And in all [of the] vineyards [there will be] wailing, because I will pass in your midst," says Yahweh.

Ho, ye who are desiring the day of Jehovah, Why is this to you -- the day of Jehovah? It is darkness, and not light,

As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.

I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.

Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.

“Take the noise of your songs away from Me [they are an irritation]!
I shall not even listen to the melody of your harps.

But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.

Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came!

Pass ye unto Calneh, and see; and from thence go ye to Hamath the great: then go down to Gath of the Philistines: be they better than these kingdoms? or their border greater than your border?

Who are putting away the day of evil, And ye bring nigh the seat of violence,

Who are lying down on beds of ivory, And are spread out on their couches, And are eating lambs from the flock, And calves from the midst of the stall,

Who are taking part according to the psaltery, Like David they invented for themselves instruments of music;

That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments: but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.

So now they will go away prisoners with the first of those who are made prisoners, and the loud cry of those who were stretched out will come to an end.

And if there are left ten persons in one house, It hath come to pass -- that they have died.

Then one’s uncle, or his undertaker, shall come to bring the [disease-infected] body out of the house, [to cremate it], and he will say to another in the farthest part of the house, “Is there anyone else with you?” And that one will say, “No one.” Then he will respond, “Hush! Keep quiet! For the name of the Lord is not to be mentioned [even casually, for fear that we might invoke even more punishment].”

Do horses run on rocks, or does one plow the sea with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison and [the] fruit of righteousness into wormwood!

Ye which rejoice in a thing of nought, which say, Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength?

This is what the Lord GOD showed me: Look! He was forming locust swarms as the latter plantings were just beginning to sprout. Indeed, the king had just taken his first fruit tax.

And desolated have been high places of Isaac, And sanctuaries of Israel are wasted, And I have risen against the house of Jeroboam with a sword.'

Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Go, you seer, run for your life [from Israel] to the land of Judah [your own country] and eat bread and live as a prophet there!

Don't prophesy at Bethel any longer, for a royal temple and palace are here!"

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.

And so then, hear the word of Yahweh! You are saying, 'You must not prophesy against Israel and you must not preach against the house of Isaac!'

Therefore, thus says the Lord, ‘Your wife shall become a prostitute in the city [when the Assyrians capture Samaria] and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided by a measuring line; you yourself shall die in an unclean and defiled [pagan] land, and Israel shall certainly go from its land into exile.’”

And howled have songstresses of a palace in that day, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah, Many are the carcases, into any place throw -- hush!

Hear this, ye who are swallowing up the needy, To cause to cease the poor of the land,

Saying, When will the new moon be gone, so that we may do trade in grain? and the Sabbath, so that we may put out in the market the produce of our fields? making the measure small and the price great, and trading falsely with scales of deceit;

So that we may buy the poor [as slaves] for silver [since they are unable to support themselves]
And the needy for a pair of sandals,
And that we may sell the leftovers of the wheat [as if it were a good grade of grain]?”

And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day.

Lo, days are coming, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah, And I have sent a famine into the land, Not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water But of hearing the words of Jehovah.

In that day your beautiful young women and your young men will faint from thirst.

“Those who swear [their oaths] by the sin (guilt) of Samaria or Ashimah (a pagan goddess),
Who say, ‘By the life of your god [the golden calf], O Dan!’
And [swear], ‘By the life of the way of [idolatrous] Beersheba,’
They shall fall and not rise again.”

I saw the Lord stationed by the side of the altar, giving blows to the tops of the pillars so that the doorsteps were shaking: and he said, I will let all of them be broken with earth-shocks; I will put the last of them to the sword: if any one of them goes in flight he will not get away, not one of them will be safe.

Though they were buried in the hell, my hand shall fetch them from thence. Though they climb up to heaven, yet shall I cast them down.

Even if they were to hide on the top of Mount Carmel, I would hunt them down and take them from there. Even if they tried to hide from me at the bottom of the sea, from there I would command the Sea Serpent to bite them.

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.

Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? saith the LORD. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?

Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the LORD.

By sword die do all sinners of My people, Who are saying, 'Not overtake, or go before, For our sakes, doth evil.'

“In that day I shall raise up and restore the fallen tabernacle (booth) of David,
And wall up its breaches [in the city walls];
I will also raise up and restore its ruins
And rebuild it as it was in the days of old,

That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, saith the LORD that doeth this.

Lo, days are coming -- an affirmation of Jehovah, And come nigh hath the ploughman to the reaper, And the treader of grapes to the scatterer of seed, And the mountains have dropped juice, And all the hills do melt.

And I will turn the captivity of my people Israel: and they shall build the cities that are fallen in decay, and shall inhabit them, and shall plant vines and drink wine, and shall make gardens and eat the fruit of them.

And I have planted them on their own ground, And they are not plucked up any more from off their own ground, That I have given to them, said Jehovah thy God!

The vision of Obadiah.

This is what the Lord God has said about Edom:

We have heard a message from the Lord;
a messenger has been sent among the nations:
“Rise up, and let us go to war against her.”

Behold, I have made you small among the nations. You are greatly despised.

“The pride and arrogance of your heart have deceived you,
You who live in the clefts and lofty security of the rock (Sela),
Whose dwelling place is high,
Who say [boastfully] in your heart,
‘Who will bring me down to earth?’

“Though you build [your nest] on high like the eagle,
Though you set your nest among the stars,
I will bring you down from there,” says the Lord.

“If thieves came to you,
If robbers by night—
How you will be ruined!—
Would they not steal only until they had enough?
If grape gatherers came to you,
Would they not leave some grapes for gleaning?

How are the things of Esau searched out! how are his hidden things sought up!

All the men of thy confederacy have brought thee even to the border: the men that were at peace with thee have deceived thee, and prevailed against thee; they that eat thy bread have laid a wound under thee: there is none understanding in him.

“And your mighty men shall be dismayed and demoralized, O Teman,
So that everyone from the mountain of Esau may be cut off in the slaughter.

“Because of the violence you did against your brother Jacob,
Shame shall cover you [completely],
And you shall be cut off forever.

“On the day that [Jerusalem was destroyed] you stood aloof [from your brother Jacob]—
On the day that strangers took his forces captive and carried off his wealth,
And foreigners entered his gates
And cast lots for Jerusalem [dividing the city for plunder]—
You too were like one of them [collaborating with the enemy].

“Do not gaze and gloat [in triumph] over your brother’s day,
The day when his misfortune came.
Do not rejoice over the sons of Judah
In the day of their destruction;
Do not speak arrogantly [jeering and maliciously mocking]
In the day of their distress.

You should not have entered the gate of my people on the day of their disaster. You also should not have gloated over his misery on the day of his disaster, and you should not have stretched out [your hands] on the day of his disaster.

And do not take your place at the cross-roads, cutting off those of his people who get away; and do not give up to their haters those who are still there in the day of trouble.

“For the [judgment] day of the Lord draws near on all the nations.
As you have done, it shall be done to you [in retribution];
Your [evil] dealings will return on your own head.

For as thou didst drink upon my holy mountain, all the nations shall drink continually, and they drank and they swallowed down, and they were as they not being.

And the captives of this host of the children of Israel, that are among the Canaanites,'shall possess even unto Zarephath; and the captives of Jerusalem, that are in Sepharad, shall possess the cities of the South.

Up! go to Nineveh, that great town, and let your voice come to it; for their evil-doing has come up before me.

Then the LORD sent a great wind over the sea, and a severe storm broke out. It seemed as if the ship were about to break up.

Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.

So the captain came up to him and said, “How can you stay asleep? Get up! Call on your god! Perhaps your god will give a thought to us so that we will not perish.”

And they said, one to another, come and let us cast lots, to know for whose cause we are thus troubled. And they cast lots. And the lot fell upon Jonah.

Then they said to him, “Now tell us! Who is to blame for this disaster? What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country?”

Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.

And they said to him, What are we to do to you so that the sea may become calm for us? For the sea was getting rougher and rougher.

He said to them, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea to make the sea quiet down, because I know it's my fault you are in this severe storm."

And the men row to turn back unto the dry land, and are not able, for the sea is more and more tempestuous against them.

So, crying to the Lord, they said, Give ear to our prayer, O Lord, give ear, and do not let destruction overtake us because of this man's life; do not put on us the sin of taking life without cause: for you, O Lord, have done what seemed good to you.

In my trouble I was crying to the Lord, and he gave me an answer; out of the deepest underworld I sent up a cry, and you gave ear to my voice.

For thou didst cast me into the depth, into the heart of the seas, And the flood was round about me: All thy breakers and thy billows are gone over me.

“Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight.
Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple.’

The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.

To the cuttings of mountains I have come down, The earth, her bars are behind me to the age. And Thou bringest up from the pit my life, O Jehovah my God.

“When my soul was fainting within me,
I remembered the Lord,
And my prayer came to You,
Into Your holy temple.

And he had a proclamation made, and said, "In Nineveh, by a decree of the king and his nobles: "No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything! They must not eat, and they must not drink water!

No man or animal, herd or flock, is to taste anything, graze, or drink water. Instead, let both man and animal clothe themselves with sackcloth and cry out to God forcefully. Let every person turn from his evil ways and from his tendency to do violence.

Who knows but that God may relent, have compassion, and turn from his fierce anger, so that we are not exterminated?"

And God saw what they did, how they were turned from their evil way; and God's purpose was changed as to the evil which he said he would do to them, and he did it not.

He prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is this not what I said when I was still in my country? That is why I ran to Tarshish, because I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and great in lovingkindness, and [when sinners turn to You] You revoke the [sentence of] disaster [against them].

So now, O Lord, give ear to my prayer and take my life from me; for death is better for me than life.

The Lord said, "Are you really so very angry?"

And the LORD prepared as it were a wild vine which sprang up over Jonah, that he might have shadow over his head, to deliver him out of his pain. And Jonah was exceeding glad of the wild vine.

And it came to pass, at the breaking forth of the sun, that God appointed a sultry east wind, and the sun smote upon the head of Jonah, that he became faint, - and asked his life, that he might die, and said, It were better for me, to die, than, to live.

Then God asked Jonah, "Is your anger about the vine plant justified?" And he answered, "Absolutely! I'm so angry I could die!"

But Yahweh said, "You are troubled about the plant, for which you did not labor nor cause it to grow. {It grew up in a night and it perished in a night}!

And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?

Give ear, you peoples, all of you; give attention, O earth and everything in it: let the Lord God be witness against you, the Lord from his holy Temple.

And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place.

For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? is it not Samaria? and what are the high places of Judah? are they not Jerusalem?

Therefore, I will make Samaria
a heap of ruins in the countryside,
a planting area for a vineyard.
I will roll her stones into the valley
and expose her foundations.

And all her graven images are beaten down, And all her gifts are burnt with fire, And all her idols I make a desolation, For, from the hire of a harlot she gathered, and unto the hire of a harlot they return.

For her wounds are incurable; for it is come even unto Judah; it reacheth unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.

Announce it not in Gath [in Philistia],
Weep not at all [and in this way betray your grief to Gentiles];
In Beth-le-aphrah (House of Dust) roll in the dust [among your own people].

Go on your way [into exile—stripped of beauty, disarmed], inhabitants of Shaphir (Beautiful), in shameful nakedness.
The inhabitant of Zaanan (Go Out) does not go out [of the house];
The wailing of Beth-ezel (House of Removal) will take away from you its support.

O thou inhabitant of Lachish, bind the chariot to the swift beast: she is the beginning of the sin to the daughter of Zion: for the transgressions of Israel were found in thee.

Therefore, send farewell gifts to Moresheth-gath;
the houses of Achzib are a deception
to the kings of Israel.