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Israel’s Good Times Will Be Taken Away

Oh, look at the people enjoying life in Zion,
    and those on Mount Samaria who feel so safe.
They are such important leaders of a most important nation.
    The “House of Israel” comes to you for advice.
Go look at Calneh.
    From there, go to the large city Hamath.
    Go to the Philistine city of Gath.[a]
Are you better than these kingdoms?
    Their countries are larger than yours.
You people are rushing toward the day of punishment.
    You bring near the rule of violence.
But now you lie on ivory beds
    and stretch out on your couches.
You eat tender young lambs from the flock
    and young calves from the stable.
You play your harps,
    and like David, you practice on[b] your musical instruments.
You drink wine in fancy cups.[c]
    You use the best perfumes.
And it doesn’t even bother you
    that Joseph’s family is being destroyed.

You people are stretched out on your couches now, but your good times will end. You will be taken away as prisoners to a foreign country, and you will be some of the first people taken. The Lord God used his own name and made an oath. The Lord God All-Powerful said,

“I hate what Jacob is proud of.
    I hate his strong towers.
So I will let an enemy take the city
    and everything in it.”

There Will Be Few Israelites Left Alive

At that time ten people in one house might survive, but they too will die. 10 And when someone dies, a relative will come to get the body so that it can be taken out and burned.[d] Relatives will come to take away the bones. They will call to anyone who might be hiding back in the house, “Are there any other dead bodies in there with you?”

That person will answer, “No, ….”[e]

But the relative will interrupt and say, “Hush! We must not mention the name of the Lord.”

11 Look, the Lord will give the command,
    and the large houses will be broken to pieces,
    and the small houses will be broken to small pieces.
12 Do horses run over loose rocks?
    No, and people don’t use cows for plowing.
But you turned everything upside down.
    You changed justice and goodness to bitter poison.
13 You are so excited about defeating Lo Debar.[f]
    And you boast, “We have taken Karnaim[g] by our own strength.”

14 “But Israel, I will bring a nation against you that will bring troubles to your whole country from Lebo Hamath to Arabah Brook.” This is what the Lord God All-Powerful said.

The Vision of the Locusts

This is what the Lord God showed me: He was making locusts. This was at the time the second crop began to grow, after the king’s people had cut the first crop. Before the locusts could eat all the grass in the country, I said, “Lord God, I beg you, forgive us! Jacob cannot survive! He is too small!”

Then the Lord changed his mind about this. The Lord said, “It will not happen.”

The Vision of the Fire

This is what the Lord God showed me: I saw the Lord God calling for judgment by fire. The fire destroyed the ocean and was beginning to eat up the land. But I said, “Lord God, stop, I beg you! Jacob cannot survive! He is too small!”

Then the Lord changed his mind about this. The Lord God said, “It will not happen either.”

The Vision of the Plumb Line

This is what the Lord showed me: He stood by a wall with a plumb line[h] in his hand. (The wall had been marked with a plumb line.) The Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?”

I said, “A plumb line.”

Then the Lord said to me, “See, I will put a plumb line among my people Israel. I will not let their ‘crooked ways’ pass inspection anymore. Isaac’s high places will be destroyed. Israel’s holy places will be made into a pile of rocks. I will attack and kill Jeroboam’s[i] family with swords.”

Amaziah Tries to Stop Amos

10 Amaziah, a priest at Bethel,[j] sent this message to Jeroboam, the king of Israel: “Amos is making plans against you. He is trying to make the people of Israel fight against you. He has been speaking so much that this country cannot hold all his words. 11 Amos has said, ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and the people of Israel will be taken as prisoners out of their country.’”

12 Amaziah also said to Amos, “You seer, go down to Judah and eat there.[k] Do your prophesying there. 13 But don’t prophesy anymore here at Bethel. This is Jeroboam’s holy place. This is Israel’s temple.”

14 Then Amos answered Amaziah, “I am not a professional prophet, and I am not from a prophet’s family. I raise cattle and take care of sycamore trees. 15 I was a shepherd and the Lord took me from following the sheep. The Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ 16 So listen to the Lord’s message. You tell me, ‘Don’t prophesy against Israel. Don’t speak against Isaac’s family.’ 17 But the Lord says, ‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the city. Your sons and daughters will be killed with swords. Other people will take your land and divide it among themselves, and you will die in a foreign[l] country. The people of Israel will definitely be taken from this country as prisoners.’”

The Vision of the Ripe Fruit

This is what the Lord God showed me: I saw a basket of summer fruit. He said to me, “Amos, what do you see?”

I said, “A basket of summer fruit.”

Then the Lord said to me, “The end[m] has come to my people Israel. I will not ignore their sins anymore. Their temple songs will become funeral songs.” This is what the Lord God said. “There will be dead bodies everywhere. In silence, people will take out the dead bodies and throw them onto the pile.[n]

Merchants Only Want to Make Money

Listen to me, you who trample on helpless people.
    You are trying to destroy the poor of this country.
You merchants say,
    “When will the New Moon be over so that we can sell grain?
When will the Sabbath be over
    so that we can bring out more wheat to sell?
We can raise the price
    and make the measure smaller.[o]
We can fix the scales
    and cheat the people.[p]
The poor cannot pay their loans,
    so we will buy them as slaves.
We will buy those helpless people
    for the price of a pair of sandals.
Oh, and we can sell the wheat
    that was spilled on the floor.”

The Lord made a promise. He used his name, “Pride of Jacob,” and made this promise:

“I will never forget what those people did.
There will be an earthquake
    that will shake the whole land because of what they did.
Everyone living there will cry for those who died.
    The land will be tossed around.
The whole land will rise and fall like the Nile River in Egypt.”

The Lord God also said,
“At that time I will make the sun set at noon
    and make the land dark on a clear day.
10 I will change your festivals into days of crying for the dead.
    All your songs will be songs of sadness for those who are dead.
I will put mourning clothes on every body
    and baldness on every head.[q]
I will cause mourning everywhere,
    like that for an only son who has died.
It will be a very bitter end.”

A Famine of God’s Word

11 The Lord God says,

“Look, the days are coming
    when I will cause a famine in the land.
The people will not be hungry for bread.
    They will not be thirsty for water.
    No, they will be hungry for words from the Lord.
12 The people will wander around the country,
    from the Dead Sea to the Mediterranean Sea,
    and from the north part of the country to the east.
They will go back and forth looking for a message from the Lord,
    but they will not find it.
13 At that time the beautiful young men and women
    will become weak from thirst.
14 They made promises by the sin of Samaria,[r]
    They said, ‘Dan,[s] as surely as your god lives, we promise ….’
    And they said, ‘As surely as the god of Beersheba[t] lives, we promise ….’
But they will fall
    and never get up again.”

Vision of the Lord Standing by the Altar

I saw the Lord standing by the altar, and he said,

“Hit the top of the columns,
    and shake them to the ground.
Push them and they will fall
    on everyone’s head.
As for those who survive,
    I will kill them with a sword.
None of them will run away.
    None of them will escape.
If they dig deep into the ground,[u]
    I will pull them from there.
If they go up into the skies,[v]
    I will bring them down from there.
If they hide at the top of Mount Carmel,[w]
    I will find them there and take them from that place.
If they try to hide from me at the bottom of the sea,
    I will command the snake, and it will bite them.
If they are captured and taken away by their enemies,
    I will command the sword,
    and it will kill them there.
Yes, I will watch over them,
    but I will watch for ways to give them troubles,
    not for ways to do good things.”

Punishment Will Destroy the People

The Lord God All-Powerful will touch the land,
    and the land will melt.
    Then all the people who live in the land will cry for the dead.
The land will rise and fall
    like the Nile River in Egypt.
He built his upper rooms above the skies.
    He put his skies[x] over the earth.
He calls for the waters of the sea
    and pours them out as rain on the land.
    Yahweh is his name.

The Lord Promises Destruction for Israel

This is what the Lord says:

“Israel, you are like the Ethiopians to me.
    I brought Israel out of the land of Egypt,
    the Philistines from Caphtor,[y]
    and the Arameans from Kir.[z]

The Lord God is watching this sinful kingdom.
The Lord says,
“I will wipe Israel off the face of the earth,
    but I will never completely destroy Jacob’s family.
I am giving the command
    to scatter the people of Israel among all nations.
But it will be like someone sifting flour.
A person shakes flour through a sifter.[aa]
    The good flour falls through, but the bad lumps are caught.

10 “Sinners among my people say,
    ‘Nothing bad will happen to us.’
But all of them will be killed with swords.”

God Promises to Restore the Kingdom

11 “David’s tent[ab] has fallen,
    but at that time I will set it up again.
I will fix its holes and repair its ruined parts.
    I will set it up as it was before.
12 Then the people left alive in Edom,
    and all the people called by my name, will look to me for help.”
This is what the Lord said,
    and he will make it happen.
13 The Lord says, “A time of great blessing is coming.
Workers will still be harvesting
    when it is time to plow the fields again.
They will still be trampling the grapes
    when it is time for a new crop.
Sweet wine will drip from the mountains
    and pour from the hills.
14 I will bring my people, Israel,
    back from captivity.
They will rebuild the ruined cities,
    and they will live in them.
They will plant vineyards
    and drink the wine they produce.
They will plant gardens
    and eat the crops they produce.
15 I will plant my people on their land,
    and never again will they be pulled up out of the land that I gave them.”
This is what the Lord your God said.

Footnotes

  1. Amos 6:2 Calneh, Hamath, Gath Powerful Babylonian, Syrian, and Philistine cities that were all captured by the Assyrians.
  2. Amos 6:5 practice on Or “invent.” The Hebrew word means to “think,” “become skilled,” or “design.”
  3. Amos 6:6 fancy cups Very large bowls used in worship rituals.
  4. Amos 6:10 And when … burned The meaning of the Hebrew text here is uncertain.
  5. Amos 6:10 No, … The full answer might have been, “No, praise the Lord,” but the person was interrupted.
  6. Amos 6:13 Lo Debar This name means “nothing.”
  7. Amos 6:13 Karnaim This name means “horns.” Horns were a symbol of strength.
  8. Amos 7:7 plumb line A string with a weight on one end used to show how straight the walls of a building were. Sometimes the line was coated with paint or chalk to mark a straight line.
  9. Amos 7:9 Jeroboam The king of Israel. See verse 10.
  10. Amos 7:10 Bethel A town in Israel. This name means “God’s house.”
  11. Amos 7:12 eat there This shows that Amaziah thought that Amos was a professional prophet who prophesied to receive food or money.
  12. Amos 7:17 foreign Literally, “unclean.” See “ unclean” in the Word List.
  13. Amos 8:2 end This Hebrew word sounds like the word for “summer fruit.”
  14. Amos 8:3 In silence … the pile Or “People will be saying, ‘Hush!’” See Amos 6:10.
  15. Amos 8:5 We … smaller Literally, “We will make the ephah small and the shekel large.”
  16. Amos 8:5 We … people Literally, “Cheat with lying balances.”
  17. Amos 8:10 baldness … head People shaved their heads to show that they were very sad or upset.
  18. Amos 8:14 sin of Samaria The calf god in Samaria.
  19. Amos 8:14 Dan One of Israel’s holy places was in this city.
  20. Amos 8:14 Beersheba A town in Judah. This name means “well of the oath.”
  21. Amos 9:2 ground Literally, “Sheol, the place of the dead.”
  22. Amos 9:2 skies Or “heaven.”
  23. Amos 9:3 Mount Carmel A mountain in northern Israel. This name means “God’s vineyard.” This shows that it was a very fertile hill.
  24. Amos 9:6 skies Literally, “dome” or “vault.”
  25. Amos 9:7 Caphtor An island west of Israel, probably Crete or Cyprus.
  26. Amos 9:7 Kir Where the Arameans came from and where the Assyrians sent them in exile. There are several places with this name.
  27. Amos 9:9 sifter Something like a cup with a screen on its bottom. A sifter is used for removing large lumps from the good flour.
  28. Amos 9:11 David’s tent This probably means the city of Jerusalem or the country of Judah.

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