I brought you up from the land of Egypt; I led you through the wilderness for forty years so you could take the Amorites' land as your own.

Listen, you Israelites, to this message which the Lord is proclaiming against you! This message is for the entire clan I brought up from the land of Egypt:

Make this announcement in the fortresses of Ashdod and in the fortresses in the land of Egypt. Say this: "Gather on the hills around Samaria! Observe the many acts of violence taking place within the city, the oppressive deeds occurring in it."

Therefore," says the sovereign Lord, "an enemy will encircle the land. He will take away your power; your fortresses will be looted."

"The virgin Israel has fallen down and will not get up again. She is abandoned on her own land with no one to help her get up."

Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent this message to King Jeroboam of Israel: "Amos is conspiring against you in the very heart of the kingdom of Israel! The land cannot endure all his prophecies.

As a matter of fact, Amos is saying this: 'Jeroboam will die by the sword and Israel will certainly be carried into exile away from its land.'"

Amaziah then said to Amos, "Leave, you visionary! Run away to the land of Judah! Earn your living and prophesy there!

"Therefore this is what the Lord says: 'Your wife will become a prostitute in the streets and your sons and daughters will die violently. Your land will be given to others and you will die in a foreign land. Israel will certainly be carried into exile away from its land.'"

Listen to this, you who trample the needy, and do away with the destitute in the land.

Be certain of this, the time is coming," says the sovereign Lord, "when I will send a famine through the land -- not a shortage of food or water but an end to divine revelation!

"You Israelites are just like the Ethiopians in my sight," says the Lord. "Certainly I brought Israel up from the land of Egypt, but I also brought the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir.

I will plant them on their land and they will never again be uprooted from the land I have given them," says the Lord your God.