LORD, whose name is God of Hosts.f
6
Ah, you who are at ease in Ziona
And confident on the hill of Samaria,
You notables of the leading nation
On whom the House of Israel b-pin their hopes:-b
2Cross over to Calnch and see,
Go from there to Great Hamath,
And go down to Gath of the Philistines:
Are [you] better than those kingdoms,
c-Or is their territory larger than yours?-c
3d-Yet you ward off [the thought of] a day of woe
And convene a session of lawlessness.-d
4They lie on ivory beds,
Lolling on their couches,
Feasting on lambs from the flock
And on calves from the stalls.
5d-They hum snatches of song
To the tune of the lute—
They account themselves musicians-d like David.
6They drink [straight] from the wine bowls
And anoint themselves with the choicest oils—
But they are not concerned about the ruin of Joseph.
7Assuredly, right soon
They shall head the column of exiles;
They shall loll no more at festive meals.
8My Lord GOD swears by Himself:
I loathe e-the Pride of Jacob,-e
And I detest his fortresses.
I will declare forfeit city and inhabitants alike
—declares the LORD, the God of Hosts.
9If ten people are left in one house, they shall die. 10d-And if someone’s kinsman—who is to burn incense for him—comes to carry the remains out of a house,-d and he calls to the one at the rear of the house, “Are there any alive besides you?” he will answer, “No, none.” And he will say, “Hush!”— so that no one may utter the name of the LORD.
11For the LORD will command,
And the great house shall be smashed to bits,
And the little house to splinters.
12Can horses gallop on a rock?
f-Can it be plowed with oxen?-f
Yet you have turned justice into poison weed
And the fruit of righteousness to wormwood.
13[Ah,] those who are so happy about Lo-dabar,g
Who exult, “By our might
We have captured Karnaim”!g
14But I, O House of Israel,
Will raise up a nation against you
—declares the LORD, the God of Hosts—
Who will harass you from Lebo-Hamath
To the Wadi Arabah.
7 This is what my Lord GOD showed me: He was creating [a plague of] locusts at the time when the late-sown crops were beginning to sprout— a-the late-sown crops after the king’s reaping.-a 2When it had finished devouring the herbage in the land, I said, “O Lord GOD, pray forgive. How will Jacob survive? He is so small.” 3The LORD relented concerning this. “It shall not come to pass,” said the LORD.
4This is what the Lord GOD showed me: Lo, my Lord GOD was sum- moning b-to contend by-b fire which consumed the Great Deep and was consuming the fields. 5I said, “Oh, Lord GOD, refrain! How will Jacob survive? He is so small.” 6The LORD relented concerning this. “That shall not come to pass, either,” said my Lord GOD.
7This is what He showed me: He was standing on a wall c-checked with a plumb line-c and He was holding a plumb line.d 8And the LORD asked me, “What do you see, Amos?” “A plumb line,”d I replied. And my Lord declared, “I am going to apply a plumb lined to My people Israel; I will pardon them no more. 9The shrines of Isaac shall be laid waste, and the sanctuaries of Israel reduced to ruins; and I will turn upon the House of Jeroboam with the sword.”
10Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent this message to King Jeroboam of Israel: “Amos is conspiring against you within the House of Israel. The country cannot endure the things he is saying. 11For Amos has said, ‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall be exiled from its soil.’ ”
12Amaziah also said to Amos, “Seer, off with you to the land of Judah! e-Earn your living-e there, and do your prophesying there. 13But don’t ever prophesy again at Bethel; for it is a king’s sanctuary and a royal palace.” 14Amos answered Amaziah: “I am not a prophet,f and I am not a prophet’s disciple. I am a cattle breederg and a tender of sycamore figs. 15But the LORD took me away from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to My people Israel.’ 16And so, hear the word of the LORD. You say I must not prophesy about the House of Israel or preach about the House of Isaac; 17but this, I swear, is what the LORD said: Your wife shall h-play the harlot-h in the town, your sons and daugh- ters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided up with a measuring line. And you yourself shall die on unclean soil;i for Israel shall be exiled from its soil.”
8 This is what my Lord GOD showed me: There was a basket of figs.a 2He said, “What do you see, Amos?” “A basket of figs,” I replied. And the LORD said to me: “The b-hour of doom-b has come for My people Israel; I will not pardon them again. 3And the singing women of the palace shall howl on that day—declares my Lord GOD:
So many corpses
Left lying everywhere!
