrown it away. Its branches are made white. 1:8Mourn like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth! 1:9The meal offering and the drink offering are cut off from Yahweh’s house. The priests, Yahweh’s ministers, mourn. 1:10The field is laid waste. The land mourns, for the grain is destroyed, The new wine has dried up, and the oil languishes. 1:11Be confounded, you farmers! Wail, you vineyard keepers; for the wheat and for the barley; for the harvest of the field has perished. 1:12The vine has dried up, and the fig tree withered; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all of the trees of the field are withered; for joy has withered away from the sons of men. 1:13Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests! Wail, you ministers of the altar. Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God, for the meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from your God’s house. 1:14Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders, and all the inhabitants of the land, to the house of Yahweh, your God, and cry to Yahweh. 1:15Alas for the day! For the day of Yahweh is at hand, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty. 1:16Isn’t the food cut off before our eyes; joy and gladness from the house of our God? 1:17The seeds rot under their clods. The granaries are laid desolate. The barns are broken down, for the grain has withered. 1:18How the animals groan! The herds of livestock are perplexed, because they have no pasture. Yes, the flocks of sheep are made desolate. 1:19Yahweh, I cry to you, For the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame has burned all the trees of the field. 1:20Yes, the animals of the field pant to you, for the water brooks have dried up, And the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.
2:1Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of Yahweh comes, for it is close at hand: 2:2A day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness. As the dawn spreading on the mountains, a great and strong people; there has never been the like, neither will there be any more after them, even to the years of many generations. 2:3A fire devours before them, and behind them, a flame burns. The land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them, a desolate wilderness. Yes, and no one has escaped them. 2:4Their appearance is as the appearance of horses, and as horsemen, so do they run. 2:5Like the noise of chariots on the tops of the mountains do they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devours the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array. 2:6At their presence the peoples are in anguish. All faces have grown pale. 2:7They run like mighty men. They climb the wall like warriors. They each march in his line, and they don’t swerve off course. 2:8Neither does one jostle another; they march everyone in his path, and they burst through the defenses, and don’t break ranks. 2:9They rush on the city. They run on the wall. They climb up into the houses. They enter in at the windows like thieves. 2:10The earth quakes before them. The heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. 2:11Yahweh thunders his voice before his army; for his forces are very great; for he is strong who obeys his command; for the day of Yahweh is great and very awesome, and who can endure it? 2:12“Yet even now,” says Yahweh, “turn to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.” 2:13Tear your heart, and not your garments, and turn to Yahweh, your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity. 2:14Who knows? He may turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, even a meal offering and a drink offering to Yahweh, your God. 2:15Blow the trumpet in Zion! Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. 2:16Gather the people. Sanctify the assembly. Assemble the elders. Gather the children, and those who nurse from breasts. Let the bridegroom go out of his room, and the bride out of her room. 2:17Let the priests, the ministers of Yahweh, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, “Spare your people, Yahweh, and don’t give your heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’” 2:18Then Yahweh was jealous for his land, And had pity on his people. 2:19Yahweh answered his people, “Behold, I will send you grain, new wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied with them; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations. 2:20But I will remove the northern army far away from you, and will drive it into a barren and desolate land, its front into the eastern sea, and its back into the western sea; and its stench will come up, and its bad smell will rise.” Surely he has done great things. 2:21Land, don’t be afraid. Be glad and rejoice, for Yahweh has done great things. 2:22Don’t be afraid, you animals of the field; for the pastures of the wilderness spring up, for the tree bears its fruit. The fig tree and the vine yield their strength. 2:23“Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in Yahweh, your God; for he gives you the former rain in just measure, and he causes the rain to come down for you, the former rain and the latter rain, as before. 2:24The threshing floors will be full of wheat, and the vats will overflow with new wine and oil. 2:25I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the great locust, the grasshopper, and the caterpillar, my great army, which I sent among you. 2:26You will have plenty to eat, and be satisfied, and will praise the name of Yahweh, your God, who has dealt wondrously with you; and my people will never again be disappointed. 2:27You will know that I am among Israel, and that I am Yahweh, your God, and there is no one else; and my people will never again be disappointed. 2:28“It will happen afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; and your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions. 2:29And also on the servants and on the handmaids in those days, I will pour out my Spirit. 2:30I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood, fire, and pillars of smoke. 2:31The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of Yahweh comes. 2:32It will happen that whoever will call on Yahweh’s name shall be saved; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, as Yahweh has said, and among the remnant, those whom Yahweh calls.
