Articles and Notes
Amos 8
Vision of the summer fruit
[Amo 8:1-14 NASB95] 1 Thus the Lord GOD showed me, and behold, [there was] a basket of summer fruit. 2 He said, "What do you see, Amos?" And I said, "A basket of summer fruit." Then the LORD said to me,
"The end has come for My people Israel. I will spare them no longer. 3 "The songs of the palace will turn to wailing in that day," declares the Lord GOD. "Many [will be] the corpses; in every place they will cast them forth in silence."
4 Hear this, you who trample the needy, to do away with the humble of the land,
5 saying, "When will the new moon be over, So that we may sell grain, And the sabbath, that we may open the wheat [market,] To make the bushel smaller and the shekel bigger, And to cheat with dishonest scales, 6 So as to buy the helpless for money And the needy for a pair of sandals, And [that] we may sell the refuse of the wheat?"
7 The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob, "Indeed, I will never forget any of their deeds. 8 "Because of this will not the land quake And everyone who dwells in it mourn? Indeed, all of it will rise up like the Nile, And it will be tossed about And subside like the Nile of Egypt.
9 "It will come about in that day," declares the Lord GOD, "That I will make the sun go down at noon And make the earth dark in broad daylight. 10 "Then I will turn your festivals into mourning And all your songs into lamentation; And I will bring sackcloth on everyone's loins And baldness on every head. And I will make it like [a time of] mourning for an only son, And the end of it will be like a bitter day.
11 "Behold, days are coming," declares the Lord GOD, "When I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, But rather for hearing the words of the LORD. 12 "People will stagger from sea to sea And from the north even to the east; They will go to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, But they will not find [it.]
13 "In that day the beautiful virgins And the young men will faint from thirst. 14 "[As for] those who swear by the guilt of Samaria, Who say, 'As your god lives, O Dan,' And, 'As the way of Beersheba lives,' They will fall and not rise again."