MKJV - Amos

Chapter 1

1:1  The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of Tekoa; the word 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 pastures of the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall dry up.

1:3  So says the LORD: For three transgressions of Damascus, yea for four, I will not turn away from it; 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 Ben-hadad.

1:5  I will also break the bar of Damascus, and cut off the dweller from the Valley of Aven, and from him who holds the scepter from the house of Eden. And the people of Syria shall go into captivity to Kir, says the LORD.

1:6  So says the LORD: For three transgressions of Gaza, yea for four, I will not turn away from it; because they deported as exiles to deliver up a complete population to Edom.

1:7  But I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, which shall devour its palaces.

1:8  And I will cut off the people from Ashdod, and him who holds the scepter from Ashkelon, and I will turn My hand against Ekron. And the rest of the Philistines shall perish, says the Lord God.

1:9  So says the LORD: For three transgressions of Tyre, yea for four, I will not turn away from it. Because they delivered up as exiles a complete population to Edom, and did not remember the brotherly covenant.

1:10  But I will send a fire upon the wall of Tyre, which shall devour its palaces.

1:11  So says the LORD: For three transgressions of Edom, yea for four, I will not turn away from it. Because he pursued his brother with the sword, and cast off all pities, and his anger tore without end, and he kept his wrath forever.

1:12  But I will send a fire upon Teman, which shall devour the palaces of Bozrah.

1:13  So says the LORD: For three transgressions of the sons of Ammon, yea for four, I will not turn away from it. Because they have ripped up the pregnant women of Gilead, to make their own border larger.

1:14  But I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it shall devour its palaces with shouting in the day of battle, with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind.

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

Chapter 2

2:1  So says the LORD: For three transgressions of Moab, yea for four, I will not turn away from it; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime.

2:2  But I will send a fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the palaces of Kerioth. And Moab shall die with great noise, with shouting, with the sound of a trumpet.

2:3  And I will cut off the judge from its midst, and will kill all its rulers with him, says the LORD.

2:4  So says the LORD: For three transgressions of Judah, yea for four, I will not turn away from it; because they have despised the laws of the LORD, and have not kept His commandments. And their lies after which their fathers walked led them astray.

2:5  But I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.

2:6  So says the LORD: For three transgressions of Israel, yea for four, I will not turn away from it; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of sandals;

2:7  panting after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turning aside the way of the meek. And a man and his father will go in to the same woman, to defile My holy name.

2:8  And they will stretch beside every altar on garments taken in pledge, 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 the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above and his roots from below.

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

2:11  And I raised up prophets from your sons and Nazarites from your young men. Is it not even so, O sons of Israel? says the LORD.

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

2:13  Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart full of sheaves is pressed.

2:14  And refuge shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not strengthen his power, nor shall the mighty deliver his life;

2:15  nor shall he who handles the bow stand. And the swift-footed shall not save; and the horse rider shall not save his life.

2:16  And the stout-hearted among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, says the LORD.

Chapter 3

3:1  Hear this word that the LORD has spoken against you, 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 punish you for all your iniquities.

3:3  Can two walk together unless they are agreed?

3:4  Will a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey for him? Will a young lion cry out of his den unless he has caught?

3:5  Will a bird fall into a trap on the ground, and there is no bait for it? Will a trap spring up from the ground, and nothing at all be caught?

3:6  If a ram's horn is blown in a city, will the people not also tremble? If there is a calamity in a city, has the LORD not also done it?

3:7  For the Lord Jehovah 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 Jehovah has spoken; who will not prophesy?

3:9  Make it heard at the palaces of Ashdod, and the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say: Gather yourselves on the mountains of Samaria, and behold the great uproars in its midst, and the oppressed in its midst.

3:10  For they do not know to do right, says the LORD, those who store up violence and robbery in their palaces.

3:11  So the Lord Jehovah says this: An enemy! And he shall be all around the land; and he shall bring you down from your strength, and your palaces shall be plundered.

3:12  So says the LORD: As the shepherd takes two legs out of the mouth of the lion, or a piece of an ear; so shall the sons of Israel be taken out, those who dwell in Samaria in the corner of a bed, and in Damascus on a couch.

3:13  Hear and testify in the house of Jacob, says the Lord Jehovah, the God of hosts,

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

3:15  And I will strike the winter house together with the summer house, and the houses of ivory shall perish. And the great houses shall be swept away, says the LORD.

Chapter 4

4:1  Hear this word, cows of Bashan who are in the mountain of Samaria; who press down the poor, who crush the needy, who say to their masters, Bring in, that we may drink.

4:2  The Lord Jehovah has sworn by His holiness that the days shall come on you that He will lift you up with meat hooks, and your sons with fishhooks.

4:3  And you shall go out at the breaches, each woman straight before her. And you shall cast down the high place, says the LORD.

4:4  Come to Bethel and transgress; to Gilgal and multiply transgressing at Gilgal. And bring your sacrifices for the morning, your tithes for three years;

4:5  and offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving from that which is leavened, and cry out; call out the voluntary offerings! For so you love to do, O sons of Israel, says the Lord Jehovah.

4:6  And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places, and you have not returned to Me, says the LORD.

4:7  And I have also withheld the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest. And I caused rain to fall on one city and caused it not to rain on another city; one piece was rained on, and the piece on which it did not rain dried up.

4:8  So two or three cities wandered to one city to drink water, but they were not satisfied; yet you have not returned to Me, says the LORD.

4:9  I have stricken you with blasting and mildew. When your gardens and your vineyards, and your fig trees. and your olive trees increased, the creeping locust devoured them; yet you have not returned to Me, says the LORD.

4:10  I have sent the plague among you in the way of Egypt; I have slain your young men with the sword, and have taken away your horses. And I have made the stench of your camps to come up into your nostrils; yet you have not returned to Me, says the LORD.

4:11  I have overthrown some among you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a firebrand plucked out of the burning; yet you have not returned to Me, says the LORD.

4:12  So I will do this to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel.

4:13  For lo, He forms the mountains and creates the wind, and declares to man what his thought is. He who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the high places of the earth; the LORD, the God of hosts, is His name.

Chapter 5

5:1  Hear this word which I take up against you, a dirge, O house of Israel.

5:2  The virgin of Israel has fallen; she shall rise no more; she lies forsaken on her land. There is none to raise her up.

5:3  For thus says the Lord Jehovah: The city that went out by a thousand shall leave a hundred, and that which went out by a hundred shall have ten left in the house of Israel.

5:4  For so says the LORD to the house of Israel: Seek Me, and you shall live.

5:5  But do not seek Bethel nor enter into Gilgal, and do not pass to Beer-sheba; for Gilgal shall surely go into exile, and Bethel shall come to nothing.

5:6  Seek the LORD, and you shall live; lest He break out like a fire on the house of Joseph and devour it, and there be none to put it out in Bethel.

5:7  You who turn judgment to wormwood and leave off righteousness in the earth,

5:8  seek Him who created the Pleiades and Orion, and who turned the deep darkness into the morning and He darkened the day into night. Seek Him who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the face of the earth; the LORD is His name;

5:9  who causes destruction to flash out against the strong, and destruction comes against the fortress

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

5:11  So, because of your trampling on the poor, and you take tribute of grain from him; you have built houses of carved stone, but you shall not dwell in them; you have planted desirable vineyards, but you shall not drink wine from them.

5:12  For I know your many transgressions and your many sins. They afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate.

5:13  So the understanding ones shall keep silent in that time; for it is an evil time.

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

5:15  Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate. It may be that the Lord Jehovah of hosts will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

5:16  So the LORD, the God of hosts, the Master, says this: Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! Alas! And they shall call the tiller to mourning, and those who are skillful in mourning to wailing.

5:17  And there shall be wailing in all vineyards; for I will pass through you, says the LORD.

5:18  Woe to those desiring the day of the LORD! What is this for you? The day of the LORD is 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 snake 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 feast days, and I will not delight in your solemn assemblies.

5:22  Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your food offerings, I will not be pleased. Nor will I regard the peace offerings of your fat animals.

5:23  Take the noise of your songs away from Me; for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments.

5:24  But let judgment roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

5:25  Have you offered sacrifices and offerings to Me forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?

5:26  But you have carried the booth of your king and Kiyyun, your images, the star of your gods which you made for yourselves.

5:27  So I will cause you to go into exile beyond Damascus, says the LORD, the God of hosts is His name.

Chapter 6

6:1  Woe to those at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, who are noted as leader of the nations. And the house of Israel came to them.

6:2  Pass 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 their border greater than your border?

6:3  You who put the evil day far away, and cause the seat of violence to come near;

6:4  who lie on beds of ivory, and those sprawling on their couches, and eat lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall;

6:5  who chant with the mouth of the harp; they invent instruments of music for themselves, like David;

6:6  who drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the best of oils; nor do they grieve for the breaking of Joseph!

6:7  So now they shall go into exile with the first of the exiles. And the feast of those who stretch themselves shall cease.

6:8  The Lord Jehovah has sworn by Himself, says the LORD, the God of hosts: I despise the glory of Jacob, and hate his palaces; and I will shut up the city and all its fullness.

6:9  And it shall be if ten men remain in one house, then they shall die.

6:10  And a man's uncle shall take him up, and he who burns him, to bring out the bones out of the house, and shall say to him left in the recesses of the house, Are any still with you? And he shall say, No. Then he shall say, Hush! For not one shall mention the name of Jehovah.

6:11  For, behold, the LORD commands, and He will strike the great house into pieces, and the little house into cracks.

6:12  Shall horses run on the rock? Will one plow there with oxen? For you have turned justice into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock;

6:13  you who rejoice in nothing, who say, Have we not taken horns to ourselves by our own strength?

6:14  But behold, I will raise a nation up against you, O house of Israel, says the Lord, the God of hosts. And they shall oppress you from the entrance to Hamath to the torrent of the Arabah.

Chapter 7

7:1  The Lord Jehovah made me see this: And behold, He is forming locusts at the beginning of the coming up of the late grass; even behold, the late grass after the king's mowings.

