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.

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

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

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

Therefore, the Lord God says:

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

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.

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.”

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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?

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

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—

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

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

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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—

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

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.

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.

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.