NAS - Amos Chapter 6 to 9

6 "Those at Ease in Zion"

¹Woe to those who are at ease in Zion And to those who feel secure in the mountain of Samaria, The distinguished men of the foremost of nations, To whom the house of Israel comes. ²Go over to Calneh and look, And go from there to Hamath the great, Then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are they better than these kingdoms, Or is their territory greater than yours? ³ Do you put off the day of calamity, And would you bring near the seat of violence?

⁴Those who recline on beds of ivory And sprawl on their couches, And eat lambs from the flock And calves from the midst of the stall, ⁵ Who improvise to the sound of the harp, And like David have composed songs for themselves, ⁶ Who drink wine from sacrificial bowls While they anoint themselves with the finest of oils, Yet they have not grieved over the ruin of Joseph. ⁷ Therefore, they will now go into exile at the head of the exiles, And the sprawlers' banqueting will pass away.

⁸The Lord GOD has sworn by Himself, the LORD God of hosts has declared: "I loathe the arrogance of Jacob, And detest his citadels; Therefore I will deliver up the city and all it contains." ⁹And it will be, if ten men are left in one house, they will die. ¹⁰Then one's uncle, or his undertaker, will lift him up to carry out his bones from the house, and he will say to the one who is in the innermost part of the house, "Is anyone else with you?" And that one will say, "No one." Then he will answer, "Keep quiet. For the name of the LORD is not to be mentioned." ¹¹For behold, the LORD is going to command that the great house be smashed to pieces and the small house to fragments.

¹²Do horses run on rocks? Or does one plow them with oxen? Yet you have turned justice into poison And the fruit of righteousness into wormwood, ¹³ You who rejoice in Lodebar, And say, "Have we not by our own strength taken Karnaim for ourselves?" ¹⁴ "For behold, I am going to raise up a nation against you, O house of Israel," declares the LORD God of hosts, "And they will afflict you from the entrance of Hamath To the brook of the Arabah."

7 Warning Through Visions

¹Thus the Lord GOD showed me, and behold, He was forming a locust-swarm when the spring crop began to sprout. And behold, the spring crop was after the king's mowing. ²And it came about, when it had finished eating the vegetation of the land, that I said, "Lord GOD, please pardon! How can Jacob stand, For he is small?" ³ The LORD changed His mind about this. "It shall not be," said the LORD.

⁴Thus the Lord GOD showed me, and behold, the Lord GOD was calling to contend with them by fire, and it consumed the great deep and began to consume the farm land. ⁵Then I said, "Lord GOD, please stop! How can Jacob stand, for he is small?" ⁶ The LORD changed His mind about this. "This too shall not be," said the Lord GOD.

⁷Thus He showed me, and behold, the Lord was standing by a vertical wall with a plumb line in His hand. ⁸The LORD said to me, "What do you see, Amos?" And I said, "A plumb line." Then the Lord said, "Behold I am about to put a plumb line In the midst of My people Israel. I will spare them no longer. ⁹ "The high places of Isaac will be desolated And the sanctuaries of Israel laid waste. Then I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword."

Amos Accused, Answers

¹⁰Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent word to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, "Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel; the land is unable to endure all his words. ¹¹"For thus Amos says, `Jeroboam will die by the sword and Israel will certainly go from its land into exile.'" ¹²Then Amaziah said to Amos, "Go, you seer, flee away to the land of Judah and there eat bread and there do your prophesying! ¹³"But no longer prophesy at Bethel, for it is a sanctuary of the king and a royal residence."

¹⁴Then Amos replied to Amaziah, "I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet; for I am a herdsman and a grower of sycamore figs. ¹⁵"But the LORD took me from following the flock and the LORD said to me, `Go prophesy to My people Israel.' ¹⁶"Now hear the word of the LORD: you are saying, `You shall not prophesy against Israel nor shall you speak against the house of Isaac.' ¹⁷"Therefore, thus says the LORD, `Your wife will become a harlot in the city, your sons and your daughters will fall by the sword, your land will be parceled up by a measuring line and you yourself will die upon unclean soil. Moreover, Israel will certainly go from its land into exile.'"

