Amos 1-9

0:00Amos chapters 1 through 9. The words of Amos, who was one of the sheep breeders from Tukoa, what he saw regarding Israel in the days of King Uzziah of Judah and Teraboham son of Jehoash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. He said. The Lord roars from Zion and makes his voice heard from Jerusalem, the pastures of the shepherds mourn and the summit of caramel withers. The Lord says. I will not relent from punishing Damascus for three crimes even for because they thrashed Gilead with iron sledges. Therefore, I will send fire against Hazael's palace and it will consume bin Haddad's citadels. I will break down the gates of Damascus.

1:01I will cut off the ruler from the valley of Aven and the one who wields the scepter from Beth Eden. The people of Aram will be exiled to Kier. The Lord has spoken. The Lord says. I will not relent from punishing Gaza for three crimes even for because they exiled a whole community handing them over to Eden. Therefore I will send fire against the walls of Gaza and it will consume its citadels. I will cut off the ruler from Ashtaud and the one who wields the scepter from Ash-Kalon. I will also turn my hand against Ekran and the remainder of the Philistines will perish. The Lord God has spoken. The Lord says. I will not relent from punishing Tire for three crimes even for because they handed over a whole community of exiles to Eden and broke a treaty of Brotherhood.

2:05Therefore, I will send fire against the walls of Tire and it will consume its citadels. The Lord says. I will not relent from punishing Eden for three crimes even for because he pursued his brother with the sword. He stifled his compassion, his anger tore at him continually and he harbored his rage incessantly. Therefore I will send fire against Teaman and I will consume the citadels of Bazarah. The Lord says. I will not relent from punishing the Ammonites for three crimes even for because they ripped open the pregnant women of Giliad in order to enlarge their territory. Therefore, I will set fire to the walls of Rabah and it will consume its citadels. There will be shouting on the day of battle and a violent wind on the day of the storm.

3:06Their king and his princes will go into exile together. The Lord has spoken. The Lord says. I will not relent from punishing Moab for three crimes even for because he burned the bones of the King of Eden to lime. Therefore I will send fire against Moab and it will consume the citadels of Kiryat. Moab will die in a tumult with shouting and the sound of the ram's horn. I will cut off the judge from the land and kill all his officials with him. The Lord has spoken. The Lord says. I will not relent from punishing Judah for three crimes even for because they have rejected the instruction of the Lord and have not kept his statutes. The lies that their ancestors followed have led them astray.

4:06Therefore I will send fire against Judah and it will consume the citadels of Jerusalem. The Lord says. I will not relent from punishing Israel for three crimes even for because they sell a righteous person for silver and a needy person for a pair of sandals. They trample the heads of the poor on the dust of the ground and obstruct the path of the needy. A man and his father have sexual relations with the same girl, profaning my holy name. They stretch out beside every altar on garments taken as collateral and in the house of their God they drink wine obtained through fines. Yet I destroyed the Amarite as Israel advanced. His height was like the Seaters and he was as sturdy as the Oaks. I destroyed his fruit above and his roots beneath.

5:10I brought you from the land of Egypt and led you forty years in the wilderness in order to possess the land of the Amarite. I raised up some of your sons as prophets and some of your young men as Nazerites. Is this not the case Israelites? This is the Lord's declaration. But you made the Nazerites drink wine and commanded the prophets. Do not prophesy. Look, I am about to crush you in your place as a wagon crushes when full of grain. Escape will fail the swift. The strong one will not maintain his strength and the warrior will not save his life. The archer will not stand his ground. The one who has swift a foot will not save himself and the one riding a horse will not save his life. And the most courageous of the warriors will flee naked on that day.

