THE BOOK OF AMOS
Amos Chapter 8
1 ¶ The Lord GOD showed me a basket of summer fruit.
2 And he asked, Amos, what do you see? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then the LORD said to me, The end has come for my people Israel; I will not overlook their wrongs any longer.
3 In that day the songs of the temple will become wailings, says the Lord GOD: in every place there will be many dead bodies; they will throw them out in silence.
4 ¶ Hear this, O you who trample upon the needy, and do away with the poor of the land,
5 Who ask, When will the new moon be over, so that we may sell grain? and the sabbath, so that we may offer wheat, making the measure small, and the price high, and falsifying the balances by deceit?
6 That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yes, while selling the sweepings with the wheat?
7 The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of the things they are doing.
8 Shouldn’t the land tremble because of this, and everyone living in it mourn? will it not rise up like a flood; and be spewed out and subside, like the Nile in Egypt.
9 For 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 on a clear day:
10 And I will turn your feasting into sorrow, and all of your songs into lamentation; and I will cover your waists with sackcloth, and cause every head to be shaved; and I will make it like the grief of mourning for only son, and the end of it will be a bitter day.
11 ¶ Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord GOD, when I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, or thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:
12 And people will wander from sea to sea, and from the north to the east, they will run to and fro seeking the word of the LORD, and will not find it.
13 In that day the beautiful virgins and young men will faint for thirst.
14 Those who swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, As the god of Dan lives; and, The religion of Beersheba lives; will fall, never to get up again.
[Note: Verse 6: A grain merchant in the middle east was seen sweeping up the spilled grain around his booth, and then putting it in a bag of wheat, stirring the wheat with his hand to mix it in.]