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AMOS
CHAPTER
1
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 shall roar from Zion, and utter his voice from
Jerusalem; and the pastures of the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel
shall wither.
3 ¶ Thus saith the LORD: For three transgressions of Damascus, yea, for four, I
will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have threshed Gilead
with threshing instruments of iron:
4 but I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, and it shall devour the
palaces of Ben–hadad.
5 And I will break the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the
valley of Aven, and at holdeth the sceptre from the house of Eden: and the
people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir, saith the LORD.
6 Thus saith the LORD: For three transgressions of Gaza, yea, for four, I will
not turn away the punishment thereof; because they carried away captive the
whole people, to deliver them up to Edom:
7 But I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, and it shall devour the palaces
thereof:
8 And I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod, and him that holdeth the
sceptre from Ashkelon; and I will turn mine hand against Ekron, and the remnant
of the Philistines shall perish, saith the Lord GOD.
9 Thus saith the LORD: For three transgressions of Tyre, yea, for four, I will
not turn away the punishment thereof; because they delivered up the whole people
to Edom, and remembered not the brotherly covenant:
10 but I will send a fire on the wall of Tyre, and it shall devour the palaces
thereof.
11 Thus saith the LORD: For three transgressions of Edom, yea, for four, I will
not turn away the punishment thereof; because he did pursue his brother with the
sword, and did 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, and it shall devour the palaces of Bozrah.
13 Thus saith the LORD: For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, yea,
for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; 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 Rabbath and it shall devour the
palaces thereof, with shouting in the day of battle, with a tempest in the day
of the whirlwind:
15 and their king shall go into captivity, he and his princes together, saith
the LORD.
CHAPTER
2
1 ¶ Thus saith the LORD: For three transgressions of Moab, yea, for four, I
will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he burned the bones of the
king of Edom into lime:
2 but I will send a fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the palaces of Kerioth;
and Moab shall die with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the
trumpet:
3 and I will cut off the judge from the midst thereof, and will slay all the
princes thereof with him, saith the LORD.
4 Thus saith the LORD: For three transgressions of Judah, yea, for four, I will
not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have rejected the law of the
LORD, and have not kept his statutes, and their lies have caused them to err,
after the which their fathers did walk:
5 but I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of
Jerusalem.
6 Thus saith the LORD: For three transgressions of Israel, yea, for four, I will
not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have sold the righteous for
silver and the needy 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 unto the [same] maid, to
profane my holy name:
8 and they lay themselves down beside every altar upon clothes taken in pledge,
and in the house of their God they drink the wine of such as have been fined.
9 ¶ Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height
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 up out of the land of Egypt, and led you forty years in
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
Nazirites. Is it not even thus, O ye children of Israel? saith the LORD.
12 But ye gave the Nazirites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying,
Prophesy not.
13 Behold, I will press [you] in your place, as a cart presseth that is full of
sheaves.
14 And flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not strengthen
his force, neither shall the mighty deliver himself:
15 neither shall he stand that handleth the bow; and he that is swift of foot
shall not deliver [himself]: neither shall he that rideth the horse deliver
himself:
16 and he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day,
saith the LORD.
CHAPTER
3
1 ¶ Hear this word that the LORD hath spoken against you, O children of Israel,
against the whole family which I brought up out of the land of Egypt, saying,
2 You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will visit
upon you all your iniquities.
3 Shall two walk together, except they have agreed?
4 Will a lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey? will a young lion cry
out of his den, if he have taken nothing?
5 Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin is [set] for him?
shall a snare spring up from the ground, and have taken nothing at all?
6 Shall the trumpet be blown in a city, and the people not be afraid? shalt evil
befall a city, and the LORD hath not done it?
7 Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his
servants the prophets.
8 The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord GOD hath spoken, who can but
prophesy?
9 ¶ Publish ye 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
what great tumults are therein, and what oppressions in the midst thereof.
10 For they know not to do right, saith the LORD, who store up violence and
robbery in their palaces.
11 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD: An adversary [there shall be], even round
about the land: and he shall bring down thy strength from thee, and thy palaces
shall be spoiled.
12 Thus saith the LORD: As the shepherd rescueth out of the mouth of the lion
two legs, or a piece of an ear; so shall the children of Israel be rescued that
sit in Samaria in the corner of a couch, and on the silken cushions of a bed.
