4 “Yes, and what are you to me, Tyre and Sidon,
and all the regions of Philistia?
Will you repay me?
And if you repay me,
I will swiftly and speedily return your repayment on your own head.
5 Because you have taken my silver and my gold,
and have carried my finest treasures into your temples,
6 and have sold the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem to the sons of the Greeks,
that you may remove them far from their border.
7 Behold, I will stir them up out of the place where you have sold them,
and will return your repayment on your own head;
8 and I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hands of the children of Judah,
and they will sell them to the men of Sheba,
to a faraway nation,
for the LORD has spoken it.”
9 Proclaim this amongst the nations:
“Prepare for war!
Stir up the mighty men.
Let all the warriors draw near.
Let them come up. 10 Beat your ploughshares into swords,
and your pruning hooks into spears.
Let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’
11 Hurry and come, all you surrounding nations,
and gather yourselves together.”
Cause your mighty ones to come down there, LORD.
12 “Let the nations arouse themselves,
and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat;
for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations.
13 Put in the sickle;
for the harvest is ripe.
Come, tread, for the wine press is full,
the vats overflow, for their wickedness is great.”
14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision!
For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.
15 The sun and the moon are darkened,
and the stars withdraw their shining.
16 The LORD will roar from Zion,
and thunder from Jerusalem;
and the heavens and the earth will shake;
but the LORD will be a refuge to his people,
and a stronghold to the children of Israel.
17 “So you will know that I am the LORD, your God,
dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain.
Then Jerusalem will be holy,
and no strangers will pass through her any more.
18 It will happen in that day,
that the mountains will drop down sweet wine,
the hills will flow with milk,
all the brooks of Judah will flow with waters;
and a fountain will flow out from the LORD’s house,
and will water the valley of Shittim.
19 Egypt will be a desolation
and Edom will be a desolate wilderness,
for the violence done to the children of Judah,
because they have shed innocent blood in their land.
20 But Judah will be inhabited forever,
and Jerusalem from generation to generation.
21 I will cleanse their blood
that I have not cleansed,
for the LORD dwells in Zion.”
† 1:1: When rendered in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, “LORD” or “GOD” is the translation of God’s Proper Name (Hebrew “יהוה”, usually pronounced Yahweh).
‡ 1:13: The Hebrew word rendered “God” is “אֱלֹהִ֑ים” (Elohim).
† 2:19: “Behold”, from “הִנֵּה”, means look at, take notice, observe, see, or gaze at. It is often used as an interjection.
Amos
The Book of Amos
1
1 The words of Amos, who was amongst the herdsmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. 2 He said:
“The LORD† will roar from Zion,
and utter his voice from Jerusalem;
and the pastures of the shepherds will mourn,
and the top of Carmel will wither.”
3 The LORD says:
“For three transgressions of Damascus, yes, for four,
I will not turn away its punishment,
because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron;
4 but I will send a fire into the house of Hazael,
and it will devour the palaces of Ben Hadad.
5 I will break the bar of Damascus,
and cut off the inhabitant from the valley of Aven,
and him who holds the sceptre from the house of Eden;
and the people of Syria shall go into captivity to Kir,”
says the LORD.
6 The LORD says:
“For three transgressions of Gaza, yes, for four,
I will not turn away its punishment,
because they carried away captive the whole community,
to deliver them up to Edom;
7 but I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza,
and it will devour its palaces.
8 I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod,
and him who holds the sceptre from Ashkelon;
and I will turn my hand against Ekron;
and the remnant of the Philistines will perish,”
says the Lord‡ GOD.
9 The LORD says:
“For three transgressions of Tyre, yes, for four,
I will not turn away its punishment;
because they delivered up the whole community to Edom,
and didn’t remember the brotherly covenant;
10 but I will send a fire on the wall of Tyre,
and it will devour its palaces.”
11 The LORD says:
“For three transgressions of Edom, yes, for four,
I will not turn away its punishment,
because he pursued his brother with the sword
and cast off all pity,
and his anger raged continually,
and he kept his wrath forever;
12 but I will send a fire on Teman,
and it will devour the palaces of Bozrah.”
13 The LORD says:
“For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, yes, for four,
I will not turn away its punishment,
because they have ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead,
that they may enlarge their border.
14 But I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah,
and it will devour its palaces,
with shouting in the day of battle,
with a storm in the day of the whirlwind;
15 and their king will go into captivity,
he and his princes together,”
says the LORD.
2
1 The LORD says:
“For three transgressions of Moab, yes, for four,
I will not turn away its punishment,
because he burnt the bones of the king of Edom into lime;
2 but I will send a fire on Moab,
and it will devour the palaces of Kerioth;
and Moab will die with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet;
3 and I will cut off the judge from amongst them,
and will kill all its princes with him,”
says the LORD.
4 The LORD says:
“For three transgressions of Judah, yes, for four,
I will not turn away its punishment,
because they have rejected the LORD’s law,
and have not kept his statutes,
and their lies have led them astray,
after which their fathers walked;
5 but I will send a fire on Judah,
and it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem.”
6 The LORD says:
“For three transgressions of Israel, yes, for four,
I will not turn away its punishment,
because they have sold the righteous for silver,
and the needy for a pair of sandals;
7 They trample the heads of the poor into the dust of the earth
and deny justice to the oppressed.
A man and his father use the same maiden, to profane my holy name.
8 They lay themselves down beside every altar on clothes taken in pledge.
In the house of their God† they drink the wine of those who have been fined.
9 Yet I destroyed the Amorite before them,
whose height was like the height of the cedars,
and he was strong as the oaks;
yet I destroyed his fruit from above,
and his roots from beneath.
10 Also I brought you up out of the land of Egypt
and led you forty years in the wilderness,
to possess the land of the Amorite.
11 I raised up some of your sons for prophets,
and some of your young men for Nazirites.
Isn’t this true,
you children of Israel?” says the LORD.
12 “But you gave the Nazirites wine to drink,
and commanded the prophets, saying, ‘Don’t prophesy!’
13 Behold,‡ I will crush you in your place,
as a cart crushes that is full of grain.
14 Flight will perish from the swift.
The strong won’t strengthen his force.
The mighty won’t deliver himself.
15 He who handles the bow won’t stand.
He who is swift of foot won’t escape.
He who rides the horse won’t deliver himself.
16 He who is courageous amongst the mighty
will flee away naked on that day,”
says the LORD.
3
1 Hear this word that the LORD has spoken against you, children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up out of the land of Egypt, saying:
2 “I have only chosen you of all the families of the earth.
Therefore I will punish you for all of your sins.”
3 Do two walk together,
unless they have agreed?
4 Will a lion roar in the thicket,
when he has no prey?
Does a young lion cry out of his den,
if he has caught nothing?
5 Can a bird fall in a trap on the earth,
where no snare is set for him?
Does a snare spring up from the ground,
when there is nothing to catch?
6 Does the trumpet alarm sound in a city,
without the people being afraid?
Does evil happen to a city,
and the LORD hasn’t done it?
7 Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing,
unless he reveals his secret to his servants the prophets.
8 The lion has roared.
Who will not fear?
The Lord GOD has spoken.
Who can but prophesy?
9 Proclaim in the palaces at Ashdod,
and in the palaces in the land of Egypt,
and say, “Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria,
and see what unrest is in her,
and what oppression is amongst them.”
10 “Indeed they don’t know to do right,” says the LORD,
“Who hoard plunder and loot in their palaces.”
11 Therefore the Lord GOD says:
“An adversary will overrun the land;
and he will pull down your strongholds,
and your fortresses will be plundered.”
12 The LORD says:
“As the shepherd rescues out of the mouth of the lion two legs,
or a piece of an ear,
so shall the children of Israel be rescued who sit in Samaria on the corner of a couch,
and on the silken cushions of a bed.”
13 “Listen, and testify against the house of Jacob,” says the Lord GOD, the God of Armies.
14 “For in the day that I visit the transgressions of Israel on him,
I will also visit the altars of Bethel;
and the horns of the altar will be cut off,
and fall to the ground.
15 I will strike the winter house with the summer house;
and the houses of ivory will perish,
and the great houses will have an end,”
says the LORD.
4
1 Listen to this word, you cows of
