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The Book of Amos

Amos 1

Judgment on Israel’s Neighbors
(Jeremiah 12:14–17)

1 The words of Amos, who was among the herdmen 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 And he said, The LORD will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the habitations of the shepherds will mourn, and the top of Carmel will wither.

3 Thus says the LORD; For three transgressions of Damascus, and 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, which will devour the palaces of Ben-hadad.

5 I will break also the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven, and him that holdeth the scepter from the house of Eden: and the people of Syria will go into captivity to Kir, says the LORD.

6 Thus says the LORD; For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment: because they carried away captive the whole captivity, to deliver them up to Edom:

7 But I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, which will devour its palaces:

8 And I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod, and him that holdeth the scepter from Ashkelon, and I will turn my hand against Ekron: and the remnant of the Philistines will perish, says the Lord GOD.

9 Thus says the LORD; For three transgressions of Tyre, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment: because they delivered up the whole captivity to Edom, and remembered not the brotherly covenant:

10 But I will send a fire on the wall of Tyre, which will devour its palaces:

11 Thus says the LORD; For three transgressions of Edom, and 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 did tear perpetually, and he kept his wrath for ever:

12 But I will send a fire upon Teman, which will devour the palaces of Bozrah.

13 Thus says the LORD; For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, and for four, I will not turn away their punishment: because they have ripped up the women with child of Gilead, that they might 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 tempest in the day of the whirlwind:

15 And their king will go into captivity, he and his princes together, says the LORD.

 

Amos 2

WBT

Judgment on Moab, Judah, and Israel

1 Thus says the LORD; For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not turn away his punishment: because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime:

2 But I will send a fire upon Moab, and it will devour the palaces of Kirioth: and Moab will die with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet:

3 And I will cut off the judge from the midst of it, and will slay all its princes with him, says the LORD.

4 Thus says the LORD; For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away their punishment: because they have despised the law of the LORD, and have not kept his commandments, and their lies caused them to err, after which their fathers have walked:

5 But I will send a fire upon Judah, and it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem.

6 Thus says the LORD; For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away their punishment: because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes;

7 That pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and his father will go in to the same maid, to profane my holy name:

8 And they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god.

9 Yet I destroyed the Amorite before them, whose hight was like the hight 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 from the land of Egypt, and led you forty years through the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite.

11 And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites. Is it not even thus, O you children of Israel? says the LORD.

12 But you gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not.

13 Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves.

14 Therefore the flight will perish from the swift, and the strong will not strengthen his force, neither will the mighty deliver himself:

15 Neither will he stand that handleth the bow; and he that is swift of foot will not deliver himself: neither will he that rideth the horse deliver himself.

16 And he that is courageous among the mighty will flee away naked in that day, says the LORD.

 

Amos 3

WBT

Witnesses against Israel

1 Hear this word that the LORD has spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying,

2 You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.

3 Can two walk together, except they are agreed?

4 Will a lion roar in the forest, when he has no prey? will a young lion cry out of his den, if he has taken nothing?

5 Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin is for him? will one take up a snare from the earth, and have taken nothing at all?

6 Shalt a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? will there be evil in a city, and the LORD has not done it?

7 Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth 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 Publish in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria, and behold the great tumults in the midst of it, and the oppressed in the midst of it. 10 For they know not to do right, says the LORD, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces.

11 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD; An adversary there will be even around the land; and he will bring down your strength from you, and your palaces will be plundered.

12 Thus says the LORD: As the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear; so will the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria in the corner of a bed, and in Damascus in a couch.

13 Hear you, and testify in the house of Jacob, says the Lord GOD, the God of hosts,

14 That in the day that I will visit the transgressions of Israel upon him, I will also visit the altars of Beth-el: and the horns of the altar will be cut off, and fall to the ground.

15 And I will smite 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.

 

Amos 4

WBT

Punishment Brings No Repentance

1 Hear this word, you heifers of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink.

2 The Lord GOD has sworn by his holiness, that lo, the days will come upon you, that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fish-hooks,

3 And you will go out at the breaches, every cow at that which is before her; and you will cast them into the palace, says the LORD.

4 Come to Beth-el and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes after three years:

5 And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, and proclaim and publish the free-offerings: for this pleaseth you, O you children of Israel, says the Lord GOD.

6 And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have you not returned to me, says the LORD.

7 And also I have withheld the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece on which it rained not withered.

8 So two or three cities wandered to one city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied: yet have you not returned to me, says the LORD.

9 I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig-trees and your olive-trees increased, the palmer-worm devoured them: yet have you not returned to me, says the LORD.

10 I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses; and I have made the ill savor of your camps to come up to your nostrils: yet have you not returned to me, says the LORD.

11 I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a fire-brand plucked out of the burning: yet have you not returned to me, says the LORD.

12 Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel: and because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel.

13 For lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth to man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The LORD, The God of hosts, is his name.

 

Amos 5

WBT

A Lamentation against Israel

1 Hear you this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel.

2 The virgin of Israel is fallen; she will no more rise! she is forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up.

3 For thus says the Lord GOD; The city that went out by a thousand will leave a hundred, and that which went forth by a hundred will leave ten, to the house of Israel.

A Call to Repentance
(Joel 1:13–20; Zephaniah 2:1–3; Luke 13:1–5)

4 For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel, Seek you me, and you will live:

5 But seek not Beth-el, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beer-sheba: for Gilgal will surely go into captivity, and Beth-el will come to naught.

6 Seek the LORD, and you will live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Beth-el.

7 You who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness on the earth,

8 Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shades of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: JEHOVAH is his name:

9 That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled will come against the fortress.

10 They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.

11 Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and you take from him burdens of wheat: you have built houses of hewn stone, but you will not dwell in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you will not drink wine of them.

12 For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.

13 Therefore the prudent will keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.

14 Seek good, and not evil, that you may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, will be with you, as you have spoken.

15 Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be cheerful to the remnant of Joseph.

Woe to Rebellious Israel
(Acts 7:39–43)

16 Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord, says thus; Wailing will be in all streets; and they will say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they will call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skillful in lamentation to wailing.

17 And in all vineyards will be wailing: for I will pass through you, says the LORD.

18 Woe to you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light.

19 As if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.

20 Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?

21 I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.

22 Though you offer me burnt-offerings and your meat-offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace-offerings of your fat beasts.

23 Take you away from me the noise of your songs; for I will not hear the melody of your viols.

24 But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.

25 Have you offered to me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? 26 But you have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which you made to yourselves. 27 Therefore I will cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, says the LORD, whose name is The God of hosts.

 

Amos 6

WBT

Woe to Those at Ease in Zion
(Luke 6:24–26)

1 Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, who are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came!

2 Pass you to Calneh, and see; and from thence go you to Hamath the great: then go down to Gath of the Philistines: are they better than these kingdoms? or their border greater than your border?

3 You that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near;

4 That lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat lambs from the flock, and calves from the midst of the stall;

5 That chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of music, like David;

6 That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments: but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.

7 Therefore now will they go captive with the first that go captive, and the banquet of them that stretched themselves will be removed.

The Pride of Israel

8 The Lord GOD has sworn by himself, says the LORD the God of hosts, I abhor the excellence of Jacob, and hate his palaces: therefore I will deliver up the city with all its abundance.

9 And it will come to pass, if there remain ten men in one house, they will die. 10 And a man’s uncle will take him up, and he that burneth him, to bring the bones out of the house, and will say to him that is by the sides of the house, Is there yet any with you? and he will say, No. Then will he say, Hold your tongue: for we may not make mention of the name of the LORD. 11 For behold, the LORD commandeth, and he will smite the great house with breaches, and the little house with clefts.

12 Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plow there with oxen? for you have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock:

13 You who rejoice in a thing of naught, who say, Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength?

14 But behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, says the LORD the God of hosts; and they will afflict you from the entrance of Hamath to the river of the wilderness.

 

Amos 7

WBT

The Locusts, Fire, and Plumb Line
(Joel 2:1–11)

1 Thus has the Lord GOD shown to me; and behold, he formed grasshoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and lo, it was the latter growth after the king’s mowings.

