Amos 8 AMP

1. Thus the Lord God showed me [a vision], and behold, there was a basket of [overripe] summer fruit.

2. And He said, “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 spare them no longer [for the nation is ripe for judgment].

3. In that day, the songs of the palace shall turn to wailing,” says the Lord God. “There will be many dead bodies; in [sacred] silence they will throw them everywhere.”

4. Hear this, you who trample down the needy, and do away with the poor of the land,

5. saying, “When will the New Moon [festival] be over So that we may sell grain, And the Sabbath ended so that we may open the wheat market, Making the ephah [measure] smaller and the shekel bigger [that is, selling less for a higher price] And to cheat by falsifying the scales,

6. So that we may buy the poor [as slaves] for silver [since they are unable to support themselves] And the needy for a pair of sandals, And that we may sell the leftovers of the wheat [as if it were a good grade of grain]?”

7. The Lord has sworn [an oath] by the pride of Jacob, “Surely I shall never forget [nor leave unpunished] any of their [rebellious] acts.

8. Because of this [coming judgment] will the land not quake And everyone mourn who dwells in it? Indeed, all of it shall rise up like the Nile, And it will be tossed around [from the impact of judgment] And [afterward] subside again like the Nile of Egypt.

9. It shall come about in that day,” says the Lord God, “That I shall cause the sun to go down at noon, And I shall darken the earth in broad daylight.

10. And I shall turn your festivals and feasts into mourning And all your songs into dirges (funeral poems to be sung); And I shall cause sackcloth to be put on everyone’s loins And baldness on every head [shaved for mourning]. And I shall make that time like a time of mourning for an only son [who has died], And the end of it shall be like a bitter day.

11. “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord God, “When I will send hunger over the land, Not hunger for bread or a thirst for water, But rather [a hunger] for hearing the words of the Lord.

12. People shall stagger from sea to sea [to the very ends of the earth] And from the north even to the east; They will roam here and there to seek the word of the Lord [longing for it as essential for life], But they will not find it.

13. In that day the beautiful virgins And [even the vigorous] young men shall faint from thirst.

14. Those who swear [their oaths] by the sin (guilt) of Samaria or Ashimah (a pagan goddess), Who say, ‘By the life of your god [the golden calf], O Dan!’ And [swear], ‘By the life of the way of [idolatrous] Beersheba,’ They shall fall and not rise again.”