Amos 8

Fourth Vision: A Basket of Summer Fruit

1 The Lord God showed me this: a basket of summer fruit. 2 He asked me, "What do you see, Amos? "  * 8:2 Am 7:8

I replied, "A basket of summer fruit."  * 8:2 In Hb the word for summer fruit sounds like the word for end.,* 8:2 Jr 24:3

The Lord said to me, "The end has come for my people Israel;  * 8:2 Ezk 7:2–3,6 I will no longer spare them.  * 8:2 Am 7:83 In that day the temple  * 8:3 Or palace songs  * 8:3 Am 5:23; 6:4–5 will become wailing"  * 8:3 Am 5:16  — this is the Lord God’s declaration. "Many dead bodies, thrown everywhere!  * 8:3 Is 34:3; Jr 33:5; Nah 3:3 Silence! "  * 8:3 Am 6:10

4 Hear this, you who trample on the needy  * 8:4 Am 2:7; 5:11–12

and do away with the poor of the land,  * 8:4 Is 10:2

5 asking, "When will the New Moon be over

so we may sell grain,  * 8:5 Nm 28:11; 2Kg 4:23

and the Sabbath,

so we may market wheat?  * 8:5 Ex 31:13–17

We can reduce the measure

while increasing the price  * 8:5 Lit reduce the ephah and make the shekel great

and cheat with dishonest scales.  * 8:5 Dt 25:13–15; Pr 20:23; Hs 12:7

6 We can buy the poor with silver

and the needy for a pair of sandals  * 8:6 Am 2:6

and even sell the chaff! "

7 The Lord has sworn  * 8:7 Am 4:2; 6:8 by the Pride of Jacob:  * 8:7 = the Lord or the promised land,* 8:7 Dt 33:26,29; Ps 47:4

I will never forget all their deeds.  * 8:7 Ps 10:11; Hs 7:2; 8:13

8 Because of this, won’t the land quake  * 8:8 Ps 18:7; 60:2; Is 5:25; Am 1:1

and all who dwell in it mourn?  * 8:8 Hs 4:3

All of it will rise like the Nile;  * 8:8 Jr 46:7–8

it will surge and then subside

like the Nile in Egypt.  * 8:8 Am 9:5

9 And in that day —

this is the declaration of the Lord  God  —

I will make the sun go down at noon;  * 8:9 Is 13:10; Ezk 32:7; Jl 2:10,31

I will darken the land in the daytime.  * 8:9 Is 59:9–10; Am 4:13; 5:8; Mt 27:45

10 I will turn your feasts into mourning  * 8:10 Jb 20:23; Am 5:21

and all your songs into lamentation;  * 8:10 Lm 5:15; Hs 2:11; Jms 4:9

I will cause everyone  * 8:10 Lit every waist to wear sackcloth  * 8:10 Ezk 7:18

and every head to be shaved.  * 8:10 Is 22:12; Jr 48:37; Ezk 7:18

I will make that grief

like mourning for an only son  * 8:10 Zch 12:10–14

and its outcome like a bitter day.

11 Look, the days are coming —

this is the declaration of the Lord  God  —

when I will send a famine through the land:

not a famine of bread or a thirst for water,

but of hearing the words of the  Lord.  * 8:9–11 Mc 3:6–7

12 People will stagger from sea to sea

and roam from north to east

seeking the word of the  Lord,  * 8:12 Ezk 20:3,31

but they will not find it.

13 In that day the beautiful young women,  * 8:13 Lm 1:18; 2:21

the young men also, will faint from thirst.  * 8:13 Is 41:17; Hs 2:3

14 Those who swear by the guilt of Samaria  * 8:14 Hs 8:5

and say, "As your god lives, Dan,"  * 8:14 1Kg 12:28–29

or, "As the way  * 8:14 LXX reads god,* 8:14 Or power of Beer-sheba lives"  * 8:14 Am 5:5  —

they will fall, never to rise again.  * 8:14 Am 5:2; Jr 25:27