"'Preach in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces of the land of Egypt, and say, 'Gather you together upon the mountains of Samaria, so shall ye see great murder and violent oppression among them.' For why? They regard not the thing that is right,

Thus sayeth the LORD, 'like as a herdsman taketh two legs or a piece of an ear out of the lion's mouth: Even so the children of Israel that dwell in Samaria, having their couches in the corner, and the beds at Damascus, shall be plucked away.

'That when I begin to visit the wickedness of Israel, I will visit the altars at Bethel also: so that the horns of the alter shall be broken off, and fall to the ground.

O hear this word, ye fat cows, that be upon the hill of Samaria; yea, that do poor men wrong, and oppress the needy; yea, that say to your lords, 'Bring hither, let us drink.'

'Some of you have I overthrown as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah: so that ye were as a brand plucked out of the fire. Yet will ye not turn unto me,' sayeth the LORD.

Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into morning and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: the LORD is his name.

Therefore the wise must now be fain to hold his tongue, so wicked a time is it.

Seek after the thing that is good, and not evil, so shall ye live: yea, the LORD God of hosts shall be with you, according to your own desire.

"'If no,' sayeth the LORD God, the God of hosts, 'there shall be mourning in all streets. Yea, they shall say in every street: alas, alas. They shall call the husbandman to lamentation; and such as can mourn, to mourning.

but see that equity flow as the water, and righteousness as a mighty stream.

O Woe be to the proud wealthy in Zion, to such as think them so sure upon the mount of Samaria: which hold themselves for the best of the world, and rule the house of Israel, even as they list.

Go unto Calneh, and see: and from thence get you to Hamath the great city, and so go down to Gath of the Philistines: be they better at ease than these kingdoms, or the border of their land wider than yours?

ye that drink wine out of goblets, and anoint yourselves with the best oil: but no man is sorry for Joseph's hurt.

so that though there remain ten men in one house, they shall die.

So their next kinfolks and the dead buriers shall take them, and carry away their bones, and say unto him that is in the innermore house, 'Is there yet any more by thee?' And he shall answer, 'They are all gone. Hold thy tongue,' shall he say. For they would not remember the name of the LORD.

Behold, the LORD is minded to smite the great houses, so that they shall decay: and the little houses, that they shall cleave asunder.

Yea, even ye that rejoice in vain things: ye that say, 'Have not we obtained horns in our own strength?'

Now when they undertook to eat up all the green things in the land, I said, "O LORD God, be merciful, I beseech thee: who should else help up Jacob that is brought so low?"

So the LORD was gracious therein, and the LORD said, "Well, it shall not be."

Then said I, "O LORD God, hold thine hand: who should else help up Jacob that is brought so low?"

So the LORD was merciful therein, and the LORD God said, "Well, it shall not be."

Moreover, he showed me this vision: behold, the LORD stood upon a plastered wall, and a mason's trowel in his hand.

And the LORD said unto me, "Amos, what seest thou?" I answered, "A mason's trowel." Then said the Lord, "Behold, I will lay the trowel among my people of Israel, and will no more oversee them:

And Amaziah said unto Amos, "Get thee hence, thou that canst see so well, and flee into the land of Judah. Get thee there thy living, and prophesy there:

and prophesy no more at Bethel, for it is the king's chapel, and the king's court.

Amos answered, and said to Amaziah, "As for me I am neither prophet, nor prophet's son: but a keeper of cattle. Now as I was breaking down mulberries, and going after the cattle,

So that they shall go from the one sea to the other, yea from the north unto the east, running about to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.

yea even they that swear in the offense of Samaria, and say, 'As truly as thy God liveth at Dan, and as truly as thy God liveth at Beersheba' These shall fall, and never rise up again."

I saw the LORD standing upon the altar, and he said, "Smite the door check, that the posts may shake withal. For their covetousness shall fall upon all their heads, and their posterity shall be slain with the sword. They shall not flee away, there shall not one of them escape, nor be delivered.

