Amos

Chapter 1

1 The words of Amos, which came in Nakkarim from Tekoa, which he saw concerning Jerusalem 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.

2 And he said: The Lord has uttered his voice from Zion, and from Jerusalem he has given his voice; and the pastures of the shepherds mourned, and the summit of Carmel was dried up.

3 And the Lord said: For the three impieties of Damascus, and for the four, I will not turn away from it, because they sawed with iron saws the women with child of those in Gilead.

4 And I will send fire into the house of Hazael, and it shall devour the foundations of the son of Hader.

5 And I will shatter the bars of Damascus, and I will utterly destroy the inhabitants from the plain of On, and I will cut down a tribe from the men of Harran, and the notable people of Syria shall be taken captive, says the Lord.

6 Thus says the Lord: For the three impieties of Gaza, and for the four, I will not turn away from them, because they took captive the captivity of Solomon, to shut them up into Idumea.

7 And I will send fire upon the walls of Gaza, and it shall devour her foundations.

8 And I will utterly destroy the inhabitants from Azotus, and a tribe shall be removed from Ascalon, and I will bring my hand upon Ekron, and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, says the Lord.

9 Thus says the Lord: For the three impieties of Tyre, and for the four, I will not turn away from her, because they shut up the captivity of Solomon into Idumea, and did not remember the covenant of brothers.

10 And I will send fire upon the walls of Tyre, and it shall devour her foundations.

11 Thus says the Lord: For the three impieties of Idumea, and for the four, I will not turn away from them, because they pursued their brother with the sword, and he defiled the womb upon the earth, and seized his shuddering horror for a testimony, and kept his onslaught unto victory.

12 And I will send fire into Teman, and it shall devour the foundations of her walls.

13 Thus says the Lord: For the three impieties of the sons of Ammon, and for the four, I will not turn away from him, because they ripped open the women with child of the Gileadites, in order that they might enlarge their borders.

14 And I will kindle fire upon the walls of Rabbah, and it shall devour her foundations, with a cry in the day of war, and she shall be shaken in the day of her consummation.

15 And her kings shall go into captivity, their priests and their rulers together, says the Lord.

Chapter 2

1 Thus says the Lord: For the three impieties of Moab, and for the four, I will not turn away from him, because they burned the bones of the king of Idumea to dust;

2 and I will send fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the foundations of her cities, and Moab shall die in weakness, with a shout and with the sound of a trumpet;

3 and I will utterly destroy the judge out of her, and I will kill all her rulers with him, says the Lord.

4 Thus says the Lord: For the three impieties of the sons of Judah, and for the four, I will not turn away from him, because they rejected the law of the Lord and did not keep his ordinances, and their vain things which they made led them astray, after which their fathers followed;

5 and I will send fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the foundations of Jerusalem.

6 Thus says the Lord: For the three impieties of Israel, and for the four, I will not turn away from him, because they sold the righteous for silver, and the needy for sandals,

7 the things that tread upon the dust of the earth; and they struck the heads of the poor with their fists, and turned aside the way of the humble; and a son and his father went in to the same girl, so that they might profane the name of their God;

8 and binding their garments with cords, they made curtains next to the altar, and they drank wine gained by extortions in the house of their God.

9 But I removed the Amorite from before them, whose height was like the height of a cedar, and he was strong as an oak; and I removed his fruit from above and his roots from beneath.

10 And I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and led you about in the wilderness forty years, that you might inherit the land of the Amorites.

11 And I took some of your sons for prophets, and some of your young men for consecration. Is it not so, sons of Israel? says the Lord.

12 And you gave the consecrated ones wine to drink, and commanded the prophets, saying, Do not prophesy.

13 Therefore, behold, I roll beneath you, as a wagon full of straw is rolled;

14 and flight shall perish from the runner, and the strong shall not hold fast his strength, and the warrior shall not save his life,

15 and the archer shall not stand, and the one swift of foot shall not be delivered, nor shall the horseman save his life;

16 and he shall find his heart in mighty deeds—the naked shall flee in that day, says the Lord.

Chapter 3

1 Hear this word which the Lord has spoken against you, O house of Israel, and against every tribe which I brought up out of the land of Egypt, saying:

2 You only have I known out of all the tribes of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your sins.

3 Will two walk together at all, unless they know one another?

4 Will a lion roar out of his thicket when he has no prey? Will a lion's cub give forth his voice from his den at all, unless he has seized something?

5 Will a bird fall to the ground without a fowler? Will a snare spring up on the ground without having caught anything?

6 Will a trumpet sound in a city and the people not be alarmed? Will there be evil in a city which the Lord has not wrought?

7 For the Lord God will surely do nothing, unless he reveals his instruction to his servants the prophets.

8 A lion shall roar, and who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken, and who will not prophesy?

9 Proclaim it to the regions among the Assyrians and to the regions of Egypt, and say: Gather yourselves upon the mountain of Samaria, and behold many marvels in the midst of her, and the oppression that is in her.

10 And she knew not what things would come against her, says the Lord, those who store up injustice and misery in their regions.

11 Therefore thus says the Lord God: O Tyre, your land shall be made desolate round about, and he shall bring down your strength from you, and your regions shall be plundered.

12 Thus says the Lord: Just as when the shepherd pulls out of the mouth of the lion two legs or a piece of an ear, so shall the sons of Israel be pulled out, those dwelling in Samaria opposite a tribe, and priests in Damascus.

13 Hear, and testify to the house of Jacob, says the Lord God Almighty;

14 for on the day when I punish the impieties of Israel upon him, I will also punish the altars of Bethel; and the horns of the altar shall be broken down and shall fall to the ground.

15 I will throw into confusion and smite the winged house upon the summer house, and the ivory houses shall perish, and many other houses shall be added besides, says the Lord.

Chapter 4

1 Hear this word, you heifers of Bashan who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor and trample down the needy, who say to their masters, "Give to us, that we may drink."

2 The Lord swears by his holy ones: Behold, days are coming upon you, and they shall take you with weapons, and fiery destroyers shall cast those with you into cauldrons heated from beneath,

3 and you shall be carried out naked, one opposite another, and you shall be cast out to the mountain of Remman, says the Lord God.

4 You entered Bethel and acted lawlessly, and at Gilgal you multiplied your impiety; and you brought your sacrifices in the morning, your tithes on the third day.

5 And they read the law outside and called for public confessions. Proclaim that the sons of Israel have loved these things, says the Lord God.

6 And I will give you gnashing of teeth in all your cities and lack of bread in all your places; yet you did not return to me, says the Lord.

7 And I withheld the rain from you three months before the harvest; and I will send rain on one city, but on another city I will not send rain; one portion shall be rained upon, and the portion on which I do not send rain shall be dried up.

8 And two and three cities shall be gathered together to one city to drink water, and they shall by no means be satisfied; yet you did not return to me, says the Lord.

9 I struck you with blight and with jaundice; you multiplied your gardens; the caterpillar devoured your vineyards and your fig groves and your olive groves; yet not even so did you return to me, says the Lord.

10 I sent death against you in the way of Egypt, and I killed your young men with the sword, along with the captivity of your horses, and I brought up your camps in fire in my wrath; yet not even so did you return to me, says the Lord.

11 I overthrew you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you became like a firebrand plucked out of the fire; yet not even so did you return to me, says the Lord.

12 Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel; and because I will do thus to you, prepare to call upon your God, O Israel.

13 For behold, I am he who makes firm the thunder and creates the wind and announces to men his anointed, who makes the dawn and the mist and treads upon the heights of the earth; the Lord God Almighty is his name.

Chapter 5

1 Hear this word of the Lord which I take up against you as a lamentation, O house of Israel:

2 The virgin of Israel has fallen; she shall no more rise again; she has stumbled upon her land; there is none to raise her up.

3 For thus says the Lord, the Lord: The city out of which a thousand went forth, a hundred shall be left; and out of which a hundred went forth, ten shall be left to the house of Israel.

4 For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel: Seek me, and you shall live.

5 And do not seek Bethel, and do not go in to Gilgal, and do not cross over to the Well of the Oath; for Gilgal shall surely be led into captivity, and Bethel shall be as though it did not exist.

6 Seek the Lord and live, lest the house of Joseph blaze up like fire, and it devour him, and there be none to quench it for the house of Israel.

7 It is the Lord who executes judgment on high, and has established righteousness on the earth,

8 who makes all things and transforms them, and turns the shadow of death into morning, and darkens day into night; who calls forth the water of the sea and pours it out upon the face of the earth—the Lord God Almighty is his name;

9 who apportions destruction upon strength, and brings misery upon the fortress.

10 They hated him who reproved in the gates, and abhorred a holy word.

11 Therefore, because you struck the poor with your fists and received choice gifts from them, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not dwell in them; you have planted desirable vineyards, but you shall not drink the wine from them.

12 For I know your many impieties, and your sins are mighty: trampling on the righteous, taking bribes, and turning aside the needy in the gates.

