Amo 8 | HCSB | STEP | The Lord God showed me this : A basket of summer fruit .

Amos 8

Fourth Vision: A Basket of Summer Fruit

1 The Lord God showed me this: A basket of summer fruit. 2 He asked me, “What do you see, Amos?” ^aI replied, “A basket of summer fruit.” ^bThe Lord said to me, “The end has come for My people Israel; ^c I will no longer spare them. ^d 3 In that day the temple ^{▼▼Or palace} songs ^f will become wailing” ^g – this is the Lord God’s declaration. “Many dead bodies, thrown everywhere! ^h Silence!” ⁱ

4 Hear this, you who trample on the needy ^j
and do away with the poor of the land, ^k
5 asking, “When will the New Moon be over
so we may sell grain, ^l
and the Sabbath,
so we may market wheat? ^m
We can reduce the measure
while increasing the price ^{▼▼Lit reduce the ephah and make the shekel great}
and cheat with dishonest scales. ^o
6 We can buy the poor with silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals ^p
and even sell the chaff!”

7 The Lord has sworn ^q by the Pride of Jacob: ^{▼▼= the Lord or the promised land
,} ^s

I will never forget all their deeds. ^t
8 Because of this, won’t the land quake ^u
and all who dwell in it mourn? ^v
All of it will rise like the Nile; ^w
it will surge and then subside
like the Nile in Egypt. ^x

9 And in that day –
this is the declaration of the Lord God –

I will make the sun go down at noon; ^y
I will darken the land in the daytime. ^z
10 I will turn your feasts into mourning ^aa
and all your songs into lamentation; ^ab
I will cause everyone ^{▼▼Lit every loin} to wear ^{▼▼sackcloth: Garment made of poor quality material and worn as a sign of grief and mourning}sackcloth ^ae
and every head to be shaved. ^af
I will make that grief
like mourning for an only son ^ag
and its outcome like a bitter day.

11 Hear this! The days are coming –
this is the declaration of the Lord God –

when I will send a famine through the land:
not a famine of bread or a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of the Lord. ^ah
12 People will stagger from sea to sea
and roam from north to east,
seeking the word of the Lord, ^ai
but they will not find it.
13 In that day the beautiful young women, ^aj
the young men also, will faint from thirst. ^ak
14 Those who swear by the ^{▼▼guilt/guilty: The liability to be punished for a fault, a sin, an act, or an omission unless there is forgiveness or atonement; the term normally concerns an objective fact, not a subjective feeling.}guilt of Samaria ^am
and say, “As your god lives, Dan,” ^an
or “As the way ^{▼▼LXX reads god
,} ^{▼▼Or power} of Beer-sheba lives” ^aq –
they will fall, never to rise again. ^ar