The words of Amos, who was among the sheepherders from Tekoa, which he envisioned in visions 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.

“It was I who brought you up from the land of Egypt,
And I led you in the wilderness forty years
That you might take possession of the land of the Amorite.

The Lord God has sworn by His holiness,
“Behold, the days are coming upon you
When they will take you away with meat hooks,
And the last of you with fish hooks.

Hear this word which I take up for you as a dirge, O house of Israel:

“Take away from Me the noise of your songs;
I will not even listen to the sound of your harps.

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

“Though they dig into Sheol,
From there will My hand take them;
And though they ascend to heaven,
From there will I bring them down.

“Though they hide on the summit of Carmel,
I will search them out and take them from there;
And though they conceal themselves from My sight on the floor of the sea,
From there I will command the serpent and it will bite them.