13 Therefore the prudent one shall keep silent in that time, for it is an evil time.

14 Seek good and not evil, that you may live; and so the Lord God Almighty shall be with you, as you have said:

15 We have hated evil things and loved good things. And restore judgment in the gates, that the Lord God Almighty may have mercy on the remnant of Joseph.

16 Therefore thus says the Lord God Almighty: In all the streets there shall be wailing, and in all the roads it shall be said, Woe, woe! The farmer shall be called to mourning and wailing, and to those who know lamentation;

17 and in all the roads there shall be wailing, for I will pass through the midst of you, says the Lord.

18 Woe to those who desire the day of the Lord! What is this day of the Lord to you? For it is darkness and not light

19 as when a man flees from the face of the lion and the bear falls upon him, and he leaps into his house and rests his hands upon the wall, and the serpent bites him.

20 Is not the day of the Lord darkness and not light? Even gloom, having no brightness in it?

21 I have hated, I have rejected your feasts, and I will not smell sacrifice in your solemn assemblies.

22 For even if you bring me your whole burnt offerings and sacrifices, I will not accept them; and I will not look upon the peace offerings of your appearing.

23 Remove from me the sound of your songs, and I will not listen to the music of your instruments.

24 But judgment shall roll down like water, and righteousness like an impassable torrent.

25 Did you offer me slain victims and sacrifices in the wilderness for forty years, O house of Israel?

26 And you took up the tent of Moloch and the star of your god Raiphan, the images of them which you made for yourselves.

27 And I will carry you away beyond Damascus, says the Lord; the God Almighty is his name.

Chapter 6

1 Woe to those who despise Zion and to those who trust in the mountain of Samaria; they have gathered the firstfruits of the nations, and they themselves have entered in. O house of Israel,

2 cross over, all of you, and see, and pass from there to Hamath Rabbah, and go down from there to Gath of the Philistines, the mightiest of all these kingdoms, whether their borders are greater than your borders.

3 You who are coming to an evil day, who draw near and lay hold of false sabbaths,

4 who sleep on beds of ivory and live in luxury on their couches, and eat kids from the flocks and suckling calves from the midst of the herds,

5 who clap along to the sound of the instruments, they reckoned these things as lasting and not as fleeting

6 who drink strained wine and anoint themselves with the finest ointments, and suffered nothing over the ruin of Joseph.

7 Therefore now they shall be captives at the head of the mighty, and the neighing of horses shall be removed from Ephraim.

8 For the Lord has sworn by himself: Because I abhor all the insolence of Jacob and I have hated his lands, I will also remove the city together with all its inhabitants.

9 And it shall be, if ten men are left in one house, they too shall die, and the remnant shall be left behind,

10 and their kinsmen shall take them and shall force themselves to carry their bones out of the house; and one shall say to those in charge of the house, "Is there still anyone with you?" And he shall say, "No longer." And he shall say, "Be silent, so as not to name the name of the Lord."

11 For behold, the Lord commands, and he will strike the great house with breaches and the small house with cracks.

12 Will horses run upon rocks? Will they keep silent among mares? For you have turned judgment into wrath and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness,

13 you who rejoice in no good thing, who say, "Have we not by our own strength gotten horns for ourselves?"

14 For behold, I am raising up against you, O house of Israel, a nation, and they shall oppress you so that you cannot enter into Hamath, and as far as the brook of the west.

Chapter 7

1 Thus the Lord showed me: and behold, a brood of locusts coming in the early morning, and behold, one caterpillar, Gog the king.

2 And it shall be, when he has finished devouring the grass of the land, that I said, "Lord, Lord, be merciful! Who shall raise up Jacob? For he is very small."

3 "Repent, O Lord, concerning this." "And this shall not be," says the Lord.

4 Thus the Lord showed me: and behold, the Lord called for judgment by fire, and it devoured the great deep and devoured the portion.

5 And I said, "Lord, Lord, cease, I pray! Who shall raise up Jacob? For he is very small."

6 "Repent, O Lord, concerning this." "And this shall by no means come to pass," says the Lord.

7 Thus the Lord showed me: and behold, a man standing upon a wall of adamant, and in his hand adamant.

8 And the Lord said to me, "What do you see, Amos?" And I said, "Adamant." And the Lord said to me, "Behold, I am setting adamant in the midst of my people Israel; I shall no longer pass him by.

9 And the altars of laughter shall be destroyed, and the rites of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword."

10 And Amasias the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, "Amos is making conspiracies against you in the midst of the house of Israel; the land will not be able to bear all his words.