3:1“For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, 3:2I will gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will execute judgment on them there for my people, and for my heritage, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations. They have divided my land, 3:3and have cast lots for my people, and have given a boy for a prostitute, and sold a girl for wine, that they may drink. 3:4“Yes, and what are you to me, Tyre, and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Will you repay me? And if you repay me, I will swiftly and speedily return your repayment on your own head. 3:5Because you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried my finest treasures into your temples, 3:6and have sold the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem to the sons of the Greeks, that you may remove them far from their border. 3:7Behold, I will stir them up out of the place where you have sold them, and will return your repayment on your own head; 3:8and I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hands of the children of Judah, and they will sell them to the men of Sheba, to a faraway nation, for Yahweh has spoken it.” 3:9Proclaim this among the nations: “Prepare for war! Stir up the mighty men. Let all the warriors draw near. Let them come up. 3:10Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’ 3:11Hurry and come, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves together.” Cause your mighty ones to come down there, Yahweh. 3:12“Let the nations arouse themselves, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit to judge all the surrounding nations. 3:13Put in the sickle; for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread, for the wine press is full, the vats overflow, for their wickedness is great.” 3:14Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of Yahweh is near, in the valley of decision. 3:15The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. 3:16Yahweh will roar from Zion, and thunder from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth will shake; but Yahweh will be a refuge to his people, and a stronghold to the children of Israel. 3:17“So you will know that I am Yahweh, your God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain. Then Jerusalem will be holy, and no strangers will pass through her any more. 3:18It will happen in that day, that the mountains will drop down sweet wine, the hills will flow with milk, all the brooks of Judah will flow with waters, and a fountain will flow out from Yahweh’s house, and will water the valley of Shittim. 3:19Egypt will be a desolation, and Edom will be a desolate wilderness, for the violence done to the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land. 3:20But Judah will be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. 3:21I will cleanse their blood, that I have not cleansed: for Yahweh dwells in Zion.”
Amos
1:1The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning 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 earthquake. 1:2He said: “Yahweh will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the pastures of the shepherds will mourn, and the top of Carmel will wither.” 1:3Yahweh says: “For three transgressions of Damascus, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron; 1:4but I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, and it will devour the palaces of Ben Hadad. 1:5I will break the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the valley of Aven, and him who holds the scepter from the house of Eden; and the people of Syria shall go into captivity to Kir,” says Yahweh. 1:6Yahweh says: “For three transgressions of Gaza, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they carried away captive the whole community, to deliver them up to Edom; 1:7but I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, and it will devour its palaces. 1:8I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod, and him who holds the scepter from Ashkelon; and I will turn my hand against Ekron; and the remnant of the Philistines will perish,” says the Lord Yahweh. 1:9Yahweh says: “For three transgressions of Tyre, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they delivered up the whole community to Edom, and didn’t remember the brotherly covenant; 1:10but I will send a fire on the wall of Tyre, and it will devour its palaces.” 1:11Yahweh says: “For three transgressions of Edom, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because he pursued his brother with the sword, and cast off all pity, and his anger raged continually, and he kept his wrath forever; 1:12but I will send a fire on Teman, and it will devour the palaces of Bozrah.” 1:13Yahweh says: “For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead, that they may enlarge their border. 1:14But I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it will devour its palaces, with shouting in the day of battle, with a storm in the day of the whirlwind; 1:15and their king will go into captivity, he and his princes together,” says Yahweh.
