The words of Amos, who was among the herdmen
of Tekoa, which he saw concerning 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 earthquake.
And he said, The LORD will roar from Zion,
and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the habitations of the
shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither.
Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions
of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment
thereof; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing
instruments of iron:
But I will send a fire into the house of
Hazael, which shall devour the palaces of Benhadad.
I will break also the bar of Damascus, and
cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven, and him that holdeth
the sceptre from the house of Eden: and the people of Syria shall
go into captivity unto Kir, saith the LORD.
Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions
of Gaza, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof;
because they carried away captive the whole captivity, to deliver
them up to Edom:
But I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza,
which shall devour the palaces thereof:
And I will cut off the inhabitant from
Ashdod, and him that holdeth the sceptre from Ashkelon, and I will
turn mine hand against Ekron: and the remnant of the Philistines
shall perish, saith the Lord GOD.
Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions
of Tyrus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment
thereof; because they delivered up the whole captivity to Edom, and
remembered not the brotherly covenant:
But I will send a fire on the wall of Tyrus,
which shall devour the palaces thereof.
Thus saith the LORD; For three
transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not turn away the
punishment thereof; because he did pursue his brother with the
sword, and did cast off all pity, and his anger did tear
perpetually, and he kept his wrath for ever:
But I will send a fire upon Teman, which
shall devour the palaces of Bozrah.
Thus saith the LORD; For three
transgressions of the children of Ammon, and for four, I will not
turn away the punishment thereof; because they have ripped up the
women with child of Gilead, that they might enlarge their
border:
But I will kindle a fire in the wall of
Rabbah, and it shall devour the palaces thereof, with shouting in
the day of battle, with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind:
And their king shall go into captivity, he
and his princes together, saith the LORD.
Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions
of Moab, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof;
because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime:
But I will send a fire upon Moab, and it
shall devour the palaces of Kirioth: and Moab shall die with
tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet:
And I will cut off the judge from the midst
thereof, and will slay all the princes thereof with him, saith the
LORD.
Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions
of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment
thereof; because they have despised the law of the LORD, and have
not kept his commandments, and their lies caused them to err, after
the which their fathers have walked:
But I will send a fire upon Judah, and it
shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.
Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions
of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment
thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor
for a pair of shoes;
That pant after the dust of the earth on the
head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and
his father will go in unto the same maid, to profane my holy
name:
And they lay themselves down upon clothes
laid to pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the
condemned in the house of their god.
Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them,
whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong
as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots
from beneath.
Also I brought you up from the land of
Egypt, and led you forty years through the wilderness, to possess
the land of the Amorite.
And I raised up of your sons for prophets,
and of your young men for Nazarites. Is it not even thus, O ye
children of Israel? saith the LORD.
But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and
commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not.
Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is
pressed that is full of sheaves.
Therefore the flight shall perish from the
swift, and the strong shall not strengthen his force, neither shall
the mighty deliver himself:
Neither shall he stand that handleth the
bow; and he that is swift of foot shall not deliver himself:
neither shall he that rideth the horse deliver himself.
And he that is courageous among the mighty
shall flee away naked in that day, saith the LORD.
Hear this word that the LORD hath spoken
against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I
brought up from the land of Egypt, saying,
You only have I known of all the families of
the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your
iniquities.
Can two walk together, except they be
agreed?
Will a lion roar in the forest, when he hath
no prey? will a young lion cry out of his den, if he have taken
nothing?
Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth,
where no gin is for him? shall one take up a snare from the earth,
and have taken nothing at all?
Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the
people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD
hath not done it?
Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he
revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.
The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the
Lord GOD hath spoken, who can but prophesy?
Publish in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the
palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, Assemble yourselves upon the
mountains of Samaria, and behold the great tumults in the midst
thereof, and the oppressed in the midst thereof.
For they know not to do right, saith the
LORD, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces.
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; An
adversary there shall be even round about the land; and he shall
bring down thy strength from thee, and thy palaces shall be
spoiled.
Thus saith the LORD; As the shepherd taketh
out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear; so
shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria in
the corner of a bed, and in Damascus in a couch.
Hear ye, and testify in the house of Jacob,
saith the Lord GOD, the God of hosts,
That in the day that I shall visit the
transgressions of Israel upon him I will also visit the altars of
Bethel: and the horns of the altar shall be cut off, and fall to
the ground.
And I will smite the winter house with the
summer house; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great
houses shall have an end, saith the LORD.
Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, that are
in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the
needy, which say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink.
The Lord GOD hath sworn by his holiness,
that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that he will take you away
with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks.
And ye shall go out at the breaches, every
cow at that which is before her; and ye shall cast them into the
palace, saith the LORD.
Come to Bethel, and transgress; at Gilgal
multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning,
and your tithes after three years:
And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with
leaven, and proclaim and publish the free offerings: for this
liketh you, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.
And I also have given you cleanness of teeth
in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have
ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.
And also I have withholden the rain from you,
when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to
rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city:
one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not
withered.
So two or three cities wandered unto one
city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied: yet have ye not
returned unto me, saith the LORD.
I have smitten you with blasting and mildew:
when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your
olive trees increased, the palmerworm devoured them: yet have ye
not returned unto me, saith the LORD.
I have sent among you the pestilence after
the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword,
and have taken away your horses; and I have made the stink of your
camps to come up unto your nostrils: yet have ye not returned unto
me, saith the LORD.
I have overthrown some of you, as God
overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked
out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the
LORD.
Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O
Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy
God, O Israel.
For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and
createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that
maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of
the earth, The LORD, The God of hosts, is his name.
Hear ye this word which I take up against
you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel.
The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no
more rise: she is forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise
her up.
For thus saith the Lord GOD; The city that
went out by a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went
forth by an hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel.
For thus saith the LORD unto the house of
Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live:
But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal,
and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into
captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought.
Seek the LORD, and ye shall live; lest he
break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and
there be none to quench it in Bethel.
Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave
off righteousness in the earth,
Seek him that maketh the seven stars and
Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh
the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea,
and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his
name:
That strengtheneth the spoiled against the
strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.
They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and
they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.
Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon
the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built
houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have
planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of
them.
For I know your manifold transgressions and
your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and
they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.
Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in
that time; for it is an evil time.
Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live:
and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have
spoken.
Hate the evil, and love the good, and
establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of
hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.
Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the
LORD, saith thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall
say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the
husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful of lamentation to
wailing.
And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I
will pass through thee, saith the LORD.
Woe unto you that desire the day of the
LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness,
and not light.
As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear
met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall,
and a serpent bit him.
Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness,
and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?
I hate, I despise your feast days, and I
will not smell in your solemn assemblies.
Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your
meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the
peace offerings of your fat beasts.
Take thou away from me the noise of thy
songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.
But let judgment run down as waters, and
righteousness as a mighty stream.
Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and
offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?
But ye have borne the tabernacle of your
Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made
to yourselves.
Therefore will I cause you to go into
captivity beyond Damascus, saith the LORD, whose name is The God of
hosts.
Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and
trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the
nations, to whom the house of Israel came!
Pass ye unto Calneh, and see; and from thence
go ye to Hamath the great: then go down to Gath of the Philistines:
be they better than these kingdoms? or their border greater than
your border?
Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause
the seat of violence to come near;
That lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch
themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock,
and the calves out of the midst of the stall;
That chant to the sound of the viol, and
invent to themselves instruments of musick, like David;
That drink wine in bowls, and anoint
themselves with the chief ointments: but they are not grieved for
the affliction of Joseph.
Therefore now shall they go captive with the
first that go captive, and the banquet of them that stretched
themselves shall be removed.
The Lord GOD hath sworn by himself, saith the
LORD the God of hosts, I abhor the excellency of Jacob, and hate
his palaces: therefore will I deliver up the city with all that is
therein.
And it shall come to pass, if there remain
ten men in one house, that they shall die.
And a man's uncle shall take him up, and he
that burneth him, to bring out the bones out of the house, and
shall say unto him that is by the sides of the house, Is there yet
any with thee? and he shall say, No. Then shall he say, Hold thy
tongue: for we may not make mention of the name of the LORD.
For, behold, the LORD commandeth, and he
will smite the great house with breaches, and the little house with
clefts.
Shall horses run upon the rock? will one
plow there with oxen? for ye have turned judgment into gall, and
the fruit of righteousness into hemlock:
Ye which rejoice in a thing of nought, which
say, Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength?
But, behold, I will raise up against you a
nation, O house of Israel, saith the LORD the God of hosts; and
they shall afflict you from the entering in of Hemath unto the
river of the wilderness.
Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me; and,
behold, he formed grasshoppers in the beginning of the shooting up
of the latter growth; and, lo, it was the latter growth after the
king's mowings.
And it came to pass, that when they had made
an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, O Lord GOD,
forgive, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is
small.
The LORD repented for this: It shall not be,
saith the LORD.
Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me: and,
behold, the Lord GOD called to contend by fire, and it devoured the
great deep, and did eat up a part.
Then said I, O Lord GOD, cease, I beseech
thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small.
The LORD repented for this: This also shall
not be, saith the Lord GOD.
Thus he shewed me: and, behold, the LORD
stood upon a wall made by a plumbline, with a plumbline in his
hand.
And the LORD said unto me, Amos, what seest
thou? And I said, A plumbline. Then said the LORD, Behold, I will
set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again
pass by them any more:
And the high places of Isaac shall be
desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste; and I
will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.
Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to
Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee
in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear
all his words.
For thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall die by
the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their
own land.
Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer,
go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and
prophesy there:
But prophesy not again any more at Bethel:
for it is the king's chapel, and it is the king's court.
Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I
was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son; but I was an
herdman, and a gatherer of sycomore fruit:
And the LORD took me as I followed the
flock, and the LORD said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people
Israel.
Now therefore hear thou the word of the
LORD: Thou sayest, Prophesy not against Israel, and drop not thy
word against the house of Isaac.
Therefore thus saith the LORD; Thy wife
shall be an harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters
shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be divided by line; and
thou shalt die in a polluted land: and Israel shall surely go into
captivity forth of his land.
Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me: and
behold a basket of summer fruit.
And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I
said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the LORD unto me, The end
is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any
more.
And the songs of the temple shall be howlings
in that day, saith the Lord GOD: there shall be many dead bodies in
every place; they shall cast them forth with silence.
Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy,
even to make the poor of the land to fail,
Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that
we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat,
making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the
balances by deceit?
That we may buy the poor for silver, and the
needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of the
wheat?
The LORD hath sworn by the excellency of
Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works.
Shall not the land tremble for this, and
every one mourn that dwelleth therein? and it shall rise up wholly
as a flood; and it shall be cast out and drowned, as by the flood
of Egypt.
And it shall come to pass in that day, saith
the Lord GOD, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I
will darken the earth in the clear day:
And I will turn your feasts into mourning,
and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth
upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as
the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter
day.
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD,
that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a
thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:
And they shall wander from sea to sea, and
from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek
the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.
In that day shall the fair virgins and young
men faint for thirst.
They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and
say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beersheba liveth;
even they shall fall, and never rise up again.
I saw the LORD standing upon the altar: and
he said, Smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake:
and cut them in the head, all of them; and I will slay the last of
them with the sword: he that fleeth of them shall not flee away,
and he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered.
Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine
hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring
them down:
And though they hide themselves in the top of
Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be
hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command
the serpent, and he shall bite them:
And though they go into captivity before
their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay
them: and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for
good.
And the Lord GOD of hosts is he that toucheth
the land, and it shall melt, and all that dwell therein shall
mourn: and it shall rise up wholly like a flood; and shall be
drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.
It is he that buildeth his stories in the
heaven, and hath founded his troop in the earth; he that calleth
for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of
the earth: The LORD is his name.
Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto
me, O children of Israel? saith the LORD. Have not I brought up
Israel out of the land of Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor,
and the Syrians from Kir?
Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are upon the
sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the
earth; saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,
saith the LORD.
For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the
house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a
sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.
All the sinners of my people shall die by
the sword, which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent
us.
In that day will I raise up the tabernacle
of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I
will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of
old:
That they may possess the remnant of Edom,
and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, saith the LORD
that doeth this.
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that
the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes
him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and
all the hills shall melt.
And I will bring again the captivity of my
people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and
inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine
thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of
them.
And I will plant them upon their land, and
they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have
given them, saith the LORD thy God.