13 Hear ye, and testify against the house of Jacob, saith the Lord GOD, the God
of hosts.
14 For in the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel upon him, I
will also visit the altars of Beth–el, and the horns of the altar shall 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 shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end, saith the LORD.
CHAPTER
4
1 ¶ Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria,
which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say unto their lords,
Bring, and let us drink.
2 The Lord GOD hath sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon
you, that they shall take you away with hooks, and your residue with fish hooks.
3 And ye shall go out at the breaches, every one straight before her; and ye
shall cast [yourselves] into Harmon, saith the LORD.
4 Come to Beth–el, and transgress; to Gilgal, [and] multiply transgression;
and bring your sacrifices every morning, [and] your tithes every three days;
5 and offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened, and proclaim
freewill offerings and publish them: for this liketh you, O ye children of
Israel, saith 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 ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.
7 And I also have withholden 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 whereupon it rained
not withered.
8 So two or three cities wandered unto one city to drink water, and were not
satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.
9 I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: the multitude of your gardens and
your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees hath the palmerworm
devoured: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith 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 carried away your horses; and I have
made the stink of your camp to come up even into your nostrils: yet have ye not
returned unto me, saith the LORD.
11 I have overthrown [some] among you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,
and ye were as a brand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto
me, saith the LORD.
12 Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: [and] because I will do this
unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.
13 For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth
unto 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.
CHAPTER
5
1 ¶ Hear ye this word which I take up for a lamentation over you, O house of
Israel.
2 The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is cast down upon
her land; there is none to raise her up.
3 For thus saith the Lord GOD: The city that went forth a thousand shall have an
hundred left, and that which went forth an hundred shall have ten left, to the
house of Israel.
4 ¶ For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall
live:
5 but seek not Beth–el, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beer–sheba:
for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Beth–el shall come to nought.
6 Seek the LORD, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of
Joseph, and it devour and there be none to quench it in Beth–el:
7 Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth;
8 [seek him] that maketh the Pleiades and Orion, and turneth the shadow 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; the LORD is
his name;
9 that bringeth sudden destruction upon the strong, so that destruction cometh
upon the fortress.
10 They hate him that reproveth in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh
uprightly.
11 Forasmuch therefore as ye trample upon the poor, and take exactions from him
of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye
have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink the wine thereof.
12 For I know how manifold are your transgressions, and how mighty are your
sins; ye that afflict the just, that take a bribe, and that turn aside the needy
in the gate [from their right].
13 Therefore he that is prudent shall keep silence in such a time; for it is an
evil time.
14 Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts,
shall be with you, as ye say.
15 Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may
be that the LORD, the God of hosts, will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.
16 ¶ Therefore thus saith the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord: Wailing shall
be in all the broad ways; and they shall say in all the streets, Alas! alas! and
they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful of
lamentation to wailing.
17 And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through the midst of
thee, saith the LORD.
18 Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! wherefore would ye have the day
of the LORD? it is darkness, and not light.
19 As if a man did flee 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 feasts, and I will take no delight in your solemn
assemblies.
22 Yea, though ye offer me your burnt offerings and meal offerings, I will not
accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.
23 Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody
of thy viols.
24 But let judgment roll down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.
25 Did ye bring unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years,
O house of Israel?
26 Yea, ye have borne Siccuth your king and Chiun your images, the star of your
god, which ye made to yourselves.
27 Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the
LORD, whose name is the God of hosts.
CHAPTER
6
1 ¶ Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and to them that are secure in the
mountain of Samaria, the notable men of the chief of the nations, to whom the
house of Israel come!
2 Pass ye unto Calneh, and see; and from thence go ye to Hamath the great: then
go down to Gath of the Philistines: be they better than these kingdoms? or is
their border greater than your border?
3 Ye 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 the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall;
5 that sing idle songs to the sound of the viol; that devise for 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 shall they go captive with the first that go captive, and the
revelry of them that stretched themselves shall pass away.
8 ¶ The Lord GOD hath sworn by himself, saith the LORD, the God of hosts; I
abhor the excellency of Jacob, and hate his palaces: therefore will I deliver up
the city with all that is therein.
9 And it shall come to pass, if there remain ten men in one house, that they
shall die.
10 And when a man’s uncle shall take him up, even he that burneth him, to
bring out the bones out of the house, and shall say unto him that is in the
innermost parts of the house, Is there yet any with thee? and he shall say, No;
then shall he say, Hold thy peace; for we may not make mention of the name of
the LORD.
11 For, behold, the LORD commandeth, and the great house shall be smitten with
breaches, and the little house with clefts.
12 Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plow [there] with oxen? that ye have
turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood:
13 ye which rejoice in a thing of nought, which say, Have we not taken to us
horns by our own strength?
14 For, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, saith
the LORD, the God of hosts; and they shall afflict you from the entering in of
Hamath unto the brook of the Arabah.
CHAPTER
7
1 ¶ Thus the Lord GOD shewed me: and, behold, he formed locusts 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 made an end of eating the grass of the
land, then I said, O Lord GOD, forgive, I beseech thee: how shall Jacob stand?
for he is small.
3 The LORD repented concerning this: It shall not be, saith the LORD.
4 Thus the Lord GOD shewed me: and, behold, the Lord GOD called to contend by
fire; and it devoured the great deep, and would have eaten up the land.
5 Then said I, O Lord GOD, cease, I beseech thee: how shall Jacob stand? for he
is small.
6 The LORD repented concerning this: This also shall not be, saith the Lord GOD.
7 Thus he shewed me: and, behold, the Lord stood beside a wall made by a
plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand.
8 And the LORD said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumbline.
Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people
Israel; I will not again pass by them any more:
9 and the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel
shall be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the
sword.
10 ¶ Then Amaziah the priest of Beth–el sent to Jeroboam king of Israel,
saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel:
the land is not able to bear all his words.
11 For thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely
be led away captive out of his land.
12 Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go, flee thee 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
sanctuary, and it is a royal house.
14 Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a
prophet’s son; but I was an herdman, and a dresser of sycomore trees:
15 and the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said unto me, Go,
prophesy unto my people Israel.
16 Now therefore hear thou the word of the LORD: Thou sayest, Prophesy not
against Israel, and drop not [thy word] against the house of Isaac;
17 therefore thus saith the LORD: Thy wife shall be an harlot in the city, and
thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be
divided by line; and thou thyself shalt die in a land that is unclean, and
Israel shall surely be led away captive out of his land.
CHAPTER
8
1 ¶ Thus the Lord GOD shewed me: and behold, a basket of summer fruit.
2 And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then
said the LORD unto me, The end is come upon my people Israel; I will not again
pass by them any more.
3 And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord GOD:
the dead bodies shall be many; in every place shall they cast them forth with
silence.
4 ¶ Hear this, O ye that would swallow up the needy, and cause 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
dealing falsely with balances of deceit;
6 that we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes, and
sell the refuse of the wheat.
7 The LORD hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any
of their works.
8 Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth
therein? yea, it shall rise up wholly like the River; and it shall be troubled
and sink again, like the River of Egypt.
9 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith 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 for an only son, and the end
thereof as a bitter day.
11 ¶ Behold, the days come, saith 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 shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east;
they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.
13 In that day shall the fair virgins and the young men faint for thirst.
14 They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, As thy God, O Dan, liveth;
and, As the way of Beer–sheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up
again.
CHAPTER
9
1 ¶ I SAW the Lord standing beside the altar: and he said, Smite the chapiters,
that the thresholds may shake: and break them in pieces on the head of all of
them; and I will slay the last of them with the sword: there shall not one of
them flee away, and there shall not one of them escape.
2 Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them; and 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 be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea,
thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them.
4 And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command
the sword, and it shall slay them: and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil,
and not for good.
5 For the Lord, the GOD of hosts, [is] he that toucheth the land and it melteth,
and all that dwell therein shall mourn; and it shall rise up wholly like the
River; and shall sink again, like the River of Egypt;
6 [it is] he that buildeth his chambers in the heaven, and hath founded his
vault upon 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 ye not as the children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel?
saith the LORD. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt, and the
Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians 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, saith the LORD.
9 For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all the
nations, like as [corn] is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall
upon the earth.
10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil
shall not overtake nor prevent us.
11 ¶ In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and
close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build
it as in the days of old;
12 that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and all the nations, which are
called by my name, saith the LORD that doeth this.
13 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the
reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall
drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.
14 And I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel, and they shall
build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and
drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.
15 And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be plucked up
out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God.
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