2:1Yahweh says: “For three transgressions of Moab, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime; 2:2but I will send a fire on Moab, and it will devour the palaces of Kerioth; and Moab will die with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet; 2:3and I will cut off the judge from among them, and will kill all its princes with him,” says Yahweh. 2:4Yahweh says: “For three transgressions of Judah, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have rejected Yahweh’s law, and have not kept his statutes, and their lies have led them astray, after which their fathers walked; 2:5but I will send a fire on Judah, and it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem.” 2:6Yahweh says: “For three transgressions of Israel, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have sold the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; 2:7They trample on the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and deny justice to the oppressed; and a man and his father use the same maiden, to profane my holy name; 2:8and they lay themselves down beside every altar on clothes taken in pledge; and in the house of their God they drink the wine of those who have been fined. 2:9Yet I destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath. 2:10Also I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and led you forty years in the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite. 2:11I raised up some of your sons for prophets, and some of your young men for Nazirites. Isn’t this true, you children of Israel?” says Yahweh. 2:12“But you gave the Nazirites wine to drink, and commanded the prophets, saying, ‘Don’t prophesy!’ 2:13Behold, I will crush you in your place, as a cart crushes that is full of grain. 2:14Flight will perish from the swift; and the strong won’t strengthen his force; neither shall the mighty deliver himself; 2:15neither shall he stand who handles the bow; and he who is swift of foot won’t escape; neither shall he who rides the horse deliver himself; 2:16and he who is courageous among the mighty will flee away naked on that day,” says Yahweh.
3:1Hear this word that Yahweh has spoken against you, children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up out of the land of Egypt, saying: 3:2“I have only chosen you of all the families of the earth. Therefore I will punish you for all of your sins.” 3:3Do two walk together, unless they have agreed? 3:4Will a lion roar in the thicket, when he has no prey? Does a young lion cry out of his den, if he has caught nothing? 3:5Can a bird fall in a trap on the earth, where no snare is set for him? Does a snare spring up from the ground, when there is nothing to catch? 3:6Does the trumpet alarm sound in a city, without the people being afraid? Does evil happen to a city, and Yahweh hasn’t done it? 3:7Surely the Lord Yahweh will do nothing, unless he reveals his secret to his servants the prophets. 3:8The lion has roared. Who will not fear? The Lord Yahweh has spoken. Who can but prophesy? 3:9Proclaim in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, “Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria, and see what unrest is in her, and what oppression is among them.” 3:10“Indeed they don’t know to do right,” says Yahweh, “Who hoard plunder and loot in their palaces.” 3:11Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: “An adversary will overrun the land; and he will pull down your strongholds, and your fortresses will be plundered.” 3:12Yahweh says: “As the shepherd rescues out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so shall the children of Israel be rescued who sit in Samaria on the corner of a couch, and on the silken cushions of a bed.” 3:13“Listen, and testify against the house of Jacob,” says the Lord Yahweh, the God of Armies. 3:14“For in the day that I visit the transgressions of Israel on him, I will also visit the altars of Bethel; and the horns of the altar will be cut off, and fall to the ground. 3:15I will strike the winter house with the summer house; and the houses of ivory will perish, and the great houses will have an end,” says Yahweh.
4:1Listen to this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who tell their husbands, “Bring us drinks!” 4:2The Lord Yahweh has sworn by his holiness that behold, “The days shall come on you that they will take you away with hooks, and the last of you with fish hooks. 4:3You will go out at the breaks in the wall, everyone straight before her; and you will cast yourselves into Harmon,” says Yahweh. 4:4“Go to Bethel, and sin; to Gilgal, and sin more. Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days, 4:5offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened, and proclaim free will offerings and brag about them: for this pleases you, you children of Israel,” says the Lord Yahweh. 4:6“I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in every town; yet you haven’t returned to me,” says Yahweh. 4:7“I also have withheld the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest; and I caused it to rain on one city, and caused it not to rain on another city. One place was rained on, and the piece where it didn’t rain withered. 4:8So two or three cities staggered to one city to drink water, and were not satisfied: yet you haven’t returned to me,” says Yahweh. 4:9“I struck you with blight and mildew many times in your gardens and your vineyards; and your fig trees and your olive trees have the swarming locust devoured: yet you haven’t returned to me,” says Yahweh. 4:10“I sent plagues among you like I did Egypt. I have slain your young men with the sword, and have carried away your horses; and I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camp, yet you haven’t returned to me,” says Yahweh. 4:11“I have overthrown some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a burning stick plucked out of the fire; yet you haven’t returned to me,” says Yahweh. 4:12“Therefore thus will I do to you, Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, Israel. 4:13For, behold, he who forms the mountains, and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought; who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the high places of the earth: Yahweh, the God of Armies, is his name.”
5:1Listen to this word which I take up for a lamentation over you, O house of Israel. 5:2“The virgin of Israel has fallen; She shall rise no more. She is cast down on her land; there is no one to raise her up.” 5:3For thus says the Lord Yahweh: “The city that went out a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went out one hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel.” 5:4For Yahweh says to the house of Israel: “Seek me, and you will live; 5:5but don’t seek Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and don’t pass to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nothing. 5:6Seek Yahweh, and you will live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, and there be no one to quench it in Bethel. 5:7You who turn justice to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth: 5:8seek him who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns the shadow of death into the morning, and makes the day dark with night; who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the surface of the earth, Yahweh is his name, 5:9who brings sudden destruction on the strong, so that destruction comes on the fortress. 5:10They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks blamelessly. 5:11Therefore, because you trample on the poor, and take taxes from him of wheat: You have built houses of cut stone, but you will not dwell in them. You have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine. 5:12For I know how many your offenses, and how great are your sins— you who afflict the just, who take a bribe, and who turn away the needy in the courts. 5:13Therefore a prudent person keeps silent in such a time, for it is an evil time. 5:14Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be with you, as you say. 5:15Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the courts. It may be that Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.” 5:16Therefore Yahweh, the God of Armies, the Lord, says: “Wailing will be in all the wide ways; and they will say in all the streets, ‘Alas! Alas!’ and they will call the farmer to mourning, and those who are skillful in lamentation to wailing. 5:17In all vineyards there will be wailing; for I will pass through the middle of you,” says Yahweh. 5:18“Woe to you who desire the day of Yahweh! Why do you long for the day of Yahweh? It is darkness, and not light. 5:19As if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him; Or he went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a snake bit him. 5:20Won’t the day of Yahweh be darkness, and not light? Even very dark, and no brightness in it? 5:21I hate, I despise your feasts, and I can’t stand your solemn assemblies. 5:22Yes, though you offer me your burnt offerings and meal offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat animals. 5:23Take away from me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. 5:24But let justice roll on like rivers, and righteousness like a mighty stream. 5:25“Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, house of Israel? 5:26You also carried the tent of your king and the shrine of your images, the star of your god, which you made for yourselves. 5:27Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus,” says Yahweh, whose name is the God of Armies.
6:1Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who are secure on the mountain of Samaria, the notable men of the chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel come! 6:2Go to Calneh, and see; and from there go to Hamath the great; then go down to Gath of the Philistines. are they better than these kingdoms? or is their border greater than your border? 6:3Those who put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near; 6:4Who lie on beds of ivory, and stretch themselves on their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the middle of the stall; 6:5who strum on the strings of a harp; who invent for themselves instruments of music, like David; 6:6who drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the best oils; but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. 6:7Therefore they will now go captive with the first who go captive; and the feasting and lounging will end. 6:8“The Lord Yahweh has sworn by himself,” says Yahweh, the God of Armies: “I abhor the pride of Jacob, and detest his fortresses. Therefore I will deliver up the city with all that is in it. 6:9It will happen, if there remain ten men in one house, that they shall die. 6:10“When a man’s relative carries him, even he who burns him, to bring bodies out of the house, and asks him who is in the innermost parts of the house, ‘Is there yet any with you?’ And he says, ‘No;’ then he will say, ‘Hush! Indeed we must not mention Yahweh’s name.’ 6:11“For, behold, Yahweh commands, and the great house will be smashed to pieces, and the little house into bits. 6:12Do horses run on the rocky crags? Does one plow there with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness; 6:13you who rejoice in a thing of nothing, who say, ‘Haven’t we taken for ourselves horns by our own strength?’ 6:14For, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, house of Israel,” says Yahweh, the God of Armies; “and they will afflict you from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of the Arabah.”
