Listen to this message, you cows of Bashan
who are on the hill of Samaria,
women who oppress the poor
and crush the needy,
who say to their husbands,
“Bring us something to drink.”

Indeed, the Lord God does nothing
without revealing His counsel
to His servants the prophets.

Hear this! The days are coming—
this is the declaration of the Lord God—
when I will send a famine through the land:
not a famine of bread or a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of the Lord.

Can two walk together
without agreeing to meet?

In that day
I will restore the fallen booth of David:
I will repair its gaps,
restore its ruins,
and rebuild it as in the days of old,

Therefore, this is what the Lord says:

Your wife will be a prostitute in the city,
your sons and daughters will fall by the sword,
and your land will be divided up
with a measuring line.
You yourself will die on pagan soil,
and Israel will certainly go into exile
from its homeland.

I hate, I despise your feasts!
I can’t stand the stench
of your solemn assemblies.

Does a lion roar in the forest
when it has no prey?
Does a young lion growl from its lair
unless it has captured something?

He said:

The Lord roars from Zion
and raises His voice from Jerusalem;
the pastures of the shepherds mourn,
and the summit of Carmel withers.

Woe to you who long for the Day of the Lord!
What will the Day of the Lord be for you?
It will be darkness and not light.

If a ram’s horn is blown in a city,
aren’t people afraid?
If a disaster occurs in a city,
hasn’t the Lord done it?

All the sinners among My people
who say: “Disaster will never overtake
or confront us,”
will die by the sword.

Therefore, I will send fire against Hazael’s palace,
and it will consume Ben-hadad’s citadels.

I have known only you
out of all the clans of the earth;
therefore, I will punish you for all your iniquities.

The words of Amos, who was one of the sheep breeders from Tekoa—what he saw regarding Israel in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, and Jeroboam son of Jehoash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.

Woe to those who are at ease in Zion
and to those who feel secure on the hill of Samaria—
the notable people in this first of the nations,
those the house of Israel comes to.

But let justice flow like water,
and righteousness, like an unfailing stream.

Does a bird land in a trap on the ground
if there is no bait for it?
Does a trap spring from the ground
when it has caught nothing?

The Lord asked me, “What do you see, Amos?”

I replied, “A plumb line.”

Then the Lord said, “I am setting a plumb line among My people Israel; I will no longer spare them:

Those who turn justice into wormwood
throw righteousness to the ground.

Offer leavened bread as a thank offering,
and loudly proclaim your freewill offerings,
for that is what you Israelites love to do!
This is the Lord’s declaration.

The Lord says:

I will not relent from punishing Gaza
for three crimes, even four,
because they exiled a whole community,
handing them over to Edom.

Therefore, I will send fire against the walls of Gaza,
and it will consume its citadels.

Therefore, they will now go into exile
as the first of the captives,
and the feasting of those who sprawl out
will come to an end.

The Lord says:

I will not relent from punishing Tyre
for three crimes, even four,
because they handed over
a whole community of exiles to Edom
and broke a treaty of brotherhood.

Isaac’s high places will be deserted,
and Israel’s sanctuaries will be in ruins;
I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam
with a sword.”

I will cut off the judge from the land
and kill all its officials with him.
The Lord has spoken.

I will cut off the ruler from Ashdod,
and the one who wields the scepter from Ashkelon.
I will also turn My hand against Ekron,
and the remainder of the Philistines will perish.
The Lord God has spoken.

The Lord says:

I will not relent from punishing Edom
for three crimes, even four,
because he pursued his brother with the sword.
He stifled his compassion,
his anger tore at them continually,
and he harbored his rage incessantly.

Therefore, I will send fire against the walls of Tyre,
and it will consume its citadels.

Their king and his princes
will go into exile together.
The Lord has spoken.

I will turn your feasts into mourning
and all your songs into lamentation;
I will cause everyone to wear sackcloth
and every head to be shaved.
I will make that grief
like mourning for an only son
and its outcome like a bitter day.

Therefore, I will set fire to the walls of Rabbah,
and it will consume its citadels.
There will be shouting on the day of battle
and a violent wind on the day of the storm.

Therefore, I will send fire against Teman,
and it will consume the citadels of Bozrah.

The Lord says:

I will not relent from punishing the Ammonites
for three crimes, even four,
because they ripped open
the pregnant women of Gilead
in order to enlarge their territory.

And if there are 10 men left in one house, they will die.

Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent word to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you right here in the house of Israel. The land cannot endure all his words,

He brings destruction on the strong,
and it falls on the stronghold.

Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Go away, you seer! Flee to the land of Judah. Earn your living and give your prophecies there,

The Lord says:

I will not relent from punishing Judah
for three crimes, even four,
because they have rejected the instruction of the Lord
and have not kept His statutes.
The lies that their ancestors followed
have led them astray.

so that they may possess
the remnant of Edom
and all the nations
that are called by My name—
this is the Lord’s declaration—

He will do this.

The Lord God has sworn by Himself—this is the declaration of Yahweh, the God of Hosts:

I loathe Jacob’s pride
and hate his citadels,
so I will hand over the city and everything in it.

A lion has roared;
who will not fear?
The Lord God has spoken;
who will not prophesy?

I also withheld the rain from you
while there were still three months until harvest.
I sent rain on one city
but no rain on another.
One field received rain
while a field with no rain withered.

Therefore, because you trample on the poor
and exact a grain tax from him,
you will never live in the houses of cut stone
you have built;
you will never drink the wine
from the lush vineyards
you have planted.

Listen to this message that I am singing for you, a lament, house of Israel:

but don’t ever prophesy at Bethel again, for it is the king’s sanctuary and a royal temple.”

for Amos has said this: ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will certainly go into exile from its homeland.’”

Therefore, I will send fire against Judah,
and it will consume the citadels of Jerusalem.

Proclaim on the citadels in Ashdod
and on the citadels in the land of Egypt:
Assemble on the mountains of Samaria
and see the great turmoil in the city
and the acts of oppression within it.

The Lord says:

As the shepherd snatches two legs
or a piece of an ear
from the lion’s mouth,
so the Israelites who live in Samaria
will be rescued
with only the corner of a bed
or the cushion of a couch.

They trample the heads of the poor
on the dust of the ground
and block the path of the needy.
A man and his father have sexual relations
with the same girl,
profaning My holy name.

For I know your crimes are many
and your sins innumerable.
They oppress the righteous, take a bribe,
and deprive the poor of justice at the gates.

I struck you with blight and mildew;
the locust devoured
your many gardens and vineyards,
your fig trees and olive trees,
yet you did not return to Me.
This is the Lord’s declaration.

Therefore Yahweh, the God of Hosts, the Lord, says:

There will be wailing in all the public squares;
they will cry out in anguish in all the streets.
The farmer will be called on to mourn,
and professional mourners to wail.

People will stagger from sea to sea
and roam from north to east,
seeking the word of the Lord,
but they will not find it.

I will plant them on their land,
and they will never again be uprooted
from the land I have given them.
Yahweh your God has spoken.

Therefore, the Lord God says:

An enemy will surround the land;
he will destroy your strongholds
and plunder your citadels.

The people are incapable of doing right—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
those who store up violence and destruction
in their citadels.

Yet I destroyed the Amorite as Israel advanced;
his height was like the cedars,
and he was as sturdy as the oaks;
I destroyed his fruit above and his roots beneath.

I overthrew some of you
as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,
and you were like a burning stick
snatched from a fire,
yet you did not return to Me—
this is the Lord’s declaration.

Those who swear by the guilt of Samaria
and say, “As your god lives, Dan,”
or “As the way of Beer-sheba lives”—
they will fall, never to rise again.

I will demolish the winter house
and the summer house;
the houses inlaid with ivory will be destroyed,
and the great houses will come to an end.
This is the Lord’s declaration.

There will be wailing in all the vineyards,
for I will pass among you.
The Lord has spoken.

Therefore, the wise person will keep silent
at such a time,
for the days are evil.

A close relative and burner will remove his corpse from the house. He will call to someone in the inner recesses of the house, “Any more with you?”

That person will reply, “None.”

Then he will say, “Silence, because Yahweh’s name must not be invoked.”

They stretch out beside every altar
on garments taken as collateral,
and in the house of their God,
they drink wine obtained through fines.

Two or three cities staggered
to another city to drink water
but were not satisfied,
yet you did not return to Me.
This is the Lord’s declaration.

In that day the beautiful young women,
the young men also, will faint from thirst.

“House of Israel, was it sacrifices and grain offerings that you presented to Me during the 40 years in the wilderness?

But the Lord took me from following the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to My people Israel.’”

I will punish the altars of Bethel
on the day I punish Israel for its crimes;
the horns of the altar will be cut off
and fall to the ground.

And I brought you from the land of Egypt
and led you 40 years in the wilderness
in order to possess the land of the Amorite.

