AMOS.
1 The words of Amos, who was among the herdmen of Tekoa,—of which (words) he had vision concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.
2 So then he said—Yahweh out of Zion will roar, And out of Jerusalem will utter his voice,—And the pastures of the shepherds shall mourn, And the top of Carmel be dried up.
3 Thus saith Yahweh, Because of three transgressions of Damascus, and because of four will I not turn it back,—Because with threshing instruments of iron they have threshed Gilead
4 Therefore will I send a fire into the house of Hazael,—Which shall devour the palaces of Ben-hadad;
5 And I will break the bolt of Damascus, And cut off the inhabitant out of the plain of Aven, And the holder of the sceptre out of the house of Eden,—And the people of Syria shall be exiled unto Kir, Saith Yahweh.
6 Thus saith Yahweh, Because of three transgressions of Gaza, and because of four will I not turn it back,—Because of their taking into exile the whole body of exiles to deliver to Edom
7 Therefore will I send a fire upon the wall of Gaza,—Which shall devour the palaces thereof;
8 And I will cut off the inhabitant out of Ashdod, And the holder of the sceptre out of Ashkelon,—And will turn my hand against Ekron So shall perish the remnant of the Philistines, Saith My Lord Yahweh.
9 Thus saith Yahweh, Because of three transgressions of Tyre, and because of four will I not turn it back,—Because of their delivering up the whole body of exiles to Edom, And they remembered not the brotherly covenant
10 Therefore will I send a fire upon the wall of Tyre,—Which shall devour the palaces thereof.
11 Thus saith Yahweh, Because of three transgressions of Edom, and because of four will I not turn it back,—Because he pursued with the sword his brother And stifled his compassions, And his anger tare in pieces evermore, And his indignation kept watch perpetually
12 Therefore will I send a fire into Teman,—Which shall devour the palaces of Bozrah.
13 Thus saith Yahweh, Because of three transgressions of the sons of Ammon, and because of four will I not turn it back,—Because of their ripping up the pregnant women of Gilead, that they might enlarge their own boundary
14 Therefore will I kindle a fire upon the wall of Rabbah, Which shall devour the palaces thereof,—With a war-cry in the day of battle, With tempest in the day of storm-wind;
15 And Milcom shall go into exile,—He and his rulers together, Saith Yahweh.
2 Thus saith Yahweh, Because of three transgressions of Moab, and because of four will I not turn it back,—Because he burned the bones of the King of Edom to lime
2 Therefore will I send a fire into Moab, Which shall devour the palaces of Kerioth,—And Moab shall die with tumult, with war-cry, with the sound of a horn;
3 And I will cut off the judge out of her midst, And all her rulers will I slay with him, Saith Yahweh.
4 Thus saith Yahweh, Because of three transgressions of Judah, and because of four will I not turn it back,—Because they have rejected the law of Yahweh And his statutes have not kept, But their falsehoods have led them astray, after the which their fathers did walk
5 Therefore will I send a fire upon Judah,—Which shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.
6 Thus saith Yahweh, Because of three transgressions of Israel, and because of four will I not turn it back,—Because they have sold—for silver—the righteous, And the needy—for a pair of shoes:
7 Who strive to bring the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, And the way of the oppressed they pervert,—Yea a man and his own father go in unto the maid, To profane my holy Name!
8 And on pledged garments they recline, beside every altar,—And exacted wine do they drink in the house of their God.
9 Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite from before them, Whose height was like the height of cedars And strong was he like the oaks,—But I destroyed his fruit above, And his roots beneath.
10 And it was I who brought you up out of the land of Egypt,—And led you in the desert forty years, To take possession of the land of the Amorites;
11 And I raised up of your sons for prophets, And of your young men for Nazirites,—Was it not even so, ye sons of Israel? Demandeth Yahweh;
12 And yet ye caused the Nazirites to drink wine,—And on the prophets laid ye command saying, Ye shall not prophesy!
13 Lo! I am pressed under you,—As a full cart is pressed by its sheaves
14 Therefore shall flight perish from the swift, And the mighty shall not invigorate his strength,—Nor shall the hero escape with his life;
15 Nor he that handleth the bow make a stand, And the swift on his feet shall not escape,—Nor he that rideth on a horse escape with his life:
16 Nay he that is stout in his heart among heroes naked shall flee in that day, Declareth Yahweh.
3 Hear ye this word, which Yahweh hath spoken concerning you, ye sons of Israel,—Concerning the whole family which I brought up out of the land of Egypt saying:—
2 Only you have I acknowledged, of all the families of the ground,—For this cause will I visit upon you all your iniquities.
3 Can two walk together,—Except they meet?
4 Will a lion roar in the forest, When prey he hath none? Will a young lion utter his voice out of his den, When he hath made no capture?
5 Will a bird fall upon a net to the earth, When there is no snare for it? Will a net rise from the ground, When it hath captured nothing?
6 Or a horn be blown in a city, And a people not tremble? Or calamity happen in a city, And Yahweh not have wrought with effect?
7 Surely My Lord Yahweh will do nothing,—except he have disclosed his secret unto his servants the prophets!
8 A lion hath roared, Who will not fear? My Lord Yahweh hath spoken, Who can forbear to prophesy?
9 Announce it over the palaces in Ashdod, And over the palaces in the land of Egypt,—And say ye—Gather yourselves together upon the mountains of Samaria, And behold ye—The great disorders in the midst thereof And the oppressed within her.
10 Therefore do they not know how to do right, Declareth Yahweh, who are treasuring up violence and spoil in their palaces.
11 Therefore—Thus saith My Lord Yahweh, An adversary! Yea round about the land,—And he who shall bring down from thee thy strength, And spoiled shall be thy palaces.
12 Thus saith Yahweh, Just as a shepherd rescueth out of the mouth of the lion a couple of shankbones or the tip of an ear So shall be rescued the sons of Israel who are tarrying in Samaria, In the corner of the divan and On the damask of the luxurious couch.
13 Hear ye and bear witness throughout the house of Jacob,—Commandeth My Lord Yahweh, God of hosts:
14 That in the day I visit the transgressions of Israel upon him then will I punish concerning the altars of Bethel, So shall the horns of the altar be broken off and they shall fall to the ground;
15 And I will smite the winter house along with the summer house,—And the houses of ivory shall be destroyed And the great houses shall disappear, Declareth Yahweh.
4 Hear ye this word, ye heifers of Bashan that are in the mountain of Samaria, Who oppress the poor, Who crush the needy,—Who say to their lords, Bring in and let us drink!
2 Sworn hath My Lord Yahweh By his own holiness, That lo! days are coming upon you,—When he will take you away with hooks, And your followers with fishhooks;
3 And through fissures shall ye go out, Every woman straight before her,—And ye shall be thrust forth towards the castle, Declareth Yahweh.
4 Enter ye Bethel and transgress, At Gilgal cause transgression to abound,—Yea carry in every morning your sacrifices, Every three days your tithes;
5 Yea burn thou incense of that which is leavened as a thank-offering, And proclaim ye freewill-offerings, let them be known,—For so ye love [to have it], ye sons of Israel, Declareth My Lord Yahweh.
6 Moreover also I have given you Cleanness of teeth throughout all your cities, And want of bread throughout all your dwelling-places,—Yet have ye not returned unto me, Declareth Yahweh.
7 Moreover also I have withholden from you the abundant rain when yet there were only three months to the harvest, Or I might rain upon one city, And on another city might not rain,—One portion would be rained upon, And the portion whereupon it should not rain would be dried up;
8 Then would two or three cities totter to one city to drink water without being satisfied,—Yet have ye not returned unto me, Declareth Yahweh.
9 I have smitten you with blight and with mildew, When your gardens and your vineyards and your fig-trees and your olive-trees have increased the creeping locust would devour them,—Yet have ye not returned unto me, Declareth Yahweh.
10 I have sent among you pestilence in the manner of Egypt, I have slain with the sword your young men, And therewith have been taken captive your horses, And I have caused to ascend—the stench of your camps even into your own nostrils, Yet ye have not returned unto me, Declareth Yahweh.
11 I have made an overthrow among you Like the divine overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, And ye have become like a brand snatched out of the burning,—Yet have ye not returned unto me, Declareth Yahweh.
12 Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel,—Because this thing I will do unto thee Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.
13 For lo! He that fashioned the mountains And created the wind And who telleth the son of earth what is his thought, Who turneth dawn into darkness And marcheth upon the high places of the earth Yahweh God of hosts is his name!
5 Hear ye this word which I am taking up concerning you—Even a dirge, O house of Israel.
2 She hath fallen—she cannot again rise, The virgin, Israel,—She lieth forsaken on her soil, There is none to raise her up.
3 For thus saith My Lord Yahweh, The city that goeth out a thousand strong Shall have left it a hundred,—And that which goeth out a hundred strong Shall have left it ten Belonging to the house of Israel.
4 For thus saith Yahweh to the house of Israel,—Seek me and live;
5 Then do not seek Bethel, And Gilgal shall ye not enter, And unto Beer-sheba shall ye not cross over, For Gilgal shall surely go into exile, And Bethel shall become a trouble.
6 Seek ye Yahweh and live,—Lest he break forth like a fire upon the house of Joseph, And it devour with none to quench it for Bethel.
7 Ye who turn into wormwood justice, And righteousness—to the ground have let fall
8 [Seek him] Who made the Cluster and the Giant And turneth into morning the shadow of death, And who day into night doth darken, Him who calleth to the waters of the sea and poureth them out on the face of the land, Yahweh is his name:
9 Him who flasheth force on the strong,—And force on the fortress alighteth!
10 They hate the man who in the gate rebuketh,—And him who speaketh truthfully they abhor.
11 Therefore—Because ye have trampled on the poor And the gift of corn ye would take away from him Though houses of hewn stone ye have built Yet shall ye not dwell in them,—Though delightful vineyards ye have planted Yet shall ye not drink the wine of them.
12 For I know How numerous are your transgressions, and How surpassing your sins,—Ye adversaries of the righteous! Ye acceptors of a bribe! Even the needy in the gate have they turned away!
13 Therefore the prudent man at that time will be dumb,—Because an evil time it is!
14 Seek ye right and not wrong that ye may live,—That so Yahweh God of hosts may be with you as ye have said.
15 Hate wrong and love right, And station Justice in the gate,—Peradventure Yahweh, God of hosts, will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.
16 Therefore Thus saith Yahweh, God of hosts, My Lord, In all broadways shall be lamentation, And in all streets shall they say, Alas! Alas! And they shall call the husbandman unto the mourning, And unto the lamentation them who know a wailing song;
17 Yea in all vineyards lamentation,—For I will pass along through thy midst, Saith Yahweh.
18 Alas for them who are longing for the day of Yahweh,—What good to you is the day of Yahweh? It being darkness and not light:
19 As if a man should flee from the face of a Lion, And there should meet him—a Bear! Or he should have entered the house and leaned his hand upon the wall, And there should bite him—a Serpent!
20 Shall not the day of Yahweh be darkness and not light? Yea thick darkness and no brightness in it?
21 I hate, I despise your festivals,—And can scent no fragrance in your solemn feasts.
22 Nay though ye cause to ascend unto me ascending-sacrifices and your meal-offerings I will not accept [them],—Nor the peace-offering of your fat heifers will I regard.
23 Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs,—Even the melody of thy harps will I not hear.
24 But let justice roll along like water,—And righteousness as a torrent over flowing.
25 The sacrifices and meal-offering ye brought near unto me in the desert for forty years, O house of Israel;
26 But ye carried the tent of your king-idol, and your Saturn-images,—the star of your gods, which ye made for yourselves:
27 Therefore will I carry you into exile beyond Damascus,—Saith Yahweh, God of hosts is his name.
6 Alas for the careless in Zion, And for them who put confidence in the mountain of Samaria,—The distinguished among the first group of nations, To whom came in the house of Israel.
2 Pass ye over to Calneh and see, And go on from thence to Hamath the great,—And go down to Gath of the Philistines, Are they better than these kingdoms? Or their boundary larger than your boundary?
3 Ye who are putting far away the day of calamity,—But bringing near the abode of violence:
4 Who are lying on beds of ivory, And sprawling on their couch of pleasure,—And eating the well-fed of the flock, And the fatted calves out of the midst of the stalls:
5 Who are bawling at the bidding of the harp,—Like David have they invented for themselves instruments of song:
6 Who are quaffing bowls of wine, And with the best of oils anointing themselves,—And are not afflicted for the injury of Joseph:—
7 Therefore at once shall they go into exile among the first of the exiles,—So shall be disturbed the revelry of sprawlers.
8 Sworn hath the Lord Yahweh by his own life, Declareth Yahweh, God of hosts, Abhorring am I the grandeur of Jacob, And his palaces I hate,—Therefore will I cast off the city and the fulness thereof.
9 And it shall come to pass Though there be left remaining ten men in one house Yet shall they die;
10 And a man’s near of kin, even he who is about to burn the bones shall carry him out of the house, When he shall say to him that is in the hinder parts of the house—Are there yet any with thee? And he shall say—No one Then shall he say—Hush! for we must not invoke the name of Yahweh.
11 For lo! Yahweh is giving command, and will smite The great house into ruins,—And the little house with clefts.
12 Shall horses run upon a crag? Or will a man plough [there] with oxen? For ye have turned to poison the sentence of justice, And the fruit of righteousness to wormwood:
13 Who rejoice in a thing of nought,—Who say, Have we not by our own strength taken to ourselves horns?
14 For behold me! raising up against you, O house of Israel, Declareth Yahweh, the God of hosts—a nation! And they shall crush you from the entering in of Hamath unto the torrent-bed of the waste plain.
7 Here My Lord Yahweh gave me to see, And lo! he was preparing the locust in the beginning of the shooting up of the after-grass,—and lo! after-grass cometh after the mowings for the king.
2 And it came to pass when they had made an end of eating the herbage of the land that I said—Oh My Lord Yahweh, forgive, I beseech thee: By whom shall Jacob arise? For small he is.
3 Grieved was Yahweh over this,—It shall not be, Said Yahweh.
4 Here My Lord Yahweh gave me to see, And lo! My Lord Yahweh proclaiming that the controversy should be settled by fire,—which having devoured the mighty roaring deep should devour the inheritance.
5 Then said I, My Lord Yahweh, forbear, I beseech thee, By whom shall Jacob arise? For small he is.
6 Grieved was Yahweh over this,—Even this shall not be, Said My Lord Yahweh.
7 Here he gave me to see, And lo! My Lord stationed upon a pinnacle,—and in his hand a plummet.
8 And Yahweh said unto me, What canst thou see, Amos? And I said, A plummet,—Then said My Lord, Behold me! fixing a plummet in the midst of my people Israel, I will not again any more forgive him.
9 So shall the high places of Isaac be made desolate, And the holy places of Israel be laid waste,—And I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.
10 Then sent Amaziah the priest of Bethel unto Jeroboam king of Israel saying: A conspiracy hath Amos raised against thee in the midst of the house of Israel, The land is not able to endure all his words;
11 For thus saith Amos, By the sword shall Jeroboam die,—And Israel shall surely be exiled from off his own soil.
12 Then said Amaziah unto Amos, O seer, go flee thee away unto the land of Judah,—And eat there bread, And there mayest thou prophesy;
13 But at Bethel not again, any more mayest thou prophesy,—For the holy place of the king it is, And the house of the kingdom it is.
14 Then answered Amos and said unto Amaziah, No prophet was I,—Nor the son of a prophet was I,—But a herdman was I And a preparer of sycamore fruit;
15 But Yahweh took me away from following the flock,—and Yahweh said unto me, Go prophesy against my people Israel.
16 Now therefore hear thou the word of Yahweh,—Thou art saying, Thou must not prophesy concerning Israel, Nor let thy word drop down upon the house of Isaac.
17 Therefore—Thus saith Yahweh, Thy wife in the city will commit unchastity And thy sons and thy daughters by the sword shall fall, And thine own soil by line shall be apportioned,—And thou on a polluted soil shalt die, And Israel shall surely go into exile away from his own soil.
8 Here My Lord Yahweh gave me to see,—and lo! there was a basket of summer fruit.
2 So then he said, What canst thou see, Amos? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said Yahweh unto me, The end hath come unto my people Israel, I will not again any more forgive them;
3 but palace-songs shall become howlings in that day, Declareth My Lord Yahweh,—Many shall be the dead bodies in every place—cast forth—[with a] Hush!
