Jubilee2000 - Amos

Chapter 1

1:1  The words of Amos, who was among the pastors 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.

1:2  And he said, The LORD will roar from Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the habitations of the pastors shall be destroyed, and the top of Carmel shall wither.

1:3  Thus hath the LORD said: For three transgressions of Damascus and for the fourth, I will not convert her because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron.

1:4  But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, which shall devour the palaces of Benhadad.

1:5  I will also break the bar of Damascus and cut off the inhabitants of the plain of Aven and him that holds the sceptre from the house of Eden; and the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir.

1:6  Thus hath the LORD said: For three transgressions of Gaza and for the fourth, I will not convert her because they carried away captive the whole captivity, to deliver [them] up to Edom:

1:7  but I will send a fire in the wall of Gaza, which shall devour the palaces thereof.

1:8  And I will cut off the inhabitants of Ashdod and him that holds the sceptre from Ashkelon, and I will turn my hand against Ekron; and the remnant of the Palestinians shall perish, said the Lord GOD.

1:9  Thus hath the LORD said: For three transgressions of Tyre and for the fourth, I will not convert her because they delivered up the whole captivity to Edom and did not remember the brotherly covenant;

1:10  but I will send fire in the wall of Tyre, which shall devour its palaces.

1:11  Thus hath the LORD said: For three transgressions of Edom and for the fourth, I will not convert her because she pursued her brother with the sword and cast off all mercy, and with her anger she stole from him perpetually, and she kept her wrath for ever:

1:12  but I will send fire in Teman, which shall devour the palaces of Bozrah.

1:13  Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of the sons of Ammon and for the fourth, I will not convert her because they have ripped off the mountains of Gilead that they might enlarge their border:

1:14  but I will kindle fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it shall devour the palaces thereof [as] with shouting in the day of battle, [as] with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind;

1:15  and their king shall go into captivity, he and his princes together, said the LORD.:

Chapter 2

2:1  Thus hath the LORD said: For three transgressions of Moab and for the fourth, I will not convert her because she burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime;

2:2  but I will send fire in Moab, and it shall devour the palaces of Kerioth; and Moab shall die in tumult, with shouting [and] with the sound of the shofar:

2:3  and I will cut off the judge from the midst thereof and will slay all the princes thereof with him, said the LORD.

2:4  Thus hath the LORD said: For three transgressions of Judah and for the fourth, I will not convert her because they have despised the law of the LORD and have not kept his statutes, and their lies caused them to err after which their fathers have walked:

2:5  but I will send fire in Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.

2:6  Thus hath the LORD said: For three transgressions of Israel and for the fourth, I will not convert her because they sold the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of shoes,

2:7  desiring that there be dust of the earth upon the head of the poor, and to twist the way of the humble: and the man and his father have gone in unto the [same] maid, profaning my holy name:

2:8  and they lay [themselves] down upon clothes laid to pledge by any altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned [in] the house of their god.

2:9  Yet I destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height [was] like the height of the cedars, and he [was] strong as an oak; yet I destroyed his fruit above and his roots beneath.

2:10  Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt and led you forty years through the wilderness that you might possess the land of the Amorite.

2:11  And I raised up of your sons for prophets and of your young men for Nazarites. [Is it] not even thus, O ye sons of Israel? said the LORD.

2:12  But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink, and commanded the prophets, saying, Do not prophesy.

2:13  Behold, I will press you in your place, as a cart is pressed [that is] full of sheaves.

2:14  Therefore the flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not strengthen his force, neither shall the mighty deliver his soul:

2:15  neither shall he that handles the bow stand; and [he that is] swift of foot shall not escape: neither shall he that rides the horse save his life.

2:16  And [he that is] strong among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, said the LORD.:

Chapter 3

3:1  Hear this word that the LORD hath spoken against you, O sons of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying,

3:2  You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore, I will visit all your iniquities against you.

3:3  Can two walk together except they be agreed?

3:4  Will a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey? Will a young lion cry out of his den if he has taken nothing?

