Amos 1-4

Amos 1

¹The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of Tekoa; what he saw about Israel 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 earth-shock.

²And he said, The Lord will give a lion's cry from Zion, his voice will be sounding from Jerusalem; and the fields of the keepers of sheep will become dry, and the top of Carmel will be wasted away.

³These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of Damascus, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because they have been crushing Gilead with iron grain-crushing instruments.

⁴And I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, burning up the great houses of Ben-hadad.

⁵And I will have the locks of the door of Damascus broken, and him who is seated in power cut off from the valley of Aven, and him in whose hand is the rod from the house of Eden; and the people of Aram will go away as prisoners into Kir, says the Lord.

⁶These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of Gaza, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because they took all the people away prisoners, to give them up to Edom.

⁷And I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, burning up its great houses:

⁸Him who is seated in power I will have cut off from Ashdod, and him in whose hand is the rod from Ashkelon; and my hand will be turned against Ekron, and the rest of the Philistines will come to destruction, says the Lord God.

⁹These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of Tyre, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because they gave up all the people prisoners to Edom, without giving a thought to the brothers' agreement between them.

¹⁰And I will send a fire on the wall of Tyre, burning up its great houses.

¹¹These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of Edom, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because his sword was turned against his brother, without pity, and his wrath was burning at all times, and he was angry for ever.

¹²And I will send a fire on Teman, burning up the great houses of Bozrah.

¹³These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of the children of Ammon, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because in Gilead they had women with child cut open, so that they might make wider the limits of their land.

¹⁴And I will make a fire in the wall of Rabbah, burning up its great houses, with loud cries in the days of war, with a storm in the day of the great wind:

¹⁵And their king will be made prisoner, he and his captains together, says the Lord.

Amos 2

¹These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of Moab, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because he had the bones of the king of Edom burned to dust.

²And I will send a fire on Moab, burning up the great houses of Kerioth: and death will come on Moab with noise and outcries and the sound of the horn:

³And I will have the judge cut off from among them, and all their captains I will put to death with him, says the Lord.

⁴These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of Judah, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because they have given up the law of the Lord, and have not kept his rules; and their false ways, in which their fathers went, have made them go out of the right way.

⁵And I will send a fire on Judah, burning up the great houses of Jerusalem.

⁶These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of Israel, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because they have given the upright man for silver, and the poor for the price of two shoes;

⁷Crushing the head of the poor, and turning the steps of the gentle out of the way: and a man and his father go in to the same young woman, putting shame on my holy name:

⁸By every altar they are stretched on clothing taken from those who are in their debt, drinking in the house of their god the wine of those who have made payment for wrongdoing.

⁹Though I sent destruction on the Amorite before them, who was tall as the cedar and strong as the oak-tree, cutting off his fruit from on high and his roots from under the earth.

¹⁰And I took you up out of the land of Egypt, guiding you for forty years in the waste land, so that you might take for your heritage the land of the Amorite.

¹¹And some of your sons I made prophets, and some of your young men I made separate for myself. Is it not even so, O children of Israel? says the Lord.

¹²But to those who were separate you gave wine for drink; and to the prophets you said, Be prophets no longer.

¹³See, I am crushing you down, as one is crushed under a cart full of grain.

¹⁴And flight will be impossible for the quick-footed, and the force of the strong will become feeble, and the man of war will not get away safely:

¹⁵And the bowman will not keep his place; he who is quick-footed will not get away safely: and the horseman will not keep his life.

¹⁶And he who is without fear among the fighting men will go in flight without his clothing in that day, says the Lord.

Amos 3

¹Give ear to this word which the Lord has said against you, O children of Israel, against all the family which I took up out of the land of Egypt, saying,

²You only of all the families of the earth have I taken care of: for this reason I will send punishment on you for all your sins.

³Is it possible for two to go walking together, if not by agreement?

⁴Will a lion give his loud cry in the woodland when no food is there? will the voice of the young lion be sounding from his hole if he has taken nothing?

⁵Is it possible for a bird to be taken in a net on the earth where no net has been put for him? will the net come up from the earth if it has taken nothing at all?

⁶If the horn is sounded in the town will the people not be full of fear? will evil come on a town if the Lord has not done it?

⁷Certainly the Lord will do nothing without making clear his secret to his servants, the prophets.

⁸The cry of the lion is sounding; who will not have fear? The Lord God has said the word; is it possible for the prophet to keep quiet?

⁹Give out the news in the great houses of Assyria and in the land of Egypt, and say, Come together on the mountains of Samaria, and see what great outcries are there, and what cruel acts are done in it.

¹⁰For they have no knowledge of how to do what is right, says the Lord, who are storing up violent acts and destruction in their great houses.

¹¹For this reason, says the Lord, an attacker will come, shutting in the land on every side; and your strength will come down and your great houses will be made waste.

¹²These are the words of the Lord: As the keeper of sheep takes out of the mouth of the lion two legs or part of an ear; so will the children of Israel be made safe, who are resting in Samaria on seats of honour or on the silk cushions of a bed.

¹³Give ear now, and give witness against the family of Jacob, says the Lord God, the God of armies;

¹⁴For in the day when I give Israel punishment for his sins, I will send punishment on the altars of Beth-el, and the horns of the altar will be cut off and come down to the earth.

¹⁵And I will send destruction on the winter house with the summer house; the ivory houses will be falling down and the great houses will come to an end, says the Lord.

Amos 4

¹Give ear to this word, you cows of Bashan, who are in the hill of Samaria, by whom the poor are kept down, and those in need are crushed; who say to their lords, Get out the wine and give us drink.

²The Lord God has taken an oath by his holy name, that the days are coming when they will take you away with hooks, and the rest of you with fish-hooks.

³And you will go out through the broken places, every one going straight before her, and you will be sent into Harmon, says the Lord.

⁴Come to Beth-el and do evil; to Gilgal, increasing the number of your sins; come with your offerings every morning and your tenths every three days:

⁵Let that which is leavened be burned as a praise-offering, let the news of your free offerings be given out publicly; for this is pleasing to you, O children of Israel, says the Lord.

⁶But in all your towns I have kept food from your teeth, and in all your places there has been need of bread: and still you have not come back to me, says the Lord.

⁷And I have kept back the rain from you, when it was still three months before the grain-cutting: I sent rain on one town and kept it back from another: one part was rained on, and the part where there was no rain became a waste.

⁸So two or three towns went wandering to one town looking for water, and did not get enough: and still you have not come back to me, says the Lord.

⁹I have sent destruction on your fields by burning and disease: the increase of your gardens and your vine-gardens, your fig-trees and your olive-trees, has been food for worms: and still you have not come back to me, says the Lord.

¹⁰I have sent disease among you, as it was in Egypt: I have put your young men to the sword, and have taken away your horses; I have made the evil smell from your tents come up to your noses: and still you have not come back to me, says the Lord.

¹¹And I have sent destruction among you, as when God sent destruction on Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a burning stick pulled out of the fire: and still you have not come back to me, says the Lord.

¹²So this is what I will do to you, O Israel: and because I will do this to you, be ready for a meeting with your God, O Israel.

¹³For see, he who gave form to the mountains and made the wind, giving knowledge of his purpose to man, who makes the morning dark, and is walking on the high places of the earth: the Lord, the God of armies, is his name.