4 Hear this, Ye who pant after the needy, And to make an end of the oppressed of the land:
5 Who say, When will the new moon pass away that we may sell corn? And the sabbath that we may open grain? Who diminish the ephah and increase the shekel, and who falsify by deceitful weights:
6 Who buy—for silver—the poor, And the needy for a pair of shoes,—And that the refuse of the grain we may sell.
7 Sworn hath Yahweh By the Excellency of Jacob,—Surely I will never forget any of their doings!
8 Is it not for this that the land shall tremble? And shall mourn every inhabitant therein? Shall it not come up—like the Nile all of it, And be tossed and subside like the river of Egypt?
9 Yea it shall come to pass in that day, Declareth My Lord Yahweh, That I will cause the sun to go in at high noon,—And will darken the earth on a day of brightness.
10 So will I turn your festivals into mourning And all your songs into a dirge, And I will bring up—on all loins—sackcloth, And upon every head—baldness,—And I will make it like the mourning for an only one, Even the afterpart thereof as a day of bitterness.
11 Lo! days are coming, Declareth My Lord Yahweh, That I will send a hunger throughout the land,—Not a hunger for food Nor a thirst for water, But for hearing the words of Yahweh;
12 Therefore shall men rove about—From Sea to Sea, and From the North even unto Sunrise,—They shall run to and fro—seeking the word of Yahweh but shall not find [it].
13 In that day shall the fair virgins and the choice young men faint for thirst.
14 They who swear by the Guilt of Samaria, And say, As thy God liveth, O Dan! And, As the Way of Beer-sheba liveth Shall fall and shall not rise any more.
9 I saw My Lord stationed by the altar and he said—Smite the capital—that the sills may tremble, Yea break them off on the head of them all, And the last of them with the sword will I slay,—He that fleeth of them shall not flee away, And he that escapeth of them shall not make good his escape.
2 Though they break through into hades From thence shall my hand fetch them,—And though they ascend the heavens From thence will I bring them down;
3 And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel From thence will I search for them and take them,—And though they conceal themselves from before mine eyes at the bottom of the sea From thence will I command the serpent and he shall bite them;
4 And though they go into captivity before their enemies From thence will I command the sword and it shall slay them,—So will I set mine eyes upon them for calamity and not for blessing.
5 Now My Lord Yahweh of hosts is he—Who toucheth the earth and it melteth, And all that dwell therein mourn; And it cometh up like the Nile all of it, And subsideth like the river of Egypt:
6 Who buildeth in the heavens his upper rooms, And as for his vault upon the earth hath he founded it,—Who calleth to the waters of the sea and poureth them out over the face of the land, Yahweh is his name.
7 Like the sons of the Ethiopians are not ye unto me, O sons of Israel? Demandeth Yahweh: Was it not Israel I brought up out of the land of Egypt, And the Philistines out of Caphtor And the Syrians out of Kir?
8 Lo! the eyes of My Lord Yahweh are on the sinful kingdom, And I will destroy it from off the face of the ground,—Save only that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, Declareth Yahweh.
9 For lo! I am giving command, and will sift throughout all the nations the house of Israel,—as grain is sifted in a sieve, Yet shall there not fall a kernel to the earth.
10 By the sword shall die all the sinners of my people,—Who say, The calamity shall not overtake and close in before us.
11 In that day will I raise up the pavilion of David that is lying prostrate,—And wall up the breaches of them And his ruins will I raise up, And will build it as in the days of age-past times:
12 That they on whom my name hath been called may take possession of the residue of Edom and of all the nations, Declareth Yahweh who executeth this.
13 Lo! days are coming, Declareth Yahweh, That the plowman shall overtake the reaper And he that treadeth out the grapes him that traileth the seed,—So shall the mountains drip sweet wine, And all the hills shall melt;
14 And I will bring back the captivity of my people Israel, And they shall build waste cities and inhabit [them], And plant vineyards and drink the wine thereof, And lay out gardens, and eat the fruit thereof:
15 So will I plant them upon their own soil,—And will not uproot them any more from off their own soil which I have given to them, Saith Yahweh thy God.