Fourth Vision: A Basket of Summer Fruit
1 The Lord GOD showed me this: a basket of summer fruit. 2 He asked me, “What do you see, Amos? ” s
I replied, “A basket of summer fruit.” G,t
The LORD said to me, “The end has come for my people Israel; u I will no longer spare them. v 3 In that day the temple H songs w will become wailing” x—this is the Lord GOD’s declaration. “Many dead bodies, thrown everywhere! y Silence! ” z
4 Hear this, you who trample on the needy a
and do away with the poor of the land, b
5 asking, “When will the New Moon be over
so we may sell grain, c
and the Sabbath,
so we may market wheat? d
We can reduce the measure
while increasing the price I
and cheat with dishonest scales. e
6 We can buy the poor with silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals f
and even sell the chaff! ”
7 The LORD has sworn g by the Pride of Jacob: J,h
I will never forget all their deeds. i
8 Because of this, won’t the land quake j
and all who dwell in it mourn? k
All of it will rise like the Nile; l
it will surge and then subside
like the Nile in Egypt. m
this is the declaration of the Lord GOD—
I will make the sun go down at noon; n
I will darken the land in the daytime. o
10 I will turn your feasts into mourning p
and all your songs into lamentation; q
I will cause everyone K to wear sackcloth r
and every head to be shaved. s
I will make that grief
like mourning for an only son t
and its outcome like a bitter day.
11 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. u
12 People will stagger from sea to sea
and roam from north to east
seeking the word of the LORD, v
but they will not find it.
13 In that day the beautiful young women, w
the young men also, will faint from thirst. x
14 Those who swear by the guilt of Samaria y
and say, “As your god lives, Dan,” z
or, “As the way L,M of Beer-sheba lives” a—
they will fall, never to rise again. b