2 And it came to pass, that when they had made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, O Lord GOD, forgive, I beseech you: by whom will Jacob arise? for he is small.

3 The LORD repented for this: It will not be, says the LORD.

4 Thus has the Lord GOD shown to me: and behold, the Lord GOD called to contend by fire, and it devoured the great deep, and did eat up a part.

5 Then said I, O Lord GOD, cease, I beseech you: by whom will Jacob arise? for he is small.

6 The LORD repented for this: This also will not be, says the Lord GOD.

7 Thus he showed me: and behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumb-line, with a plumb-line in his hand.

8 And the LORD said to me, Amos, what seest you? and I said, A plumb-line. Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumb-line in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more:

9 And the high places of Isaac will be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel will be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.

Amaziah Accuses Amos

10 Then Amaziah the priest of Beth-el sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words. 11 For thus Amos says, Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will surely be led away captive out of their own land. 12 Also Amaziah said to Amos, O you seer, go flee you away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there: 13 But prophesy not again any more at Beth-el: for it is the king’s chapel, and it is the king’s court.

14 Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was a herdman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit: 15 And the LORD took me as I followed the flock, and the LORD said to me, Go, prophesy to my people Israel. 16 Now therefore hear you the Word of the LORD: You sayest, Prophesy not against Israel, and drop not your word against the house of Isaac. 17 Therefore thus says the LORD; Thy wife will be a harlot in the city, and your sons and your daughters will fall by the sword, and your land will be divided by line; and you will die in a polluted land: and Israel will surely go from his land into captivity.

 

Amos 8

WBT

The Basket of Summer Fruit

1 Thus has the Lord GOD shown to me: and behold a basket of summer fruit. 2 And he said, Amos, what seest you? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the LORD to me, The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more. 3 And the songs of the temple will be howlings in that day, says the Lord GOD: there will be many dead bodies in every place; they will cast them forth with silence.

4 Hear this, O you that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail,

5 Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?

6 That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; and even sell the refuse of the wheat?

7 The LORD has sworn by the excellence of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works.

8 Shall not the land tremble for this, and everyone mourn that dwelleth in it? and it will rise up wholly as a flood: and it will be cast out and drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.

9 And it will come to pass in that day, says the Lord GOD, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day:

10 And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end of it as a bitter day.

11 Behold, the days come, says the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:

12 And they will wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they will run to and fro to seek the Word of the LORD, and will not find it.

13 In that day will the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.

14 They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beer-sheba liveth; even they will fall, and never rise again.

 

Amos 9

WBT

The Destruction of Israel

1 I saw the Lord standing upon the altar: and he said, Smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake: and cut them in the head, all of them; and I will slay the last of them with the sword: he that fleeth of them will not flee away, and he that escapeth of them will not be delivered.

2 Though they dig into the place of the dead, thence will my hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down:

3 And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they are hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he will bite them:

4 And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it will slay them: and I will set my eyes upon them for evil, and not for good.

5 And the Lord GOD of hosts is he that toucheth the land, and it will melt, and all that dwell in it will mourn: and it will rise up wholly like a flood; and will be drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.

6 It is he that buildeth his stories in the heaven, and has founded his troop in the earth; he that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: the LORD is his name.

7 Are you not as children of the Cushites to me, O children of Israel? says the LORD. Have not I brought up Israel from the land of Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Assyrians from Kir?

8 Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, says the LORD.

9 For lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet will not the least grain fall upon the earth.

10 All the sinners of my people will die by the sword, who say, The evil will not overtake nor fall upon us.

A Promise of Restoration
(Acts 15:5–21)

11 In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up their breaches; and I will raise up its ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:

12 That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, who are called by my name, says the LORD that doeth this.

13 Behold, the days come, says the LORD, that the plowman will overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains will drop sweet wine, and all the hills will melt.

14 And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they will build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they will plant vineyards, and drink the wine of them; they will also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.

15 And I will plant them upon their land, and they will no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, says the LORD your God.