Amos 8

Modern

Literal

The Basket of Summer Fruit

¹This is what the Lord GOD showed me: I saw a basket of summer fruit.^a

¹Thus the Lord YHWH has shown me: And behold, a basket of summer fruit.

²“Amos, what do you see?” He asked.

“A basket of summer fruit,” I replied.

So the LORD said to me, “The end has come for My people Israel; I will no longer spare them.”

²And He said, “What are you seeing, Amos?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” And YHWH said to me: “The end has come for My people Israel! I will not continue anymore to pass over him.”

³“In that day,” declares the Lord GOD, “the songs^a of the temple^b will turn to wailing. Many will be the corpses, strewn in silence everywhere!”

³“And they will wail the songs of the temple on that day,” a declaration of the Lord YHWH. “Many a corpse in every place is strewn! Silence!”

⁴Hear this, you who trample the needy,

who do away with the poor of the land,

⁴Hear this, those swallowing up the needy and causing to cease the poor of the land,

⁵asking, “When will the New Moon be over,

that we may sell grain?

When will the Sabbath end,

that we may market wheat?

Let us reduce the ephah and increase the shekel;^a

let us cheat with dishonest scales.

⁵saying, “When will the New Moon pass, so that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath, that we may trade wheat, making small the ephah and making large the shekel, and cheating with scales of deceit,

⁶Let us buy the poor with silver

and the needy for a pair of sandals,

selling even the chaff with the wheat!”

⁶to acquire the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, even selling the chaff with the wheat?”

⁷The LORD has sworn by the Pride of Jacob:

“I will never forget any of their deeds.

⁷YHWH has sworn by the pride of Jacob, “I will not forget to the end any of their works.

⁸Will not the land quake for this,

and all its dwellers mourn?

All of it will swell like the Nile;

it will surge and then subside

like the Nile in Egypt.

⁸Over this, will the land not quake, and all dwelling in it will mourn? And all of it will rise up like the River and it will surge and subside like the River of Egypt.

⁹And in that day,

declares the Lord GOD,

I will make the sun go down at noon,

and I will darken the earth in the daytime.

⁹And it will come to pass in that day, a declaration of the Lord YHWH, that I will make the sun go down at noon, and I will bring darkness to the earth in the daytime light.

¹⁰I will turn your feasts into mourning

and all your songs into lamentation.

I will cause everyone to wear sackcloth

and every head to be shaved.

I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son,

and its outcome like a bitter day.

¹⁰And I will turn your feasts to mourning, and all your songs to lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth over all loins, and baldness on every head, and I will set it like mourning for an only son, and its end like a day most bitter!

¹¹Behold, the days are coming,

declares the Lord GOD,

when I will send a famine on the land—

not a famine of bread or a thirst for water,

but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.

¹¹Behold, the days are coming, a declaration of the Lord YHWH, and I will send a famine on the land: Not a famine of bread and not a thirst for water, but rather of hearing the words of YHWH.

¹²People will stagger from sea to sea

and roam from north to east,

seeking the word of the LORD,

but they will not find it.

¹²And they will wander from sea to sea, and they will roam about from the north to the east, seeking the word of YHWH, and they will not find it.

¹³In that day the lovely young women—

the young men as well—

will faint from thirst.

¹³On that day, the beautiful virgins will faint—and the young men—from thirst.

¹⁴Those who swear by the guilt of Samaria

and say, ‘As surely as your god lives, O Dan,’

or, ‘As surely as the way^a of Beersheba lives’—

they will fall, never to rise again.”

¹⁴Those swearing by the guilt of Samaria, and having said, ‘As your god lives, O Dan,’ and ‘as lives the way of Beersheba,’ they will fall, and they will not rise again!”