Amos 8
1599 Geneva Bible
8 1 Against the rulers of Israel. 7 The Lord sweareth. 11 The famine of the word of God.
1 Thus hath the Lord God showed unto me, and behold, a basket of summer fruit.
2 And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of [a]summer fruit. Then said the Lord unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel, I will pass by them no more.
3 And the songs of the Temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord God: many dead bodies shall be in every place: they shall cast them forth with [b]silence.
4 Hear this, O ye that [c]swallow up the poor, that ye may make the needy of the land to fail,
5 Saying, When will the [d]new month be gone, that we may sell corn? and the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, and make [e]the Ephah small and the shekel great, and falsify the weights by deceit?
6 That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for shoes: yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat.
7 The Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely, I will never forget any of their works.
8 Shall not the land tremble for this, and everyone mourn, that dwelleth therein? and it shall rise up wholly as a flood, and it shall be cast out, and [f]drowned as by the flood of Egypt.
9 And in that day, saith the Lord God, I will even cause the [g]Sun to go down at noon: I will darken the earth in the clear day.
10 And I will turn your feasts into mourning: and all your songs into lamentation: and I will bring 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.
11 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 word of the Lord.
12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the North even unto the East shall they run to and fro to seek the [h]word of the Lord, and shall not find it.
13 In that day shall the fair virgins and the young men perish for thirst.
14 They that swear by the sin [i]of Samaria, and that say, Thy God, O Dan, liveth, and [j]the manner of Beersheba liveth, even they shall fall, and never rise up again.
Footnotes
- Amos 8:2 Which signified the ripeness of their sins, and the readiness of God’s judgments.
- Amos 8:3 There shall be none left to mourn for them.
- Amos 8:4 By staying the sale of food, and necessary things which you have gotten into your own hands, and so cause the poor to spend quickly that little that they have, and at length for necessity to become your slaves.
- Amos 8:5 When the dearth was once come they were so greedy of gain, that they thought the holy day to be an hindrance unto them.
- Amos 8:5 That is, the measure small, and the price great.
- Amos 8:8 That is, the inhabitants of the land shall be drowned, as Nile drowneth many when it overfloweth.
- Amos 8:9 In the midst of their prosperity, I will send great affliction.
- Amos 8:12 Whereby he showeth that they shall not only perish in body, but also in soul for lack of God’s word, which is the food thereof.
- Amos 8:14 For the idolaters did use to swear by their idols: which here he calleth their sin, as the Papists yet do by theirs.
- Amos 8:14 That is, the common manner of worshipping, and the service or religion there used.
Amos 8
English Standard Version
The Coming Day of Bitter Mourning
8 (A)This is what the Lord God showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit. 2 And he said, (B)“Amos, what do you see?” And I said, (C)“A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me,
(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.
Geneva Bible, 1599 Edition. Published by Tolle Lege Press. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations in articles, reviews, and broadcasts.
The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV Text Edition: 2025.