Hush!”
4Listen to this, you c-who devour the needy, annihilating the poor of the land,-c 5saying, “If only the new moon were over, so that we could sell grain; the sabbath, so that we could offer wheat for sale, d-using an ephah that is too small, and a shekel that is too big,-d tilting a dishonest scale, 6and selling grain refuse as grain! We will buy the poor for silver, the needy for a pair of sandals.” 7The LORD swears bye the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget any of their doings.”
8Shall not the earth shake for this
And all that dwell on it mourn?
Shall it not all rise like the Nile
And surge and subside like the Nile of Egypt?
9And in that day
—declares my Lord GOD—
I will make the sun set at noon,
I will darken the earth on a sunny day.
10I will turn your festivals into mourning
And all your songs into dirges;
I will put sackcloth on all loins
And tonsures on every head.
I will make itf mourn as for an only child,
Allg of it as on a bitter day.
11A time is coming—declares my 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 words of the LORD. 12Men shall wander from h-sea to sea-h and from north to east to seek the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it.
13In that day, the beautiful maidens and the young men shall faint with thirst—
14Those who swear by the guilt of Samaria,
Saying, “As your god lives, Dan,”i
And “As the way to Beer-sheba lives”j—
They shall fall to rise no more.
9 I saw my LORD standing by the altar, and He said: a-Strike the capitals so that the thresholds quake, and make an end of the first of them all.-a And I will slay the last of them with the sword; not one of them shall escape, and not one of them shall survive.
2If they burrow down to Sheol,
From there My hand shall take them;
And if they ascend to heaven,
From there I will bring them down.
3If they hide on the top of Carmel,
There I will search them out and seize them;
And if they conceal themselves from My sight
At the bottom of the sea,
There I will command
The serpent to bite them.
4And if they go into captivity
Before their enemies,
There I will command
The sword to slay them.
I will fix My eye on them for evil
And not for good.
5It is my Lord the GOD of Hosts
At whose touch the earth trembles
And all who dwell on it mourn,
And all of it swells like the Nile
And subsides like the Nile of Egypt;
6Who built His chambers in heaven
And founded His vault on the earth,
Who summons the waters of the sea
And pours them over the land—
His name is the LORD.
7To Me, O Israelites, you are
Just like the Ethiopians
— declares the LORD.
True, I brought Israel up
From the land of Egypt,
But also the Philistines from Caphtor
And the Arameans from Kir.
8Behold, the Lord GOD has His eye
Upon the sinful kingdom:
I will wipe it off
The face of the earth!
But, I will not wholly wipe out
The House of Jacob
— declares the LORD.
9For I will give the order
And shake the House of Israel—
Through all the nations—
As one shakes [sand] in a sieve,b
And not a pebble falls to the ground.
10All the sinners of My people
Shall perish by the sword,
Who boast,
“Never shall the evil
Overtake us or come near us.”
11In that day,
I will set up again the fallen booth of David:
I will mend its breaches and set up its ruins anew.
I will build it firm as in the days of old,
12c-So that they shall possess the rest of Edom
And all the nations once attached to My name-c
—declares the LORD who will bring this to pass.
13A time is coming
—declares the LORD—
When the plowman shall meet the reaper,d
And the treader of grapes
Him who holds the [bag of] seed;
When the mountains shall drip wine
And all the hills shall wave [with grain].
14I will restore My people Israel.
They shall rebuild ruined cities and inhabit them;
They shall plant vineyards and drink their wine;
They shall till gardens and eat their fruits.
15And I will plant them upon their soil,
Nevermore to be uprooted
From the soil I have given them
—said the LORD your God.

a See Zech. 14.5.
b I.e, the decree of punishment.
c Cf. Lam. 1.13.
d Cf. 2 Kings 13.22–25.
e I.e., they cooperated in the annexation of Israelite territory; cf. Jer. 13.19 with note.
f Emendation yields “Aram”; cf. Isa. 9.11.
g Emendation yields “Aram.”
h Cf. I Kings 5.26; 9.12–13.
i Cf. Akkadian shamaru and Jer. 3.5.
a-a Understanding sho’afim as equivalent to shafim. Emendation yields: “Who crush on the ground / The heads of the poor, / And push off the road / The humble of the land”; cf. Job 24.4.
b-b Meaning