3:5  Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth without a fowler? Shall the snare rise up from the earth and have taken nothing at all?

3:6  Shall the shofar be blown in the city and the people not be afraid? Shall there be any evil in the city which the LORD has not done?

3:7  Because the Lord GOD will do nothing unless he reveals his secret to his servants the prophets.

3:8  The lion has roared, who will not fear? the Lord GOD has spoken, who can but prophesy?

3:9  Publish upon the palaces of Ashdod and upon the palaces of the land of Egypt and say, Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria and behold the great oppression in the midst thereof and the [great] violence in the midst thereof.

3:10  For they do not know to do right, said the LORD, storing up violence and robbery in their palaces.

3:11  Therefore thus said the Lord GOD: An adversary [there shall be] even round about the land, and he shall bring down thy strength from thee, and thy palaces shall be spoiled.

3:12  Thus hath the LORD said: As the pastor takes out of the mouth of the lion two legs or a piece of an ear, so shall the sons of Israel escape that dwell in Samaria in the corner of the bed and at the border of the couch.

3:13  Hear ye, and protest in the house of Jacob, said the Lord GOD, the God of the hosts,

3:14  that in the day that I shall visit the rebellions of Israel upon him, I will also visit upon the altars of Bethel, and the horns of the altar shall be cut off and fall to the ground.

3:15  And I will smite the winter house with the summer house, and the houses of ivory shall perish, and many houses shall be cut off, said the LORD.:

Chapter 4

4:1  Hear this word, ye cows of Bashan, that [are] in the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink.

4:2  The Lord GOD has sworn by his holiness that, behold, the days shall come upon you that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity in fishing boats.

4:3  And ye shall go forth by the breaches one after another, and ye shall be cast out of the palace, saith the LORD.

4:4  Go to Bethel, and transgress; at Gilgal increase the rebellion; and bring your sacrifices early [in the morning] [and] your tithes every three years:

4:5  and offer a sacrifice of praise with leaven, and proclaim [and] publish the free [will] offerings for this is the way you like it, O ye sons of Israel, said the Lord GOD.

4:6  I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities and want of bread in all your places: yet ye have not returned unto me, said the LORD.

4:7  And also I have withheld the rain from you when [there were] yet three months to the harvest, and I caused it to rain upon one city and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece upon which it did not rain withered.

4:8  So two or three cities wandered unto one city to drink water, but they were not satisfied, yet ye have not returned unto me, said the LORD.

4:9  I have smitten you with [the] east wind and with [the] caterpillar; your many gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees were devoured by the locust; yet ye have never returned unto me, said the LORD.

4:10  I have sent among you the pestilence in the way to Egypt; your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses; and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils; and ye never returned unto me, said the LORD.

4:11  I have overthrown [some] of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the fire; and ye never returned unto me, said the LORD.

4:12  Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel; [and] because I must do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.

4:13  For, behold, he that forms the mountains and creates the wind and declares unto man what [is] his thought, that makes the darkness into morning and treads above the high places of the earth, The LORD, The God of the hosts, [is] his name.:

Chapter 5

5:1  Hear ye this word, because I raise up a lamentation upon you, O house of Israel.

5:2  The virgin of Israel has fallen; she shall not be able to rise again: she was forsaken upon her land; [there is] no one to raise her up.

5:3  For thus hath the Lord GOD said: The city that sent out a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which sent forth a hundred shall have ten, in the house of Israel.

5:4  But thus hath the LORD said unto the house of Israel, Seek me, and ye shall live:

5:5  but do not seek Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and do not pass to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought.

5:6  Seek the LORD, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph and devour [it], and [there be] no one to quench [it] in Bethel.

5:7  Ye who turn judgment to wormwood and leave off [doing] righteousness in the earth,

5:8  look unto him that makes the seven stars and Orion and turns the shadow of death into the morning and makes the day dark with night, that calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD [is] his name;

5:9  that strengthens the spoiler against the strong, so that the spoiler shall come against the fortress.

5:10  They hate him that rebukes in the gate, and they abhor him that speaks uprightly.

