Amos 8-9

English Standard Version

^(D)“The end^[a] has come upon my people Israel;
    I will never again pass by them.
^3 (E)The songs of the temple^{[b] (F)}shall become wailings^[c] in that day,”
declares the Lord God.
^(G)“So many dead bodies!”
“They are thrown everywhere!”
^(H)“Silence!”

⁴ Hear this, ^(I)you who trample on the needy
    and bring the poor of the land to an end,
⁵ saying, “When will ^(J)the new moon be over,
    that we may sell grain?
And ^(K)the Sabbath,
    that we may offer wheat for sale,
that we may make ^(L)the ephah small and the shekel^[d] great
    and deal deceitfully with false balances,
⁶ that we may buy the poor for ^(M)silver
    and the needy for a pair of sandals
    and sell the chaff of the wheat?”

⁷ The Lord has sworn by ^(N)the pride of Jacob:
“Surely ^(O)I will never forget any of their deeds.
^8 (P)Shall not the land tremble on this account,
    and everyone mourn who dwells in it,
^(Q)and all of it rise like the Nile,
    and be tossed about ^(R)and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?”

⁹ “And on that day,” declares the Lord God,
    ^(S)“I will make the sun go down at noon
    and darken the earth in broad daylight.
^10 (T)I will turn your feasts into mourning
    and all your songs into lamentation;
^(U)I will bring sackcloth on every waist
    ^(V)and baldness on every head;
^(W)I will make it like the mourning for an only son
    and the end of it like a bitter day.

¹¹ “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God,
    “when ^(X)I will send a famine on the land—
not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,
    ^(Y)but of hearing the words of the Lord.
^12 (Z)They shall wander from sea to sea,
    and from north to east;
they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord,
    ^(AA)but they shall not find it.

^13 (AB)“In that day the lovely virgins and the young men
    shall ^(AC)faint for thirst.
¹⁴ Those who swear by ^(AD)the Guilt of Samaria,
    and say, ‘As your god lives, O Dan,’
and, ‘As ^(AE)the Way of ^(AF)Beersheba lives,’
    they shall fall, and never rise again.”

^(AG)“Strike the capitals until ^(AH)the thresholds ^(AI)shake,
    ^(AJ)and shatter them on the heads of all the people;^[f]
and those who are left of them I will kill with the sword;
    ^(AK)not one of them shall flee away;
    not one of them shall escape.

^2 (AL)“If they dig into Sheol,
    from there shall my hand take them;
^(AM)if they climb up to heaven,
    from there I will bring them down.
³ If they hide themselves on ^(AN)the top of Carmel,
    from there I will search them out and take them;
^(AO)and if they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea,
    there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them.
^4 (AP)And if they go into captivity before their enemies,
    there I will command the sword, and it shall kill them;
^(AQ)and I will fix my eyes upon them
    for evil and not for good.”

⁵ The Lord God of hosts,
he who touches the earth and ^(AR)it melts,
    and all who dwell in it mourn,
^(AS)and all of it rises like the Nile,
    ^(AT)and sinks again, like the Nile of Egypt;
^6 (AU)who builds his upper chambers in the heavens
    and founds his vault upon the earth;
^(AV)who calls for the waters of the sea
    and pours them out upon the surface of the earth—
^(AW)the Lord is his name.

⁷ “Are you not like ^(AX)the Cushites to me,
    O people of Israel?” declares the Lord.
^(AY)“Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt,
    and ^(AZ)the Philistines from ^(BA)Caphtor and the Syrians from ^(BB)Kir?
⁸ Behold, ^(BC)the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom,
    and I will destroy it from the surface of the ground,
    ^(BD)except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,”
declares the Lord.

⁹ “For behold, I will command,
    ^(BE)and shake the house of Israel among all the nations
as one shakes with a sieve,
    but no pebble shall fall to the earth.
¹⁰ All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword,
    who say, ^(BF)‘Disaster shall not overtake or meet us.’

¹³ “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord,
    ^(BJ)“when the plowman shall overtake the reaper
    and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed;
^(BK)the mountains shall drip sweet wine,
    and all the hills shall flow with it.
^14 (BL)I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel,
    and ^(BM)they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them;
^(BN)they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine,
    and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit.
^15 (BO)I will plant them on their land,
    ^(BP)and they shall never again be uprooted
    out of the land ^(BQ)that I have given them,”
says the Lord your God.