7:2  And it happened when it had made an end of eating the tender plant of the land, then I said, O Lord Jehovah, forgive, I pray You. How can Jacob stand? For he is small.

7:3  The LORD repented for this; it shall not be, says the LORD.

7:4  The Lord Jehovah made me see this: And behold, the Lord Jehovah was calling to contend by fire. And it consumed the great deep, and it was devouring part of it.

7:5  Then I said, O Lord Jehovah, I pray You, cease. How can Jacob stand? For he is small.

7:6  The LORD repented for this; this also shall not be, says the Lord Jehovah.

7:7  He made me see this: And behold, the Lord was standing by the plumbline-wall, and a plumbline in His hand.

7:8  And the LORD said to me, Amos, what do you see? And I said, A plumbline. Then the Lord said, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of My people Israel. I will not again pass by them any more.

7:9  And the high places of Isaac shall be wasted, and the holy places of Israel shall be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.

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

7:11  For so Amos says: Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely go into exile out of his land.

7:12  And Amaziah said to Amos, O seer, go, flee for yourself into the land of Judah; and eat bread there, and prophesy there.

7:13  But do not prophesy again any more at Bethel; for it is the king's temple, and it is the king's royal house.

7:14  Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah: I was no prophet, nor was I a prophet's son. But I was a herdsman and a gatherer from sycamore trees.

7:15  And the LORD took me from behind the flock, and the LORD said to me, Go, prophesy to My people Israel.

7:16  Now then hear the word of the LORD. You say, Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not drop words against the house of Isaac.

7:17  So the LORD says this: Your wife shall be a harlot in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided by line. And you shall die in a defiled land; and Israel shall surely go into exile out of his land.

Chapter 8

8:1  The Lord Jehovah made me see this: And behold, a basket of summer fruit!

8:2  And 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: I will never pass by them any more.

8:3  And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, says the Lord Jehovah. The dead bodies shall be many. In every place one shall throw them out, saying, Hush!

8:4  Hear this, you who trample the poor, even to make the humble of the land to fail,

8:5  saying, When will the new moon be gone so that we may sell grain? And the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small and the shekel great, and perverting the balances by deceit;

8:6  that we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals; and sell the chaff of the wheat?

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

8:8  Shall not the land tremble for this, and all who dwell in it mourn? And all of it shall rise up like the light. And it shall overflow and sink like the Nile of Egypt.

8:9  And it shall be in that day, says the Lord Jehovah, I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the light of day.

8:10  And I will turn your feast into mourning, and all your songs into weeping; and I will bring up sackcloth on all loins, and baldness on every head. And I will make it like the mourning of an only son, and the end of it like a bitter day.

8:11  Behold, the days come, says the Lord Jehovah, that I will send a famine in the land; 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 beautiful virgins and the young men shall faint for thirst.

8:14  They who swear by the sin of Samaria and say, As your God lives, O Dan; and, As the way of Beer-sheba lives; even they shall fall and never rise up again.

Chapter 9

9:1  I saw the Lord standing by the altar. And He said, Strike the capital of the door, so that the thresholds shall shake; and break them on the head of all of them. And I will kill the last of them with the sword. Not one of them fleeing will flee, and not a fugitive of them will escape.

9:2  If they dig into hell, there My hand shall take them. And if they go up to the heavens, I will bring them down from there.

9:3  And if they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out from there. And if they are hidden from My sight in the bottom of the sea, I will command the serpent there, and he shall bite them.

9:4  And if they go into captivity before their enemies, I will command the sword there, and it shall kill them; and I will set My eyes on them for evil, and not for good.

9:5  And the Lord Jehovah of hosts is He who touches the land, and it shall melt, and all who dwell in it shall mourn. And all of it shall rise up like the Nile, and sink down like the Nile of Egypt.

9:6  It is He who builds His staircase in the heavens, and He has founded the heavens on the earth; He who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the face of the earth; the LORD is His name.

9:7  Are you not like sons of the Ethiopians to Me, O sons of Israel, says the LORD? Have I not brought Israel up out of the land of Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?

9:8  Behold, the eyes of the Lord Jehovah are on the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth; except that I will not completely destroy the house of Jacob, says the LORD.

9:9  For lo, I will command, and I will shake the house of Israel among all the nations, as one shakes with a sieve, yet not a grain shall fall to the earth.

9:10  All the sinners of My people shall die by the sword, who say, The evil shall not draw near, or come in front about us.

9:11  In that day I will raise up the booth of David that has fallen, and close up its breaks; and I will raise up its ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old;

9:12  so that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the nations on whom My name is called, says the LORD who is doing this.

9:13  Behold, the days come, says the LORD, that the plowman and the reaper shall draw near, the treader of grapes, and he who draws along the seed. And the mountains will drip must, and all the hills will be dissolved.

9:14  And I will turn back the captivity of My people Israel, and they shall build the cities which are desolate, and they shall live in them. And they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine. They shall also make gardens and eat their fruit.

9:15  And I will plant them on their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, says the LORD your God.