5:11  Forasmuch therefore as your treading [is] upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat, ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.

5:12  For I have known of your many rebellions and your great sins that afflict the just and take a ransom and turn aside the poor in the gate [from their right].

5:13  Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time, for it [is] an evil time.

5:14  Seek that which is good, and not that which is evil that ye may live; and so the LORD, the God of the hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.

5:15  Hate the evil and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate; it may be that the LORD God of the hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.

5:16  Therefore the LORD, [the] God of the hosts, the Lord, said this: Wailing [shall be] in all streets, and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing.

5:17  And in all vineyards [shall be] wailing, for I will pass through the midst of thee, said the LORD.

5:18  Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end [is] it for you? the day of the LORD [shall be] darkness, and not light.

5:19  As if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall and a serpent bit him.

5:20  [Shall] not the day of the LORD [be] darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?

5:21  I hate, I despise your solemnities, and I will not savour your assemblies.

5:22  Though ye offer me [your] burnt offerings and your presents, I will not accept [them]; neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.

5:23  Take away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy instruments.

5:24  But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.

5:25  Did you perchance offer me any sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness in forty years, O house of Israel?

5:26  But ye have offered unto Sicut your king, and unto Chiun your idols, the star of your gods which ye made.

5:27  Therefore I will cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, said the LORD, whose name [is] The God of the hosts.:

Chapter 6

6:1  Woe unto those [that are] at ease in Zion and to those that trust in the mountain of Samaria, [who are] named principals among the same nations which shall come upon them, O house of Israel!

6:2  Pass unto Calneh and see, and from there go to Hamath the great; then go down to Gath of the Palestinians. [Are they] better than these kingdoms? or their border greater than your border?

6:3  Ye that put far away the evil day and cause the seat of violence to come near;

6:4  that lie upon beds of ivory and stretch themselves upon their couches and eat the lambs out of the flock and the calves out of the midst of the stall;

6:5  that chant to the sound of the flute [and] invent to themselves instruments of music, like David;

6:6  that drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments, but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.

6:7  Therefore now they shall go captive with the first that go captive, and the banquet of those that stretched themselves [upon their couches] shall be removed.

6:8  The Lord GOD has sworn by himself, the LORD God of the hosts said, I abhor the grandeur of Jacob, and hate his palaces: therefore I will give the city with all that is therein over to the enemy.

6:9  And it shall come to pass, if there remain ten men in one house, that they shall die.

6:10  And their uncle shall take each one and burn them to bring out the bones out of the house and shall say unto him that [is] by the sides of the house, [Is there yet any] with thee? and he shall say, No. Then he shall say, Hold thy tongue, for we may not make mention of the name of the LORD.

6:11  For, behold, the LORD shall command, and he will smite the great house with breaches and the little house with clefts.

6:12  Shall horses run upon the rocks? will [one] plow [there] with oxen? why have ye turned judgment into hemlock, and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood?

6:13  Ye who rejoice in a thing of nought, who say, Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength?

6:14  But, behold, I will raise up against you Gentiles, O house of Israel, said the LORD God of the hosts, and they shall afflict you from the entering in of Hemath unto the river of the wilderness.:

Chapter 7

7:1  Thus hath the Lord GOD showed unto me, and, behold, he formed grasshoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter hay; and, behold that the latter [hay grew] after the king's reapings.

7:2  And it came to pass [that] when they had come to an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, O Lord GOD, forgive, I beseech thee; who shall lift up Jacob? for he [is] small.

7:3  The LORD repented of this; It shall not be, said the LORD.

7:4  [Afterward] the Lord GOD showed me this: And, behold, the Lord GOD called to judge by fire, and it devoured the great deep and ate up the inheritance.

7:5  Then said I, O Lord GOD, cease, I beseech thee; who shall raise up Jacob? for he [is] small.

7:6  The LORD repented of this: This also shall not be, said the Lord GOD.

7:7  Thus he showed me: and, behold, the Lord stood upon a wall [made] by a plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand.