7:1Thus the Lord Yahweh showed me: and behold, he formed locusts in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and behold, it was the latter growth after the king’s harvest. 7:2When they finished eating the grass of the land, then I said, “Lord Yahweh, forgive, I beg you! How could Jacob stand? For he is small.” 7:3Yahweh relented concerning this. “It shall not be,” says Yahweh. 7:4Thus the Lord Yahweh showed me and behold, the Lord Yahweh called for judgment by fire; and it dried up the great deep, and would have devoured the land. 7:5Then I said, “Lord Yahweh, stop, I beg you! How could Jacob stand? For he is small.” 7:6Yahweh relented concerning this. “This also shall not be,” says the Lord Yahweh. 7:7Thus he showed me and behold, the Lord stood beside a wall made by a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. 7:8Yahweh said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said, “Behold, I will set a plumb line in the middle of my people Israel. I will not again pass by them any more. 7:9The high places of Isaac will be desolate, the sanctuaries of Israel will be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.” 7:10Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the middle of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. 7:11For Amos says, ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of his land.’” 7:12Amaziah also said to Amos, “You seer, go, flee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there: 7:13but don’t prophesy again any more at Bethel; for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a royal house!” 7:14Then Amos answered Amaziah, “I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was a herdsman, and a farmer of sycamore figs; 7:15and Yahweh took me from following the flock, and Yahweh said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ 7:16Now therefore listen to Yahweh’s word: ‘You say, Don’t prophesy against Israel, and don’t preach against the house of Isaac.’ 7:17Therefore Yahweh says: ‘Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided by line; and you yourself shall die in a land that is unclean, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of his land.’”
8:1Thus the Lord Yahweh showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit. 8:2He said, “Amos, what do you see?” I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then Yahweh said to me, “The end has come on my people Israel. I will not again pass by them any more. 8:3The songs of the temple will be wailings in that day,” says the Lord Yahweh. “The dead bodies will be many. In every place they will throw them out with silence. 8:4Hear this, you who desire to swallow up the needy, and cause the poor of the land to fail, 8:5Saying, ‘When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may market wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel large, and dealing falsely with balances of deceit; 8:6that we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes, and sell the sweepings with the wheat?’” 8:7Yahweh has sworn by the pride of Jacob, “Surely I will never forget any of their works. 8:8Won’t the land tremble for this, and everyone mourn who dwells in it? Yes, it will rise up wholly like the River; and it will be stirred up and sink again, like the River of Egypt. 8:9It will happen in that day,” says the Lord Yahweh, “that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day. 8:10I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will make you wear sackcloth on all your bodies, and baldness on every head. I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and its end like a bitter day. 8:11Behold, the days come,” says the Lord Yahweh, “that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing Yahweh’s words. 8:12They will wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they will run back and forth to seek Yahweh’s word, and will not find it. 8:13In that day the beautiful virgins and the young men will faint for thirst. 8:14Those who swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, ‘As your god, Dan, lives;’ and, ‘As the way of Beersheba lives;’ they will fall, and never rise up again.”
9:1I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said, “Strike the tops of the pillars, that the thresholds may shake; and break them in pieces on the head of all of them; and I will kill the last of them with the sword: there shall not one of them flee away, and there shall not one of them escape. 9:2Though they dig into Sheol, there my hand will take them; and though they climb up to heaven, there I will bring them down. 9:3Though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out there; and though they be hidden from my sight in the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent, and it will bite them. 9:4Though they go into captivity before their enemies, there I will command the sword, and it will kill them. I will set my eyes on them for evil, and not for good. 9:5For the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, is he who touches the land and it melts, and all who dwell in it will mourn; and it will rise up wholly like the River, and will sink again, like the River of Egypt. 9:6It is he who builds his rooms in the heavens, and has founded his vault on the earth; he who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the surface of the earth; Yahweh is his name. 9:7Are you not like the children of the Ethiopians to me, children of Israel?” says Yahweh. “Haven’t I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir? 9:8Behold, the eyes of the Lord Yahweh are on the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the surface of the earth; except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,” says Yahweh. 9:9“For, behold, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all the nations, as grain is sifted in a sieve, yet not the least kernel will fall on the earth. 9:10All the sinners of my people will die by the sword, who say, ‘Evil won’t overtake nor meet us.’ 9:11In that day I will raise up the tent of David who is fallen, and close up its breaches, and I will raise up its ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old; 9:12that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and all the nations who are called by my name,” says Yahweh who does this. 9:13“Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the one treading grapes him who sows seed; and sweet wine will drip from the mountains, and flow from the hills. 9:14I will bring my people Israel back from captivity, and they will rebuild the ruined cities, and inhabit them; and they will plant vineyards, and drink wine from them. They shall also make gardens, and eat their fruit. 9:15I will plant them on their land, and they will no more be plucked up out of their land which I have given them,” says Yahweh your God.