Amos

This is what my Sovereign GOD showed me: There was a basket of figs.afigs Heb. qayiṣ, lit. “summer fruit.”

I was asked, “What do you see, Amos?” “A basket of figs,” I replied. And GOD said to me: “The hour of doombhour of doom Heb. qeṣ. has come for My people Israel; I will not pardon them again.

And the singing women of the palace shall howl on that day—declares the Sovereign GOD:So many corpsesLeft lying everywhere!Hush!”

Listen to this, you who devour the needy, annihilating the poor of the land,cwho devour the needy, annihilating the poor of the land Emendation yields “who on every new moon devour the needy, and on every sabbath the humble of the land”; cf. v. 5.

saying, “If only the new moon were over, so that we could sell grain; the sabbath, so that we could offer wheat for sale, using an ephah that is too small, and a shekel that is too big,dusing an ephah that is too small, and a shekel that is too big I.e., giving short measures of grain, but using oversize weights for the silver received in payment. tilting a dishonest scale,

and selling grain refuse as grain! We will buy the poor for silver, the needy for a pair of sandals.”

GOD swears byeby Or “concerning”; cf. 6.8 with note. the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget any of their doings.”

Shall not the earth shake for thisAnd all that dwell on it mourn?Shall it not all rise like the NileAnd surge and subside like the Nile of Egypt?

And in that day—declares the Sovereign GOD—I will make the sun set at noon,I will darken the earth on a sunny day.

I will turn your festivals into mourningAnd all your songs into dirges;I will put sackcloth on all loinsAnd tonsures on every head.I will make the earthfthe earth Heb. “it”; cf. vv. 8 and 9d. mourn as for an only child,AllgAll Lit. “the end.” of it as on a bitter day.

A time is coming—declares the Sovereign GOD—when I will send a famine upon the land: not a hunger for bread or a thirst for water, but for hearing the words of GOD.

People shall wander from sea to sea and from north to east to seek the word of GOD, but they shall not find it.

In that day, the beautiful maidens and the young men shall faint with thirst—

Those who swear by the guilt of Samaria,Saying, “As your god lives, Dan,”hAs your god lives, Dan See 1 Kings 12.28–29. And “As the way to Beer-sheba lives”iAs the way to Beer-sheba lives See 5.5 with note.—They shall fall to rise no more.