I sent plagues like those of Egypt;
I killed your young men with the sword,
along with your captured horses.
I caused the stench of your camp
to fill your nostrils,
yet you did not return to Me.
This is the Lord’s declaration.

Israelites, are you not like the Cushites to Me?
This is the Lord’s declaration.
Didn’t I bring Israel from the land of Egypt,
the Philistines from Caphtor,
and the Arameans from Kir?

The Lord says:

I will not relent from punishing Moab
for three crimes, even four,
because he burned the bones
of the king of Edom to lime.

I raised up some of your sons as prophets
and some of your young men as Nazirites.
Is this not the case, Israelites?
This is the Lord’s declaration.

For the Lord commands:

The large house will be smashed to pieces,
and the small house to rubble.

But you made the Nazirites drink wine
and commanded the prophets,
“Do not prophesy.”

You dismiss any thought of the evil day
and bring in a reign of violence.

For the Lord says to the house of Israel:

Seek Me and live!

Listen and testify against the house of Jacob—
this is the declaration of the Lord God,
the God of Hosts.

Do horses gallop on the cliffs;
does anyone plow there with oxen?
Yet you have turned justice into poison
and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood—

They lie on beds inlaid with ivory,
sprawled out on their couches,
and dine on lambs from the flock
and calves from the stall.

Take away from Me the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.

Do not seek Bethel
or go to Gilgal
or journey to Beer-sheba,
for Gilgal will certainly go into exile,
and Bethel will come to nothing.

Now hear the word of the Lord. You say:

Do not prophesy against Israel;
do not preach against the house of Isaac.

you who rejoice over Lo-debar
and say, “Didn’t we capture Karnaim
for ourselves by our own strength?”

The Lord says:

I will not relent from punishing Israel
for three crimes, even four,
because they sell a righteous person for silver
and a needy person for a pair of sandals.

It will be like a man who flees from a lion
only to have a bear confront him.
He goes home and rests his hand against the wall
only to have a snake bite him.

She has fallen;
Virgin Israel will never rise again.
She lies abandoned on her land,
with no one to raise her up.

Won’t the Day of the Lord
be darkness rather than light,
even gloom without any brightness in it?

The Lord God has sworn by His holiness:

Look, the days are coming
when you will be taken away with hooks,
every last one of you with fishhooks.

But look, I am raising up a nation
against you, house of Israel—
this is the declaration of the Lord,
the God of Hosts—
and they will oppress you
from the entrance of Hamath
to the Brook of the Arabah.

The Lord says:

I will not relent from punishing Damascus
for three crimes, even four,
because they threshed Gilead with iron sledges.

Look, I am about to crush you in your place
as a wagon full of sheaves crushes grain.

Therefore, I will send fire against Moab,
and it will consume the citadels of Kerioth.
Moab will die with a tumult,
with shouting and the sound of the ram’s horn.

If they dig down to Sheol,
from there My hand will take them;
if they climb up to heaven,
from there I will bring them down.

Even if you offer Me
your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them;
I will have no regard
for your fellowship offerings of fattened cattle.

Escape will fail the swift,
the strong one will not prevail by his strength,
and the brave will not save his life.

Hear this! The days are coming—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
when the plowman will overtake the reaper
and the one who treads grapes,
the sower of seed.
The mountains will drip with sweet wine,
and all the hills will flow with it.

Even the most courageous of the warriors
will flee naked on that day—
this is the Lord’s declaration.

They drink wine by the bowlful
and anoint themselves with the finest oils
but do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph.

They improvise songs to the sound of the harp
and invent their own musical instruments like David.

For the Lord God says:

The city that marches out a thousand strong
will have only a hundred left,
and the one that marches out a hundred strong
will have only ten left in the house of Israel.

Because of this, won’t the land quake
and all who dwell in it mourn?
All of it will rise like the Nile;
it will surge and then subside
like the Nile in Egypt.

The archer will not stand his ground,
the one who is swift of foot
will not save himself,
and the one riding a horse will not save his life.

He asked me, “What do you see, Amos?”

I replied, “A basket of summer fruit.”

The Lord said to me, “The end has come for My people Israel; I will no longer spare them.

In that day the temple songs will become wailing”—this is the Lord God’s declaration. “Many dead bodies, thrown everywhere! Silence!”

Look, the eyes of the Lord God
are on the sinful kingdom,
and I will destroy it
from the face of the earth.
However, I will not totally destroy
the house of Jacob—
this is the Lord’s declaration—

He builds His upper chambers
in the heavens
and lays the foundation of His vault
on the earth.
He summons the waters of the sea
and pours them out on the face of the earth.
Yahweh is His name.

So Amos answered Amaziah, “I was not a prophet or the son of a prophet; rather, I was a herdsman, and I took care of sycamore figs.

Cross over to Calneh and see;
go from there to great Hamath;
then go down to Gath of the Philistines.
Are you better than these kingdoms?
Is their territory larger than yours?

When the locusts finished eating the vegetation of the land, I said, “Lord God, please forgive! How will Jacob survive since he is so small?”

The Lord God showed me this: The Lord God was calling for a judgment by fire. It consumed the great deep and devoured the land.

So I will send you into exile beyond Damascus.” Yahweh, the God of Hosts, is His name. He has spoken.

The One who made the Pleiades and Orion,
who turns darkness into dawn
and darkens day into night,
who summons the waters of the sea
and pours them out over the face of the earth—
Yahweh is His name.

But you have taken up Sakkuth your king and Kaiwan your star god, images you have made for yourselves.

And in that day—
this is the declaration of the Lord God—
I will make the sun go down at noon;
I will darken the land in the daytime.

asking, “When will the New Moon be over
so we may sell grain,
and the Sabbath,
so we may market wheat?
We can reduce the measure
while increasing the price
and cheat with dishonest scales.

He showed me this: The Lord was standing there by a vertical wall with a plumb line in His hand.

You will go through breaches in the wall,
each woman straight ahead,
and you will be driven along toward Harmon.
This is the Lord’s declaration.

We can buy the poor with silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals
and even sell the chaff!”

I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and He said:

Strike the capitals of the pillars
so that the thresholds shake;
knock them down on the heads of all the people.
Then I will kill the rest of them with the sword.
None of those who flee will get away;
none of the fugitives will escape.

Come to Bethel and rebel;
rebel even more at Gilgal!
Bring your sacrifices every morning,
your tenths every three days.

The Lord has sworn by the Pride of Jacob:

I will never forget all their deeds.

The Lord, the God of Hosts—
He touches the earth;
it melts, and all who dwell in it mourn;
all of it rises like the Nile
and subsides like the Nile of Egypt.

He is here:
the One who forms the mountains,
creates the wind,
and reveals His thoughts to man,
the One who makes the dawn out of darkness
and strides on the heights of the earth.
Yahweh, the God of Hosts, is His name.

I gave you absolutely nothing to eat
in all your cities,
a shortage of food in all your communities,
yet you did not return to Me.
This is the Lord’s declaration.

If they hide themselves
on the top of Carmel,
from there I will track them down
and seize them;
if they conceal themselves
from My sight on the sea floor,
from there I will command
the sea serpent to bite them.

The Lord relented concerning this. “It will not happen,” He said.

Hear this, you who trample on the needy
and do away with the poor of the land,

Listen to this message that the Lord has spoken against you, Israelites, against the entire clan that I brought from the land of Egypt:

Then I said, “Lord God, please stop! How will Jacob survive since he is so small?”

The Lord God showed me this: A basket of summer fruit.

And if they are driven
by their enemies into captivity,
from there I will command
the sword to kill them.
I will fix My eyes on them
for harm and not for good.

They hate the one who convicts the guilty
at the city gate
and despise the one who speaks with integrity.

The Lord relented concerning this. “This will not happen either,” said the Lord God.

I will restore the fortunes of My people Israel.
They will rebuild and occupy ruined cities,
plant vineyards and drink their wine,
make gardens and eat their produce.

Seek good and not evil
so that you may live,
and the Lord, the God of Hosts,
will be with you,
as you have claimed.

Therefore, Israel, that is what I will do to you,
and since I will do that to you,
Israel, prepare to meet your God!

Hate evil and love good;
establish justice in the gate.
Perhaps the Lord, the God of Hosts, will be gracious
to the remnant of Joseph.

Seek Yahweh and live,
or He will spread like fire
throughout the house of Joseph;
it will consume everything,
with no one at Bethel to extinguish it.

I will break down the gates of Damascus.
I will cut off the ruler from the Valley of Aven,
and the one who wields the scepter from Beth-eden.
The people of Aram will be exiled to Kir.
The Lord has spoken.

The Lord God showed me this: He was forming a swarm of locusts at the time the spring crop first began to sprout—after the cutting of the king’s hay.

for I am about to give the command,
and I will shake the house of Israel
among all the nations,
as one shakes a sieve,
but not a pebble will fall to the ground.