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.

Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin is for him? shall one take up a snare from the earth, and have taken nothing at all?

The Lord GOD hath sworn by his holiness, that lo, the days shall come upon you, that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fish-hooks,

Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel.

Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens 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 wine of them.

For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.

Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.

And a man's uncle shall take him up, and he that burneth him, to bring the bones out of the house, and shall say to him that is by the sides of the house, Is there yet any with thee? and he shall say, No. Then shall he say, Hold thy tongue: for we may not make mention of the name of the LORD.

And the LORD took me as I followed the flock, and the LORD said to me, Go, prophesy to my people Israel.

Though they dig into the place of the dead, thence shall my hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down:

And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they are hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them: