
{1}1{/}

[\u0095]_[=]_{R}_{I}1_{/}These are the words of Amos, one of the sheep-
breeders of Tekoa, and the visions which he saw concerning Israel 
during the reign of Uzziah, King of Judah and Jeroboam, son of 
Jehoash, King of Israel, two years before the earthquake. 
[=]_{R}_{I}2_{/}He said,
"Yahweh roars from Zion,
his voice thunders from Jerusalem.
The pastures of the shepherds are scorched
and the choicest farmland is dried up."
[=]_{R}_{I}3_{/}Yahweh says this, "Because Damascus has sinned, not once 
but three times and even more, I will not relent. Because they 
have threshed Gilead with threshing sledges of iron, {I}4_{/}I will 
send fire upon the people of Hazael that shall devour the 
strongholds of Benhadad. I will cut off the ruler from the Valley 
of Aven and him who holds the scepter from Betheden. {R}_{I}5_{/}I shall 
break the protective crossbar of Damascus."

{N}CONDEMNATION OF SEVERAL NATIONS{/}

[=]_{R}_{I}6_{/}Yahweh says this, "Because Gaza has sinned, not once but 
three times and even more, I will not relent. Because they carried 
a whole people into captivity to deliver them over to Edom, {I}7_{/}I 
will send fire upon the wall of Gaza and it will devour her 
strongholds. {R}_{I}8_{/}I will cut off the ruler from Ashdod, and him 
that holds the scepter from Ashkelon; I will turn my hand against 
Ekron and the remnant of the Philistines will perish," says 
Yahweh.
[=]_{R}_{I}9_{/}Yahweh says this, "Because Tyre has sinned, not once but 
three times and even more, I will not relent. Because they 
delivered over to Edom a whole people and did not remember the 
covenant of brotherhood, {I}10_{/}I will send fire upon the walls of 
Tyre and it shall devour her palaces."
[=]_{R}_{I}11_{/}Yahweh says this, "Because Edom has sinned, not once but 
three times and even more, I will not relent. Because he pursued 
his brother with the sword and cast off all pity, because his 
anger rages forever and his wrath is always wild, {I}12_{/}I will send 
fire upon Teman and it shall devour the strongholds of Bozrah."
{I}13_{/}Yahweh says this, "Because the Amonites have sinned, not once 
but three times and even more, I will not relent. Because they 
have ripped open pregnant women in Gilead, that they might enlarge 
their border, {I}14_{/}I will set fire to the walls of Rabbah and it 
shall devour her strongholds. Then there will be war cry and 
battle; then storm winds will blow. {R}_{I}15_{/}Their king will go into 
exile, he and his princes with him," says Yahweh.

{1}2{/}

{R}_{I}1_{/}Yahweh says this, "Because Moab has sinned, not once but 
three times and even more, I will not relent. Because they burned 
to a cinder the bones of the king of Edom, {I}2_{/}I will send fire on 
Moab and it shall be destroyed in the midst of the tumult, with 
war cries and the blast of the trumpet. {I}3_{/}I will do away with 
their ruler and all the princes with him," says Yahweh.
[=]_{R}_{I}4_{/}Yahweh says this, "Because Judah has sinned, not once but 
three times and even more, I will not relent. Because they 
rejected the law of Yahweh and did not keep his statutes, but have 
been led astray by the falsehood after which their fathers walked, 
{R}_{I}5_{/}I will send fire upon Judah and it will devour the fortresses 
of Jerusalem."

{N}JUDGMENT ON ISRAEL{/}

[\u0095]_{R}_{I}6_{/}Yahweh says this, "Because Israel has sinned, not once 
but three times and even more, I will not relent. They sell the 
just for money and the needy for a pair of sandals;  {R}_{I}7_{/}they 
tread on the head of the poor and trample them upon the dust of 
the earth, while they silence the right of the afflicted; a man 
and his father go to the same woman to profane my holy name; 
[=]_{R}_{I}8_{/}they stretch out upon garments taken in pledge, beside 
every altar; they take the wine of those they swindle and are 
drunk in the house of their God.
[=]_{R}_{I}9_{/}It was I who destroyed the Amorites before them, whose 
height was like the height of the cedar, a people as sturdy as an 
oak. I destroyed their fruit above and their roots below.
{R}_{I}10_{/}It was I who brought you up from the land of Egypt and led 
you forty years in the wilderness to take possession of the land 
of the Amorites.
[=]_{R}_{I}11_{/}It was I who raised up prophets among your sons, and 
Nazirites among your young men. Is this not so, people of Israel?" 
says Yahweh. [=]_{R}_{I}12_{/}"But you gave the Nazirites wine to drink 
and commanded the prophets not to prophesy.
{I}13_{/}Behold, I will crush you to the ground, as a cart does when 
it is full of sheaves. {R}_{I}14_{/}The swift shall be unable to flee and 
the strong man shall lose his strength. The warrior shall not save 
himself nor the bowman stand his ground. {I}15_{/}The swift of foot 
shall not escape nor the horseman save himself. {I}16_{/}Even the most 
stout-hearted among the warriors shall flee away naked on that 
day," says Yahweh.

{N}PUNISHMENT IS NEAR{/}

{1}3{/}

{R}_{I}1_{/}Hear this word which Yahweh speaks against you, people of 
Israel, against the whole family which he brought up from the land 
of Egypt.
[=]_{I}2_{/}"Only you have I known of all the families of the earth; 
therefore I will call you to account for all your wrongdoings."
[\u0095]_{I}3_{/}Do two walk together unless they have agreed?
{I}4_{/}Does a lion roar in the forest when it has no prey? Does a 
young lion growl in its den unless it has seized something?
{I}5_{/}Does a bird get caught in a snare if the snare has not been 
baited?
Does a tiger spring up from the ground unless it has caught 
something?
{I}6_{/}If a trumpet sounds in a city, will the people not be 
frightened?
If disaster strikes a city, has not Yahweh caused it? {R}_{I}7_{/}Yet 
Yahweh does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants, 
the prophets. [=]_{I}8_{/}If the lion roars, who will not be afraid? 
If Yahweh speaks, who will not prophesy?
{R}_{I}9_{/}Call on the people living in the palaces of Ashur and in the 
palaces of Egypt, "Come together against the hill of Samaria and 
see the many scandals and the oppression that is there."
[=]_{I}10_{/}"These people do not know how to do what is right, says 
Yahweh, storing in strongholds what they have taken through 
violence and extortion. {I}11_{/}Therefore this is the word of Yahweh, 
"The enemy shall surround the land; your strength shall be broken 
down and your strongholds plundered."
{R}_{I}12_{/}Yahweh says this, "As the shepherd rescues from the mouth of 
the lion a pair of legs or the tip of an ear, so shall some of you 
be saved, O Israelites of Samaria who loll on comfortable couches 
and rest on pillows of Damascus."
{R}_{I}13_{/}"Hear and accuse the nation of Jacob," says Yahweh, God of 
hosts, [=]_{R}_{I}14_{/}"On the day that I call Israel to account for his 
crimes, I will punish as well the altars of Bethel. The horns of 
the altar will be broken off and fall to the ground. {I}15_{/}Then I 
will strike the winter house and the summer house. The palaces of 
ivory shall be ruined, and the great house destroyed."

{1}4{/}

[\u0095]_[=]_{R}_{I}1_{/}Listen to this word, you cows of Bashan, you women 
who live on the hills of Samaria, who oppress the weak and abuse 
the needy, who order your husbands, "Bring us something to drink 
quickly!"
[=]_{I}2_{/}Yahweh has sworn by his holiness, "The time is coming upon 
you when you will be dragged away with hooks, even the last of you 
with fishhooks. {I}3_{/}Through the breaks in the wall you will go 
out, straight ahead, driven out all the way to Hermon." It is 
Yahweh who speaks.

{N}PREPARE TO MEET YOUR GOD{/}

[\u0095]_{R}_{I}4_{/}"Come, sinners, to the Sanctuary in Bethel, go down to 
Gilgal and sin even more!
Each morning bring your sacrifices and on the third day your 
tithes. Burn leavened food for thanksgiving. {R}_{I}5_{/}Proclaim in 
public your freewill offering, for this is what makes you happy, 
people of Israel," says Yahweh.
[=]_{R}_{I}6_{/}"Though I have made your teeth clean of food in every 
city, though I have made your bread in all your dwellings scarce, 
yet you did not return to me," says Yahweh.
{I}7_{/}"Though I withheld rain from you when the harvest was still 
three months away, though I sent rain upon one town and withheld 
it from another,  {R}_{I}8_{/}though people staggered from town to town, 
and found no water to quench their thirst, yet you never returned 
to me," says Yahweh.
{I}9_{/}"Though with blight and calamities I have stricken your garden 
and vineyard, though your fig and olive trees were devoured by the 
locusts, yet you never returned to me," says Yahweh.
[=]_{R}_{I}10_{/}"Though as in Egypt I sent you a plague, though I slew 
your young men with the sword along with your captured horses, and 
nauseated you with stench from your own dead, yet you never 
returned to me," says Yahweh.
[=]_{R}_{I}11_{/}"I overthrew you, a divine punishment, as happened to 
Sodom and Gomorrah; you were like a brand snatched from the blaze, 
yet you never returned to me," says Yahweh.
[=]_{R}_{I}12_{/}"Therefore I will deal with you in my own way, Israel, 
and since I will do this to you, prepare, Israel, to meet your 
God!"
[=]_{R}_{I}13_{/}For it is he who makes the thunder and creates the 
winds, and makes people know why he did, who turns dawn to 
twilight, who strides upon the heights of the earth - Yahweh, God 
of hosts, is his name.

{N}SEEK ME AND YOU SHALL LIVE{/}

{1}5{/}

{R}_{I}1_{/}Listen to these words, this lament I pronounce over you, 
nation of Israel, [=]_{R}_{I}2_{/}"Virgin Israel is fallen, never to rise 
again! With none to help her up, abandoned, she lies upon her own 
land."
{R}_{I}3_{/}For Yahweh says this, "The city that went forth to war a 
thousand strong shall be left with a hundred, and that which went 
forth with a hundred shall be left with ten in Israel."
[=]_{R}_{I}4_{/}For Yahweh says this to the nation of Israel, "Seek me, 
that you may live, {R}_{I}5_{/}but not in Bethel nor come to Gilgal, nor 
pass through to Beersheba. For Gilgal shall be led into exile and 
Bethel brought to nothing."
{R}_{I}6_{/}Seek Yahweh, that you may live, or he will rush like fire on 
the nation of Joseph and no one will be at Bethel to quench the 
blaze.
{I}7_{/}Woe to those whose decrees are bitterness, not justice, who 
trample on the rights!
{R}_{I}8_{/}He who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns dusk to dawn 
and darkens the day into night,  who summons the waters of the sea 
and pours them out upon the earth - Yahweh is his name. {I}9_{/}He 
makes destruction flash forth against the strong, and brings ruin 
upon the fortified city.

{C}Ver [Am_5,7]{/}

[=]_{I}10_{/}You hate him who reproves in court; you despise him who 
speaks the truth.
[=]_{I}11_{/}Because you have trampled on the poor and extorted levies 
on their grain, though you have built mansions of hewn stones you 
will not dwell in them; though you have planted choice grapevines, 
you shall not drink of their wine.
{I}12_{/}For I know the number of your crimes and how grievous are 
your sins: persecuting the just, taking bribes, turning away the 
needy at the gates. [=]_{I}13_{/}See, how the prudent keep silent at 
this time, for it is an evil time.

{N}THE DAY OF THE LORD WILL BE DARKNESS{/}

[\u0095]_[=]_{R}_{I}14_{/}Seek good and shun evil, that you may live. Then 
Yahweh, the God of hosts, as you have claimed, will be with you. 
{R}_{I}15_{/}Hate wickedness and love virtue, and let justice prevail in 
the courts; perhaps Yahweh, the God of hosts, will take pity on 
the remnant of Joseph.
{R}_{I}16_{/}Yahweh, God of hosts thus says: "In every square, wailing 
will be heard, in every street, cries of anguish. Farmers will be 
summoned to lament and professional mourners to weep noisily. 
[=]_{I}17_{/}There will be lamentation in every vineyard, for I will 
pass through your midst, says the Lord."
[=]_{I}18_{/}Woe to you who long for Yahweh's day! Why should you long 
for that day? It is a day of darkness, not of dawn, {R}_{I}19_{/}as if a 
man fled from a lion only to run into a bear; or as if he entered 
his home, rested his hand against the wall, only to be bitten by a 
viper.
{I}20_{/}The day of Yahweh will be darkness, not light, gloom without 
a glow of brightness.
[=]_{I}21_{/}"I hate, I reject your feasts, I take no pleasure when 
you assemble {I}22_{/}to offer me your burnt offerings. Your cereal 
offerings, I will not accept! Your offerings of fattened beasts, I 
will not look upon!
{I}23_{/}Away with the noise of your chanting, away with your 
strumming on harps. {R}_{I}24_{/}But let justice run its course like 
water, and righteousness be like an ever-flowing river.
{R}_{I}25_{/}Did you, Israel, bring me offerings and sacrifices for forty 
years, in the wilderness?
{R}_{I}26_{/}Yet now you lift up King Sikkuth and Kiyun, your idols, 
which you made yourselves. {R}_{I}27_{/}Therefore I will send you into 
exile beyond Damascus," says Yahweh whose name is God of hosts.

{1}6{/}

[=]_{R}_{I}1_{/}Woe to those proud people who live, overconfident on the 
hill of Samaria!
Woe to you, men of renown, from the first among the nations, to 
whom the people of Israel come!
[=]_{R}_{I}2_{/}Pass through Kalneh and see; from there go to Hamath the 
great, then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are you better 
than these kingdoms were? Is your territory greater than theirs? 
{I}3_{/}You hope to postpone the evil day; in fact you bring about a 
year of violence.
[=]_{I}4_{/}You lie on beds inlaid with ivory and sprawl on your 
couches; you eat lamb from the flock and veal from calves fattened 
in the stall.
{R}_{I}5_{/}You strum on your harps, and like David, try out new musical 
instruments.
{R}_{I}6_{/}You drink wine by the bowlful and anoint yourselves with the 
finest oils, but you do not grieve over the ruins of Joseph.
{I}7_{/}Therefore you will be the first to go into exile; and the 
feast of sprawlers will be over.
{R}_{I}8_{/}Yahweh has sworn by his life, "I hate the proud city of 
Jacob, I hate its palaces. I will hand over the city and all that 
fills it."  
{I}9_{/}In those days, if ten people are left in one house, they shall 
die. [=]_{I}10_{/}Their kinsman will lift the corpses and bring the 
bones from the house; when he will say to his comrade at the back 
part of the house, "Are there any more?" the other will say, "No, 
but hush! We must not mention the name of Yahweh."
{I}11_{/}For this is Yahweh's command, 
"The great house shall crumble, and the small house fall to 
pieces."
{R}_{I}12_{/}Do horses run on craggy cliffs? Does anyone plow the sea 
with oxen? Well, you have turned the rights into a poisonous plant 
and the sentences of the court into wormwood.
{I}13_{/}You rejoice about unimportant matters when you say, "Are we 
not winners once more?" [=]_{R}_{I}14_{/}Yet am I stirring up against 
you, Israel, a nation that will oppress you from the pass of 
Hamath to the brook of the Arabah.

{N}FIVE VISIONS{/}

{1}7{/}

[\u0095]_[=]_{R}_{I}1_{/}This is what Yahweh showed me. He was forming a swarm 
of locusts just as the late sowing began to come up. It was the 
second growth which follows the king's mowing. [=]_{R}_{I}2_{/}When they 
were about to finish devouring all the crops of the land, I said, 
"Yahweh, forgive! How shall Jacob survive, small as he is?" 
[=]_{I}3_{/}Yahweh repented and said, "It shall not happen."
[=]_{I}4_{/}This is what Yahweh showed me: he was calling for burning 
heat. It consumed the great deep and was consuming  the land. 
{R}_{I}5_{/}I said, "Yahweh, stop! How shall Jacob survive small as he 
is?" {I}6_{/}Yahweh relented and said, "This too shall not happen."
{I}7_{/}This is what Yahweh showed me. He was standing beside a wall 
with a plumb line in his hand. {R}_{I}8_{/}The Lord asked me, "Amos, what 
do you see?" And I answered, "A plumb line." Then the Lord said, 
"Behold, I am measuring my people Israel with a plumb line. I will 
forgive them no more. {R}_{I}9_{/}The high places of Isaac are to be made 
desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel laid waste. For I will 
arise, sword in hand, against the family of Jeroboam."

{N}CONFLICT WITH THE PRIEST AMAZIAH{/}

[\u0095]_{R}_{I}10_{/}Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, then sent word to King 
Jeroboam of Israel, "Amos is conspiring against you in the very 
center of Israel; what he says{I}_{/}goes too far. [=]_{R}_{I}11_{/}These are 
his very words: Jeroboam shall die by the sword and Israel shall 
be exiled from its land."
{R}_{I}12_{/}Amaziah then said to Amos, "Off with you, seer, go back to 
the land of Judah. Earn your bread there by prophesying. {R}_{I}13_{/}But 
never again prophesy at Bethel for it is a king's sanctuary and a 
national shrine."
[=]_{R}_{I}14_{/}Amos replied to Amaziah, "I am not a prophet or one of 
the fellow-prophets. I am a breeder of sheep and a dresser of 
sycamore trees. [=]_{R}_{I}15_{/}But Yahweh took me from shepherding the 
flock and said to me: Go,  and from me, tell my people Israel.
{R}_{I}16_{/}Now hear the word of Yahweh, you who say: No more prophecy 
against Israel, no more insults against the family of Isaac! 
[=]_{R}_{I}17_{/}This is what Yahweh says:
Your wife shall be made a harlot in the city, your sons and 
daughters shall fall by the sword, your land shall be divided up 
and given to others, and you yourself shall die in a foreign land, 
for Israel shall be driven far from its land."

{N}FOURTH VISION: THE BASKET OF RIPE FRUIT{/}

{1}8{/}

[\u0095]_{I}1_{/}Yahweh showed me a basket of ripe fruit [=]_{R}_{I}2_{/}and 
asked, "Amos, what do you see?" I replied, "A basket of ripe 
fruit."
Then Yahweh said to me, "My people Israel is ripe for destruction; 
I will no longer forgive them. {I}3_{/}The songs of the palace will 
become wailings on that day, says the Lord. Heaps of corpses 
everywhere, all cast out in silence."
{I}4_{/}Hear this, you who trample on the needy to do away with the 
weak of the land. [=]_{I}5_{/}You who say, "When will the new moon or 
the sabbath feast be over that we may open the store and sell our 
grain? Let us lower the measure and raise the price; let us cheat 
and tamper with the scales, {I}6_{/}and even sell the refuse with the 
whole grain. We will buy up the poor for money and the needy for a 
pair of sandals."
{R}_{I}7_{/}Yahweh, the pride of Jacob, has sworn by himself, "I shall 
never forget their deeds."
[=]_{R}_{I}8_{/}Shall not the land tremble because of this, and all who 
dwell in it mourn, while it rises up and heaves like the Nile and  
settles back again like the river of Egypt?
[=]_{I}9_{/}Yahweh says, "On that day I will make the sun go down at 
noon and darken the earth in broad daylight.
[=]_{I}10_{/}I will turn your festivals into mourning and all your 
singing into wailing. Everyone will mourn, covered with sackcloth 
and every head will be shaved. I will make them mourn as for an 
only son and bring their day to a bitter end."
{R}_{I}11_{/}Yahweh says, "Days are coming when I will send famine upon 
the land, not hunger for bread or thirst for water, but for 
hearing the word of Yahweh.
[=]_{R}_{I}12_{/}Men will stagger from sea to sea, wander to and fro, 
from north to east, searching for the word of Yahweh, but they 
will not find it.
[=]_{I}13_{/}On that day, fair virgins and strong young men will faint 
from thirst, {R}_{I}14_{/}all the young people who swore by the god of 
Samaria and said: Long life to the god of Dan, long life to the 
god of Bersheba! They shall fall, never to rise again."

{N}FIFTH VISION: FALL OF THE SANCTUARY{/}

{1}9{/}

{R}_{I}1_{/}I saw the Lord standing by the altar, and he said, "Strike 
the top of the columns, so that the beams shake and the roof falls 
down on the heads of them  all. Those who are left I will slay 
with the sword; not one shall flee, not one shall escape.
[=]_{I}2_{/}Though they dig down to the netherworld, my hand will take 
them from there; though they climb up to heaven, I will bring them 
down from there;
{R}_{I}3_{/}Though they hide on the top of Carmel, I will search them out 
there and take them; though they hide from me in the depths of the 
sea, I will bid the sea serpent bite them.
{I}4_{/}When they are led into captivity by their enemies, there I 
will command the sword to slay them.
For I have set my eye upon them, not for help but for harm."
{R}_{I}5_{/}When Yahweh of hosts touches the earth, it melts and all who 
dwell on it mourn. The earth rises up and heaves like the Nile and 
settles back again like the river of Egypt.
{R}_{I}6_{/}He has built heaven, his upper room, and established the dome 
of the sky over the earth. He summons the waters of the sea and 
pours them upon the face of the earth: Yahweh is his name.
{R}_{I}7_{/}And now Yahweh says, "Are you Israelites more to me than the 
Ethiopians? Did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt as I 
brought the Philistines from Caphtor and Aram from Kir? 
[\u0095]_{R}_{I}8_{/}My eyes are upon your sinful kingdom. I wanted to destroy 
it from the face of the earth, but I cannot do away completely 
with the nation of Jacob," says Yahweh.
[=]_{R}_{I}9_{/}"This is what I have ordered: I will sift the nation of 
Israel among the nations as one sifts with a sieve, letting no 
pebble pass through. {I}10_{/}All sinners among my people shall die, 
those who say, 'Evil will not reach or overtake us.'
[\u0095]_[=]_{R}_{I}11_{/}On that day I shall restore the fallen hut of David 
and wall up its breaches and raise its ruined walls and so build 
it as in days of old.
{R}_{I}12_{/}They shall conquer the remnant of Edom and the neighboring 
nations upon which my name has been called." Thus says Yahweh, the 
one who will do this.
[=]_{I}13_{/}Yahweh says also, "The days are coming when the plowman 
will overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes overtake the 
sower. The mountains shall drip sweet wine and all the hills shall 
melt.
[=]_{R}_{I}14_{/}I shall bring back the exiles of my people Israel; they 
will rebuild the desolate cities and dwell in them. They will 
plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will have orchards and 
eat their fruit. {R}_{I}15_{/}I shall plant them in their own country and 
they shall never again be rooted up from the land which I have 
given them," says Yahweh your God.