8 Basket of Fruit and Israel's Captivity

¹Thus the Lord GOD showed me, and behold, there was a basket of summer fruit. ²He said, "What do you see, Amos?" And I said, "A basket of summer fruit." Then the LORD said to me, "The end has come for My people Israel. I will spare them no longer. ³"The songs of the palace will turn to wailing in that day," declares the Lord GOD. "Many will be the corpses; in every place they will cast them forth in silence."

⁴Hear this, you who trample the needy, to do away with the humble of the land, ⁵saying, "When will the new moon be over, So that we may sell grain, And the sabbath, that we may open the wheat market, To make the bushel smaller and the shekel bigger, And to cheat with dishonest scales, ⁶So as to buy the helpless for money And the needy for a pair of sandals, And that we may sell the refuse of the wheat?"

⁷The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob, "Indeed, I will never forget any of their deeds. ⁸ "Because of this will not the land quake And everyone who dwells in it mourn? Indeed, all of it will rise up like the Nile, And it will be tossed about And subside like the Nile of Egypt. ⁹"It will come about in that day," declares the Lord GOD, "That I will make the sun go down at noon And make the earth dark in broad daylight. ¹⁰ "Then I will turn your festivals into mourning And all your songs into lamentation; And I will bring sackcloth on everyone's loins And baldness on every head. And I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son, And the end of it will be like a bitter day.

¹¹"Behold, days are coming," declares the Lord GOD, "When I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, But rather for hearing the words of the LORD. ¹² "People will stagger from sea to sea And from the north even to the east; They will go to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, But they will not find it. ¹³"In that day the beautiful virgins And the young men will faint from thirst. ¹⁴ "As for those who swear by the guilt of Samaria, Who say, `As your god lives, O Dan,' And, `As the way of Beersheba lives,' They will fall and not rise again."

9 God's Judgment Unavoidable

¹I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and He said, "Smite the capitals so that the thresholds will shake, And break them on the heads of them all! Then I will slay the rest of them with the sword; They will not have a fugitive who will flee, Or a refugee who will escape. ²"Though they dig into Sheol, From there will My hand take them; And though they ascend to heaven, From there will I bring them down. ³ "Though they hide on the summit of Carmel, I will search them out and take them from there; And though they conceal themselves from My sight on the floor of the sea, From there I will command the serpent and it will bite them. ⁴"And though they go into captivity before their enemies, From there I will command the sword that it slay them, And I will set My eyes against them for evil and not for good."

⁵The Lord GOD of hosts, The One who touches the land so that it melts, And all those who dwell in it mourn, And all of it rises up like the Nile And subsides like the Nile of Egypt; ⁶ The One who builds His upper chambers in the heavens And has founded His vaulted dome over 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.

⁷"Are you not as the sons of Ethiopia to Me, O sons of Israel?" declares the LORD. "Have I not brought up Israel from the land of Egypt, And the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir? ⁸ "Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are on the sinful kingdom, And I will destroy it from the face of the earth; Nevertheless, I will not totally destroy the house of Jacob," Declares the LORD. ⁹"For behold, I am commanding, And I will shake the house of Israel among all nations As grain is shaken in a sieve, But not a kernel will fall to the ground. ¹⁰"All the sinners of My people will die by the sword, Those who say, `The calamity will not overtake or confront us.'

The Restoration of Israel

¹¹"In that day I will raise up the fallen booth of David, And wall up its breaches; I will also raise up its ruins And rebuild it as in the days of old; ¹² That they may possess the remnant of Edom And all the nations who are called by My name," Declares the LORD who does this.

¹³"Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "When the plowman will overtake the reaper And the treader of grapes him who sows seed; When the mountains will drip sweet wine And all the hills will be dissolved. ¹⁴"Also I will restore the captivity of My people Israel, And they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them; They will also plant vineyards and drink their wine, And make gardens and eat their fruit. ¹⁵ "I will also plant them on their land, And they will not again be rooted out from their land Which I have given them," Says the LORD your God.