6:13This is the Lord's declaration. Listen to this message that the Lord has spoken against you, Israelites, against the entire clan that I brought from the land of Egypt. I have known only you out of all the clans of the earth. Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. Can two walk together without agreeing to meet? Does a lion roar in the forest when it has no prey? Does a young lion growl from its lair unless it has captured something? Does a bird land in a trap on the ground if there is no bait for it? Does a trap spring from the ground when it has caught nothing? If a ram's horn is blown in a city, aren't people afraid? If a disaster occurs in a city, hasn't the Lord done it? Indeed. The Lord God does nothing without revealing his counsel to his servants the prophets.

7:18A lion has roared. Who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken. Who will not prophesy? Who will claim on the citadels of Ashtard and on the citadels in the land of Egypt? Assemble on the mountains of Samaria and see the great turmoil in the city and the acts of oppression within it. The people are incapable of doing right. This is the Lord's declaration. Those who store up violence and destruction in their citadels. For the Lord God says,

8:26Jacob, this is the declaration of the Lord God, the God of armies. I will punish the altars of Bethel on the day I punish Israel for its crimes. The horns of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground. I will demolish the winter house and the summer house and the houses in laid with ivory will be destroyed and the great houses will come to an end. This is the Lord's declaration. Listen to this message, you cowls of Bashan who are on the hill of Samaria, women who oppress the poor and crush the needy, who say to their husbands, bring us something to drink. The Lord God has sworn by His holiness. Look, the days are coming when you will be taken away with hooks. Every last one of you with fish hooks. We will go through breaches in the wall, each woman straight ahead and you will be driven

9:30along toward Harman. This is the Lord's declaration. Come to Bethel and rebel. Rebell even more at Gilgal. Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tents every three days. Offer leavened bread as a Thanksgiving sacrifice and loudly proclaim your free will offerings. But that is what you Israelites love to do. This is the declaration of the Lord God. I gave you absolutely nothing to eat in all your cities. A shortage of food in all your communities. Yet you did not return to me. This is the Lord's declaration. I also withheld the rain from you while there were still three months until harvest. I sent rain on one city, but no rain on another. One field received rain while a field with no rain withered.

10:32Two or three cities staggered to another city to drink water, but were not satisfied. Yet you did not return to me. This is the Lord's declaration. I struck you with blight and mildew. The locust devoured your many gardens and vineyards, your fig trees, and all of your trees. Yet you did not return to me. This is the Lord's declaration. I sent plagues like those of Egypt. I killed your young men with the sword, along with your captured horses. I caused the stench of your camp to fill your nostrils. Yet you did not return to me. This is the Lord's declaration. I overthrew some of you as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a burning stick snatched from a fire. Yet you did not return to me. This is the Lord's declaration.

11:34Therefore, Israel, that is what I will do to you. And since I will do that to you, Israel, prepare to meet your God. He is here. The one who forms the mountains creates the wind and reveals his thoughts to man. The one who makes the dawn out of darkness and strides on the heights of the earth. The Lord, the God of armies, is his name. Listen to this message. I am singing for you, element house of Israel. She has fallen. One Israel will never rise again. She lies abandoned on her land with no one to raise her up. For the Lord God says, the city that marches out a thousand strong will have only a hundred left.

12:34And the one that marches out a hundred strong will only have ten left in the house of Israel. For the Lord says to the house of Israel, seek me and live. Do not seek Bethel or go to Gilgal or Journey to Bershiba. For Gilgal will certainly go into exile and Bethel will come to nothing. Seek the Lord and live. Or he will spread like fire throughout the house of Joseph. God will consume everything with no one at Bethel to extinguish it. Those who turn justice into wormwood also throw righteousness to the ground. The one who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns darkness into dawn and darkens day into night, who summons the water of the sea and pours it over the surface of the earth. The Lord is his name.

13:34He brings destruction on the strong and it falls on the fortress. They hate the one who convicts the guilty at the city gate and they despise the one who speaks with integrity. Therefore, because you trample on the poor and exact a grain tax from him, you will never live in the houses of cut stone you have built. You will never drink the wine from the lush vineyards you have planted. For I know your crimes are many and your sins innumerable. They oppress the righteous, take a bribe and deprive the poor of justice at the city gates. Therefore, those who have insight will keep silent at such a time. For the days are evil. They pursue good and not evil so that you may live. And the Lord, the God of armies, will be with you as you have claimed.

14:38Hate evil and love good. Establish justice at the city gate. Perhaps the Lord, the God of armies, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. Therefore, the Lord, the God of armies, the Lord says, there will be wailing in all the public squares. They will cry out in anguish in all the streets. The farmer will be called on to mourn and professional mourners to wail. There will be wailing in all the vineyards for I will pass among you. The Lord has spoken. Go to you who long for the day of the Lord. What will the day of the Lord be for you? It will be darkness and not light. It will be like a man who flees from a lion only to have a bear confront him.

15:38He goes home and rests with his hands against the wall only to have a snake bite him. Won't the day of the Lord be darkness rather than light, even gloom without any brightness in it? I hate. I despise your feasts. I can't stand the stench of your solemn assemblies. Even if you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. I will have no regard for your fellowship offerings of fattened cattle. Take away from me the noise of your songs. I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice flow like water and righteousness like an unfailing stream. House of Israel was its sacrifices and grain offerings that you presented to me during the 40 years in the wilderness.

16:39That you have taken up, saccathed your king and chaiworn your star-god, images you have made for yourselves. So I will send you into exile beyond Damascus. The Lord, the God of armies is his name. He has spoken. Woe to those who are at ease in Zion and to those who feel secure on the hill of Samaria. The notable people in this first of the nations, those the house of Israel comes to. Cross over to Calna and see. Go from there to great Hamath. Then go down to gath of the Philistines. Are you better than these kingdoms? Is their territory larger than yours? You dismiss any thought of the evil day and bring in a rain of violence.

17:41They lie on beds inlaid with ivory, sprawled out on their couches and dine on lambs from the flock and calves from the stall. They improvise songs to the sound of the harp and invent their own musical instruments like David. They drink wine by the bowlful and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph. Therefore they will now go into exile as the first of the captives and the feasting of those who sprawl out will come to an end. The Lord God has sworn by Himself. This is the declaration of the Lord, the God of armies. I loathe Jacob's pride and hate his citadels, so I will hand over the city and everything

18:42in it. And if there are ten men left in one house, they will die. A close relative and burner will remove his corpse from the house. He will call to someone in the inner recesses of the house. Anymore with you? That person will reply. None. Then he will say, silence, because the Lord's name must not be invoked for the Lord commands. The Lord's house will be smashed to ruins and the small house to rubble. Do horses gallop on the cliffs? Does anyone plow there with oxen? Yet you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood. You who rejoice over loads abar and say, didn't we capture Carnion for ourselves by our own

19:42strength? But look, I am raising up a nation against you, House of Israel. This is the declaration of the Lord, the God of armies. And they will oppress you from the entrance of Hamath to the Brook of the Arab. The Lord God showed me this. He was forming a swarm of locusts at the time the spring crop first began to sprout, after the cutting of the king's hay. When the locusts finished eating the vegetation of the land, I said, Lord God, please forgive. How will Jacob survive since he is so small? The Lord relented concerning this. It will not happen, he said. The Lord God showed me this. The Lord God was calling for a judgment by fire. It consumed the great deep and devoured the land. And I said, Lord God, please stop.

20:42How will Jacob survive since he is so small? The Lord relented concerning this. This will not happen either, said the Lord God. He showed me this. The Lord was standing there by a vertical wall with a plumb line in his hand. The Lord asked me, what do you see, Amos? I replied, a plumb line. Then the Lord said, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel. I will no longer spare them. Isaac's high places will be deserted, and Israel's sanctuaries will be in ruins. I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with a sword. Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent word to King Jeroboam of Israel saying, Amos has conspired against you right here in the house of Israel.

21:43The land cannot endure all his words. For Amos has said this, Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will certainly go into exile from its homeland. Then Amaziah said to Amos, go away, you seer, flee to the land of Judah, earn your living and give your prophecies there, but don't ever prophesy at Bethel again. For it is the King's sanctuary and a royal temple. So Amos answered Amaziah, I was not a prophet, or the son of a prophet, rather I was a herdsman, and I took care of sycamore figs, but the Lord took me from following the flock and said to me, Go prophesy to my people Israel. Now hear the word of the Lord. You say, do not prophesy against Israel, do not preach against the house of Isaac.

22:49Therefore this is what the Lord says. Your wife will be a prostitute in the city. Your sons and daughters will fall by the sword, and your land will be divided up with a measuring line. You yourself will die on pagan soil, and Israel will certainly go into exile from its homeland. The Lord God showed me this, a basket of summer fruit. He asked me, what do you see, Amos? I replied, a basket of summer fruit. The Lord said to me, the end has come for my people Israel. I will no longer spare them. In that day, the temple songs will become wailing. This is the Lord's declaration. Many dead bodies thrown everywhere. Silence. Hear this. You who trample on the needy and do away with the poor of the land.

23:53Asking, when will the new moon be over? So we may sell grain and the Sabbath, so we may market wheat. We can reduce the measure while increasing the price and cheat with dishonest scales. We can buy the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals and even sell the chaff. The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob. I will never forget all their deeds. Because of this, won't the land quake and all who dwell in it mourn? All of it will rise like the Nile. It will surge and then subside like the Nile in Egypt. And in that day, this is the declaration of the Lord God. I will make the sun go down at noon. I will darken the land in the daytime. I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation.

24:53I will cause everyone to wear sackcloth and every head to be shaved. I will make that grief like mourning for an only son and its outcome like a bitter day. 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, people will stagger from sea to sea and roam from north to east, seeking the word of the Lord, but they will not find it. In that day, the beautiful young women, the young men also will faint from thirst. Those who swear by the guilt of Samaria and say, as your God lives Dan, or as the way of Bershiba lives, they will fall, never to rise again.

25:56I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said, strike the capitals of the pillars so that the thresholds shake, knock them down on the heads of all the people. Then I will kill the rest of them with the sword. None of those who flee will get away. None of the fugitives will escape. If they dig down to sheol, from there my hand will take them. If they climb up to heaven, from there I will bring them down. If they hide on the top of caramel, from there I will track them down and seize them. If they conceal themselves from my sight on the sea floor, from there I will command the sea serpent to bite them. And if they are driven by their enemies into captivity, from there I will command the sword to kill them. I will keep my eye on them for harm and not for good. The Lord, the God of armies, he touches the earth, it melts, and all who dwell in it mourn.

27:03All of it rises like the Nile and subsides like the Nile of Egypt. He builds his upper chambers in the heavens and lays the foundation of his vault on the earth. He summons the water of the sea and it pours out over the surface of the earth. The Lord is his name. Israelites are you, not like the cushites to me. This is the Lord's declaration. Didn't I bring Israel from the land of Egypt, the Philistines from Calfdor and the Arameans from Kier? Look, the eyes of the Lord God are on the sinful kingdom and I will obliterate it from the face of the earth. However, I will not totally destroy the House of Jacob. This is the Lord's declaration. For I am about to give the command and I will shake the House of Israel among all the nations,

28:04as one shakes a sieve, but not a pebble will fall to the ground. All the sinners among my people who say, disaster will never overtake or confront us. Will die by the sword. In that day, I will restore the fallen shelter of David. I will repair its gaps, restore its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old, so that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations that bear my name. This is the declaration of the Lord. He will do this. Look, the days are coming. This is the Lord's declaration. When the plowmen will overtake the Reaper and the one who treads grapes the sower of seed. The mountains will drip with sweet wine and all the hills will flow with it. I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel. They will rebuild and occupy ruined cities,

29:09plant vineyards and drink their wine, make gardens and eat their produce. I will plant them on their land and they will never again be uprooted from the land I have given them. The Lord your God has spoken.