Old/New Testament
Visions: Amos, Confidant of God
Chapter 7
The Vision of Locusts. 1 This is what the Lord God showed me: he was forming a swarm of locusts after the king’s share[a] had been harvested and the second growth was beginning to sprout. 2 When the locusts had finished eating all the grass in the land, I said:
Lord God, forgive, I beg you.
Jacob is so small;
how can he survive?
3 Thereupon the Lord relented. “This shall not happen,” said the Lord God.
The Vision of Fire. 4 This is what the Lord God then showed me: the Lord God was summoning a fire of judgment to devour the great abyss and to consume the land. 5 I said:
Lord God, cease, I beg you.
Jacob is so small;
how can he survive?
6 Thereupon the Lord relented. “This also shall not happen,” said the Lord God.
The Vision of the Plumb Line. 7 Then the Lord showed me this: he was standing by a wall, with a plumb line in his hand. 8 The Lord asked me, “What do you see, Amos?” I replied, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said:
Behold, I am setting a plumb line
in the midst of my people Israel;
never again will I forgive their offenses.
9 The high places of Isaac shall be laid waste,
and the sanctuaries of Israel will be left desolate;
with sword in hand
I will rise against the house of Jeroboam.
10 Amos Expelled by the Priests of Bethel. Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent the following message to Jeroboam, the king of Israel: “Amos has conspired against you here in the heart of the house of Israel, and the country cannot tolerate his message. 11 For this is what Amos is saying:
“ ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword,
and the Israelites will be taken into captivity,
far away from their native land.’ ”
12 To Amos himself Amaziah said, “Go, O seer, and flee to the land of Judah. There you can prophesy and earn your living. 13 But never again prophesy at Bethel, for this is the king’s sanctuary and a royal shrine.”
14 Amos replied to Amaziah, “I am not a prophet, nor a prophet’s son. I was a shepherd and a dresser of sycamore-fig trees. 15 But the Lord took me away from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go forth and prophesy to my people Israel.’ 16 So now, listen to the word of the Lord. You tell me that I am not to prophesy against Israel or to preach against the house of Isaac. 17 Therefore, thus says the Lord:
“ ‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the city,
and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword.
Your land will be parceled out by a measuring line;
you yourself will die in a pagan country,
and Israel will be deported in captivity
far from its native land.’ ”
Chapter 8
The Vision of the Fruit Basket.[b] 1 This is what the Lord God showed me: a basket of ripe fruit. 2 He asked, “What do you see, Amos?” I replied, “A basket of ripe fruit.” Then the Lord said to me:
The time is ripe for my people Israel;
I will never again pardon their offenses.
3 The songs of the temple shall become wailings on that day;
there will be corpses strewn everywhere.
Be silent! Thus says the Lord God.
Listen, You Who Crush the Poor
4 Hear this, you who crush the needy
and trample upon the poor of the land.
5 “When will the new moon be over,” you ask,
“so that we may sell our grain,
and the Sabbath,
so that we may market our wheat?
Then we can make the bushel measure smaller
and increase the shekel-weight
by adjusting the scales fraudulently.
6 We can buy the poor man for silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals;
we can even sell the refuse of the wheat.”
7 The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
Never will I forget any of their deeds.
8 Will not the land tremble because of this?
Will not everyone mourn who dwells in it?
The whole earth will rise like the Nile,
swelling and then subsiding
like the River of Egypt.
I Will Turn Your Feasts into Mourning
9 On that day, says the Lord God,
I will make the sun go down at noon
and darken the earth in broad daylight.
10 I will turn your feasts into mourning,
and all your songs into lamentation.
I will make you cover your loins with sackcloth
and shave your heads.
I will make it like mourning for an only son
and the end of it like a bitter day.[c]
11 The days are surely coming, says the Lord God,
when I will send a famine upon the land,
not a hunger for bread or a thirst for water,
but for hearing the word of the Lord.
12 People will stagger from sea to sea
and wander from north to east,
in search of the word of the Lord,
but they will not find it.
13 On that day, fair maidens and young men
will faint from thirst.
14 Those who swear by the shameful idol of Samaria
and say, “As your god lives, O Dan,”
and, “By the sacred path to Beer-sheba,”
will all fall and never rise again.[d]
Chapter 9
The Vision of the Destroyed Sanctuary. 1 I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said:
Strike the tops of the pillars until the thresholds shake,
and bring them down on the heads of all the people.
Should any survive,
I will slay them with the sword.
Not one will be able to flee;
not one will escape.
2 Even should they dig down to the netherworld,
from there my hand will take them.
Even though they climb up to heaven,
I will bring them down.
3 Should they hide themselves on the summit of Carmel,
there I will track them down and take them.
Should they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea,
I will command the serpent there to bite them.
4 If they are led by their enemies into captivity,
there I shall command the sword to slay them.
I will fix my eyes on them
for evil, and not for good.
Psalm of Praise
5 The Lord, the God of hosts,
touches the earth and it melts
so that all who live on it mourn,
while the entire earth rises up like the Nile[e]
and then subsides like the River of Egypt.
6 He builds his upper chambers in the heavens
and establishes his vault of the sky over the earth—
the Lord is his name.
7 The Lord says:
Are you not like the Ethiopians to me,
O people of Israel?
Did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt,
and the Philistines from Caphtor,
and the Arameans from Kir?
8 Behold, I, the Lord God,
have my eyes upon this sinful kingdom,
and I will destroy it from the face of the earth.
The Time of Renewal
I Will Raise Up the Hut of David
However, I will not completely destroy the house of Jacob,
says the Lord.
9 For I will give the command
and shake out the house of Israel
from among all the nations,
as one sifts with a sieve
without one pebble falling to the ground.
10 All the sinners among my people shall die by the sword,
those who say, “Evil will not approach or overtake us.”
11 On that day I shall raise up
the fallen hut of David.
I will repair the gaps in its walls,
restore its ruins,
and rebuild it as in the days of old,
12 so that Israel may possess the remnant of Edom
and of all the nations that bear my name;
I, the Lord, will accomplish this.
I Will Reestablish My People Israel
13 The days are surely coming,
says the Lord,
when the plowman shall overtake
the one who reaps,
and the treader of grapes will overtake
the one who sows the seed.
New wine will drip from the mountains,
and every hill will flow with it.
14 I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel;
they will rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them.
They will plant vineyards and drink their wine,
cultivate gardens and eat their fruit.
15 I will plant them in their own soil,
and they shall never again be uprooted
from the land I have given them.
This is the word of the Lord, your God.
Chapter 8
The Seventh Seal.[a] 1 When the Lamb broke open the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. 2 And I saw that seven trumpets were given to the seven angels who stand in the presence of God.
3 Another angel came forward with a gold censer and stood at the altar.[b] He was given a large quantity of incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the gold altar that stood before the throne.
4 The smoke of the incense together with the prayers of the saints rose before God from the hand of the angel. 5 Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and emptied it upon the earth. Immediately, there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.
6 The seven angels who held the seven trumpets now made ready to blow them.
The First Four Trumpets.[c] 7 When the first angel blew his trumpet, there was a storm of hail and fire, mixed with blood, and it fell upon the earth.[d] A third of the earth was burned up, as well as a third of the trees and all the green grass.
8 [e]When the second angel blew his trumpet, something that looked like a huge mountain ablaze with fire was hurled into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, 9 a third of the creatures living in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
10 When the third angel blew his trumpet, a great star fell from the sky, burning like a torch. It came down on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. 11 This star was called “Wormwood,” and a third of the waters turned to wormwood.[f] Great numbers of people died from the waters that had become bitter.
12 When the fourth angel blew his trumpet, a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars. As a result, a third of their light was darkened, and the day lost its illumination for a third of the time, and so did the night.[g]
13 The Cry of the Eagle.[h] In my vision, I heard an eagle cry out in a loud voice as it flew high overhead, “Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth because of the other trumpet blasts that the three angels have not yet blown!”
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