11 For thus says Amos: 'Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall be led away captive from his land.'"

12 And Amasias said to Amos, "Seer, go, depart into the land of Judah, and live there, and there you shall prophesy;

13 but at Bethel you shall no longer continue to prophesy, for it is the king's sanctuary and it is a house of the kingdom."

14 And Amos answered and said to Amasias, "I was not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet, but I was a goatherd and a gatherer of sycamore fruit;

15 and the Lord took me up from the sheep, and the Lord said to me, 'Go, prophesy to my people Israel.'

16 And now hear the word of the Lord: You say, 'Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not gather crowds against the house of Jacob.'

17 Therefore thus says the Lord: 'Your wife shall play the harlot in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be measured out with the line, and you shall die in an unclean land, and Israel shall be led away captive from his land.'"

Chapter 8

1 Thus the Lord showed me, and behold, a fowler's basket.

2 And he said, "What do you see, Amos?" And I said, "A fowler's basket." And the Lord said to me, "The end has come upon my people Israel; I will no longer continue to pass by him.

3 And the panels of the temple shall wail; on that day, says the Lord, many shall be the fallen in every place; I will cast silence upon them."

4 Hear now these things, you who crush the needy in the morning and oppress the poor from the land,

5 saying, "When will the month pass, that we may sell, and the sabbaths, that we may open our stores, to make the measure small and to enlarge the weights and to make an unjust balance,

6 to acquire the poor with silver and the lowly for sandals, and we will trade in every kind of produce?"

7 The Lord swears against the pride of Jacob: "Surely none of your works shall ever be forgotten."

8 And shall not the land be troubled at these things, and everyone dwelling in it mourn? And destruction shall come up like a river and go down like the river of Egypt.

9 And it shall be on that day, says the Lord God, that the sun shall set at noon, and the light shall grow dark upon the earth in the daytime;

10 and I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation, and I will bring sackcloth upon every loin and baldness upon every head; and I will make it like the mourning for a beloved one, and those with him like a day of anguish.

11 Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will send a famine upon the land—not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord.

12 And the waters shall be shaken as far as the sea, and from the north to the east they shall run about seeking the word of the Lord, and they shall not find it.

13 On that day the beautiful virgins and the young men shall fail with thirst

14 those who swear by the propitiation of Samaria and who say, "Your god lives, O Dan," and "Your god lives, O Beersheba"; and they shall fall and shall never rise again.

Chapter 9

1 I saw the Lord standing upon the altar, and he said: Strike the mercy seat, and the gateways will be shaken, and cut through into the heads of all; and their remnant I will kill with the sword; the one who flees among them shall by no means escape, and the one who saves himself among them shall by no means be preserved.

2 If they dig down into Hades, from there my hand shall drag them up; and if they climb up into heaven, from there I will bring them down.

3 If they hide themselves on the summit of Carmel, from there I will search them out and take them; and if they sink out of my sight into the depths of the sea, there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them.

4 And if they go into captivity before the face of their enemies, there I will command the sword, and it shall kill them; and I will fix my eyes upon them for evil and not for good.

5 And the Lord, the Lord God Almighty, is he who touches the earth and shakes it, and all who dwell in it shall mourn, and its destruction shall rise up like a river and shall go down like the river of Egypt;

6 he who builds his ascent into heaven and founds his promise upon the earth, who calls forth the water of the sea and pours it out upon the face of the earth, the Lord God Almighty is his name.

7 Are you not like the sons of the Ethiopians to me, O sons of Israel? says the Lord. Did I not bring Israel up out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Cappadocia, and the Syrians out of the pit?

8 Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the kingdom of sinners, and I will remove it from the face of the earth; only I will not utterly remove the house of Jacob, says the Lord.

9 For behold, I command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all the nations, as grain is sifted in a sieve, and no fragment shall fall to the ground.

10 By the sword shall all the sinners of my people die, those who say: The evils shall not draw near nor come upon us.

11 In that day I will raise up the tent of David that has fallen, and I will rebuild its fallen parts, and its ruins I will raise up, and I will rebuild it as in the days of old,

12 so that the remnant of mankind may seek out, and all the nations upon whom my name has been called, says the Lord God who does these things.

13 Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when the threshing shall overtake the vintage, and the grape shall ripen at the sowing, and the mountains shall drip sweetness, and all the hills shall be planted together;

14 and I will turn back the captivity of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the cities that were destroyed and shall inhabit them, and they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall plant gardens and eat their fruit;

15 and I will plant them upon their own land, and they shall never again be plucked up from their land which I gave them, says the Lord God Almighty.