7:8  And the LORD said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumbline. Then said the Lord, Behold, I set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass over them any more:

7:9  And the altars of Isaac shall be destroyed, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste; and I will rise upon the house of Jeroboam with the sword.

7:10  Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos has conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words.

7:11  For thus hath Amos said, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land.

7:12  And Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and eat thy bread there, and prophesy there:

7:13  but do not prophesy any more in Bethel: for it [is] the king's sanctuary, and the head of the kingdom.

7:14  Then Amos answered Amos said to Amaziah, I am not a prophet, neither am I a prophet's son, but I am a herdsman and a gatherer of sycamore fruit:

7:15  and the LORD took me as I followed the flock, and the LORD said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel.

7:16  Now therefore hear thou the word of the LORD: Thou sayest, Do not prophesy against Israel and do not drop [thy word] against the house of Isaac.

7:17  Therefore thus hath the LORD said; Thy wife shall be a harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be divided by lots; and thou shalt die in a polluted land; and Israel shall surely go into captivity from his land.:

Chapter 8

8:1  Thus hath the Lord GOD showed unto me: and behold a basket of summer fruit.

8:2  And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the LORD unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass over them any more.

8:3  And the cantors of the temple shall howl in that day, said the Lord GOD; [there shall be] many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast [them] forth with silence.

8:4  Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, and cut off the poor of the land,

8:5  saying, When the month is over, we will sell the wheat; and after the sabbath day we will open [the storehouse] of bread, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit;

8:6  that we may buy the poor for money and the needy for a pair of shoes and sell the refuse of the wheat.

8:7  The LORD has sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works.

8:8  Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwells therein? and it shall all rise up as a flood, and it shall be cast out and sunk, as the river of Egypt.

8:9  And it shall come to pass in that day, said the Lord GOD, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will cover the earth with darkness in the clear day;

8:10  and I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation; and I will cause sackcloth to be brought up upon all loins and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only [son] and the end thereof as a bitter day.

8:11  Behold, [the] days come, said the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine to the earth, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing [the] words of the LORD:

8:12  and they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek [the] word of the LORD, and shall not find [it].

8:13  In that day the fair virgins and young men shall faint for thirst.

8:14  Those that swear by the guiltiness of Samaria and say, As thy God of Dan lives; and, As the way of Beersheba lives, even they shall fall, and never rise up again.:

Chapter 9

9:1  I saw the Lord standing upon the altar, and he said, Smite the threshold and shake the doors and cut the head of them all into pieces; and I will slay the last of them with the sword; there shall be none of them [left] to flee away or to escape.

9:2  Though they dig unto Sheol, from there shall my hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, from there I will bring them down;

9:3  and though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out of there; and though they hide from my sight in the bottom of the sea, from there will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them:

9:4  and though they go into captivity before their enemies, from there I will command the sword, and it shall slay them: and I will set my eyes upon them for evil, and not for good.

9:5  The Lord GOD of the hosts [is] he that touches the earth, and it shall melt, and all that dwell therein shall mourn: and it shall all rise up like [a] river and shall be sunk, as the river of Egypt.

9:6  He that built his degrees in the heaven and has founded his gathering upon the earth; he that calls the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD [is] his name.

9:7  O sons of Israel, [Are] ye not as sons of the Ethiopians unto me, said the LORD? Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? and the Palestinians from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?

9:8  Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD [are] against the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, said the LORD.

9:9  For, behold, I will command, and I will cause the house of Israel to be sifted among all the Gentiles like as [the grain] is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall to the earth.

9:10  All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who say, For our sake the evil shall not come near nor overtake us.

9:11  In that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David that 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:

9:12  that those who are called by my name may possess the remnant of Edom and all the Gentiles, said the LORD that does this.

9:13  Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the plowman shall catch up with the reaper, and the treader of grapes with him that sows seed; and the mountains shall drop new wine, and all the hills shall melt.

9:14  And I will turn the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit [them]; and they shall plant vineyards and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens and eat the fruit of them.

9:15  For I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, said the LORD thy God.: