teacheth salvation.

Therefore because ye oppress the poor, and take the corn of them with great burdens, dwell not in the houses which ye have built of works, neither drink ye the wine which ye have planted in the fine vineyards.

For I know your transgressions, which are many, and your sins, which are great, how ye press the righteous, and take blood money, and oppress the poor in the gate.

Therefore the prudent man must keep silence at that time: for it is an evil time.

Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live; and the LORD God of hosts shall be with you, as ye boast.

Hate evil, and love good, and establish judgment in the gate: and the LORD God of hosts shall be gracious unto the remnant in Joseph.

Therefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, the LORD; There shall be mourning in every street, and they shall say in every street, Woe! woe! And the husbandman shall be called to mourn, and to lament, he that is able to weep.

There shall be mourning in all the vineyards: for I will go among you, saith the LORD.

Woe unto them that desire the day of the LORD! What shall it do unto you? For the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light.

As when a man fleeth before a lion, and a bear meeteth him; and as when a man cometh into a house, and leaneth his hand against the wall, and a serpent stingeth him.

For the day of the LORD shall be dark, and not light; dark, and not light.

I am grief-stricken for your feasts, and despise them, and like not to smell in your congregation;

Though ye offer me burnt offerings and meat offerings, I have no pleasure in them: neither will I regard your meat offerings of peace offerings.

Put away from me the noise of thy songs: for I will not hear thy psaltery.

And justice shall be revealed as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.

Have ye of the house of Israel offered me sacrifices and meat offerings in the wilderness forty years? yea, yea.

Ye bear Sichuth your king, and Chiun your image, the star of your gods, which ye made for yourselves.

Then will I send you away from hence beyond Damascus, saith the LORD, whose name is God of hosts.
(Amos)
Chapter 6
More distant threat of punishment because of the sins of Judah and Israel.

Woe unto the proud of Zion, and to them that trust in mount Samaria, who boast themselves the chief of the Gentiles, and walk in the house of Israel!

Go to Calne, and look thence unto Hemath the great city, and go down to Gath of the Philistines, which were better kingdoms than these, and whose border was greater than your border.

Ye that respect yourselves far from the evil day, and seek always the reign of iniquity.

And ye sleep upon beds of ivory, and have abundance in your beds: ye eat the lambs of the flock, and the fatted calves.

And play upon the psaltery, and make up songs unto you, as David did, 6. And drink wine of the vials, and anoint yourselves with balm, and care not for the hurt of Joseph.

Now therefore they shall be foremost among them that are carried away captives; and the feasting of the stocks shall cease.

For the LORD LORD hath sworn by his soul, saith the LORD God of hosts, I am displeased with the pride of Jacob, and I am displeased with their palaces; and I will deliver up the city also, and all that is therein.

And though ten men remain in one house, yet they shall die,

That every man’s cousin and his uncle may take him, and bear his bones out of the house, and say unto him that is in the chambers of the house: Is there any more of them? And he shall answer, They are all gone. And he shall say, Be satisfied: for they would not that the name of the LORD should be remembered.

For, behold, the LORD hath commanded that the great houses should be smitten, that they should be smitten with breaches; and the small houses, that they should be smitten with breaches.

Who can run with horses, or plough with oxen upon the rocks? For ye turn righteousness into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood.

And take comfort in that which is nothing, saying, Are we not strong enough with our horns?

Therefore, behold, I will raise up a people against you of the house of Israel, saith the LORD
God of hosts; and they shall afflict you from the place that goeth to Hemath unto the river of the wilderness.
(Amos)
Chapter 7
Amos, sued by Amazia, has three faces of future punishment.

The LORD God showed me a vision, and, behold, there stood a man making locusts at the beginning, when the grass was gathered up: and, behold, the grass was gathered up, after that the king had shorn his sheep.

And it came to pass, when they were about to eat up the herbage of the land, that I said, O
Lord GOD, have mercy on me. Who shall restore Jacob? for he is little.

And the LORD repented, and said, Well, let it not be done.

The LORD God shewed me a vision, and, behold, the LORD God called the fire to punish with it; which was to devour a great deep, and it devoured part of it already.

And I said, O Lord GOD, let him go. Who shall restore Jacob? for he is little.

And the LORD repented, and the LORD said, Neither shall it be done.

And he shewed me this vision, and, behold, the LORD stood upon a wall, measured with a line of lead; and he had the line of lead in his hand.

And the LORD said unto me, What seest thou, Amos? And I said, A cord of lead. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I will draw a cord of lead through the midst of my people Israel, and will not fail them,

But the high places of Isaac shall be laid waste, and the churches of Israel shall be desolate: and I will make me a sword against the house of Jeroboam.

And Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent unto Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos maketh a rebellion against thee in the house of Israel: the land cannot bear his words.

For thus saith Amos, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall be carried away captive out of his land.

And Amaziah said unto Amos, Thou seer, depart, and flee into the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there.

And prophesy no more in Bethel: for it is the king’s pen, and the king’s house.

And Amos answered and said unto Amaziah, I am no prophet, neither am I the son of any
prophet; but I am a shepherd of cows, which eat mulberries.

But the LORD took me from the flock, and said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel.

Hear therefore the word of the LORD. Thou sayest, Prophesy not against Israel, neither drip water against the house of Isaac.

Therefore thus saith the LORD; Thy wife shall become a harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy field shall be divided by the cord: but thou shalt die in an unclean land, and Israel shall be driven out of his land.
(Amos)
Chapter 8
Of the fall of the house of Israel and of spiritual hunger.

The Lord GOD showed me a vision, and, behold, there was a basket of fruit.

And he said, What seest thou, Amos? And I answered, A basket of fruit. And the LORD said unto me, The end is come upon my people Israel; I will not fail them.

And the songs of the church shall be turned into weeping in that day, saith the Lord GOD; and there shall be many dead bodies in every place, which shall be carried away privily.

Hear this, ye that oppress the poor, and destroy the wretched of the land.

Saying, When shall the new moon come to an end, that we may sell corn, and the sabbath, that we may sell corn, and wring the ephah, and increase the sekel, and falsify the scales?

That we may bring among us the poor for money, and the needy for a pair of shoes, and sell chaff for corn?

The LORD hath sworn against the pride of Jacob, saying, What matter if I forget these works of theirs for ever?

Shall not the land shake for this cause, and all the inhabitants mourn? Yea, it shall overflow altogether, as with a water, and be carried away, and be flooded, as with the river in Egypt.

In that day, saith the LORD GOD, will I cause the sun to go down in the midday, and the land to be darkened in the daylight.

I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentations; I will bring sackcloth upon every loin, and baldness upon every head; and I will make them mourning, as one mourneth for an unborn son; and they shall come to a miserable end.

Behold, the days come, saith the LORD GOD, that I will send a famine into the land, not a hunger for bread, or a thirst for water, but to hear the word of the LORD, 12. And they shall go to and fro, from sea to sea, from north to east, seeking the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.

In that day shall fair maidens and young men pine away for thirst, 14. Who now swear by the curse of Samaria, saying, As thy God liveth in Dan, as the wise woman liveth in