Though they hide themselves upon the top of Carmel, yet shall I seek them out, and bring them from thence. Though they creep down from my sight into the deep of the sea, I shall command the serpent, even there to bite them.

He that hath his dwelling in Heaven, and groundeth his tabernacle in the earth; He that calleth the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the plain ground; his name is the LORD.

But all the wicked doers of my people, that say, 'Tush, the plague is not so nigh to come so hastily upon us,' those shall perish with the sword.

Behold, I will make thee small among the Heathen, so that thou shalt be utterly despised.

Thou shalt no more see the day of thy brother; thou shalt no more behold the time of his captivity; thou shalt no more rejoice over the children of Judah, in the day of their destruction; thou shalt triumph no more in the time of their trouble.

Thou shalt no more come in at the gates of my people, in the time of their decay; thou shalt not see their misery in the day of their fall. Thou shalt send out no man against their host, in the day of their adversity;

For the day of the LORD is hard by upon all Heathen. Like as thou hast done, so shalt thou be dealt withal. Yea, thou shalt be rewarded even upon thine head.

For likewise as ye have drunken upon mine holy hill, so shall all Heathen drink continually: yea drink shall they, and swallow up, so that ye shall be as though ye had never been.

Moreover, the house of Jacob shall be a fire, the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau the straw: which they shall kindle and consume, so that nothing shall be left of the house of Esau, for the LORD himself hath said it.

And this host shall be the children of Israel's prisoners: Now whatso lieth from Canaan unto Zarephath, and in Sepharad, that shall be under the subjection of Jerusalem: and the cities of the south shall inherit it.

Thus they that escape upon the hill of Zion, shall go up to punish the mount of Esau, and the kingdom shall be the LORD's.

But the LORD hurled a great wind in to the sea, so that there was a mighty tempest in the sea: insomuch that the ship was like to go in pieces.

And the mariners were afraid and cried every man unto his god, and cast out the goods that were in the ship in to the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah gat him under the hatches and laid him down and slumbered.

And he answered them, "I am a Hebrew: and the LORD God of heaven which made both sea and dry land, I fear."

Then were the men exceedingly afraid and said unto him, "Why didst thou so?" For they knew that he was fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.

Then they said unto him, "What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may cease from troubling us?" For the sea wrought, and was troublous.

And he answered them, "Take me and cast me in to the sea, and so shall it let you be in rest: for I know it is for my sake, that this great tempest is come upon you."

Nevertheless the men assayed with rowing to bring the ship to land: but it would not be, because the sea so wrought and was so troublous against them.

Wherefore they cried unto the LORD and said, "O LORD let us not perish for this man's death, neither lay innocent blood unto our charge: for thou LORD, even as thy pleasure was, so thou hast done."

And then they took Jonah, and cast him into the sea: and the sea left raging.

But the LORD prepared a great fish, to swallow up Jonah. And so was Jonah in the bowels of the fish three days and three nights.

For thou hadst cast me down deep in the midst of the sea; and the flood compassed me about: and all thy waves and rolls of water went over me.

And he arose and went to Nineveh at the LORD's commandment. Nineveh was a great city unto God, containing three days journey.

And Jonah went to and entered into the city even a day's journey, and cried, saying, "There shall not pass forty days but Nineveh shall be overthrown."

And it was cried and commanded in Nineveh by the authority of the king and of his lords, saying, "See that neither man or beast, ox or sheep taste ought at all, and that they neither feed or drink water."

And when God saw their works, how they turned from their wicked ways, he repented on the evil which he said he would do unto them, and did it not.

And the LORD said unto Jonah, "Art thou so angry?"

And Jonah gat him out of the city and sat him down on the east side thereof, and made him there a booth and sat thereunder in the shadow, till he might see what should chance unto the city.

And as soon as the sun was up, God prepared a fervent east wind: so that the sun beat over the head of Jonah, that he fainted again and wished unto his soul that he might die, and said, "It is better for me to die than to live."

And God said unto Jonah, "Art thou so angry for thy wild vine?" And he said, "I am angry a good, even unto the death."

All her Images shall be broken down and all her winnings shall be burnt in the fire: yea, all her Idols will I destroy. For why? They are gathered out of the hire of a whore, and into a whore's hire shall they be turned again.

The rebellious city hopeth that it shall not be so evil: but for all that, the plague shall come from the LORD, even in to the port of Jerusalem.

Therefore thus sayeth the LORD: Behold, against this household have I devised a plague, whereout ye shall not pluck your necks. Ye shall no more go so proudly, for it will be a perilous time.

"Tush, hold your tongue," say they. "It shall not fall on this people, we shall not come so to confusion,"

sayeth the house of Jacob. Is the spirit of the LORD so clean away? Or is he so minded? Truth it is, my words are friendly unto them that live right:

But ye hate the good, and love the evil: ye pluck off men's skins, and the flesh from their bones;

Now the time shall come, that when they call unto the LORD, he shall not hear them, but hide his face from them, because that through their own Imaginations they have dealt so wickedly.

Then shall the vision seers be ashamed, and the soothsayers confounded: yea they shall be fain, all the pack of them, to stop their mouths: for they have not God's word.

O ye judges, ye give sentence for gifts; O ye priests, ye teach for lucre; O ye prophets, ye prophesy for money. Yet will they be taken as those that hold upon God, and say, "Is not the LORD among us? Tush, there can no misfortune happen us."

But in the latter days it will come to pass, that the hill of the LORD's house shall be set up higher than any mountains or hills: Yea, the people shall flow unto it,

And shall give sentence among the multitude of the Heathen and reform the people of far countries: so that of their swords they shall make plowshares, and scythes of their spears. One people shall not lift up a sword against another, yea they shall no more learn to fight.

Why then art thou now so heavy? Is there no king in thee? Are thy counselors away that thou art so pained, as a woman in her travail?

Now also are there many people gathered together against thee, saying that Zion is cursed: "We shall see our lust upon her."

After that shalt thou be robbed thyself, O thou robber's daughter: they shall lay siege against us, and smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek.

Then shall there be peace, so that the Assyrian may come into our land, and tread in our houses. We shall bring up seven shepherds and eight princes upon them:

Yea, the residue of Jacob shall be among the gentiles and the multitude of people, as the lion among the beasts of the wood, and as the Lion's whelps among a flock of sheep: which, when he goeth through, treadeth down, teareth in pieces, and there is no man that can help.

Thine Idols and thine Images will I destroy out of thee so that thou shalt no more bow thyself unto the works of thine own hands.

The LORD's voice crieth unto the city, and the man that shall be saved considereth thy name, O LORD. Hear and that thy name may be righteousness. Hear, O ye tribes: who would else give you such warning?

Thou shalt sow, but not reap; thou shalt press out olives, but oil shalt thou not have to anoint thyself withal; thou shalt tread out sweet must, but shall drink no wine.

yet they say they do well when they do evil. As the prince will, so sayeth the judge: that he may do him a pleasure again. The great man speaketh what his heart desireth; and the hearers allow him.

for the son shall put his father to dishonour, the daughter shall rise against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law: and a man's foes shall be even they of his own household.

I will bear the punishment of the LORD - For why? I have offended him - till he sit in judgment upon my cause, and see that I have right. He will bring me forth to the light, and I shall see his righteousness.

and at that time shall they come unto thee, from Assyria unto the strong cities, and from the strong cities unto the river: from the one sea to the other, from the one mountain to the other.

This shall the Heathen see, and be ashamed for all their power: so that they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, and stop their ears.

He shall turn again, and be merciful to us: he shall put down our wickednesses, and cast all our sins into the bottom of the sea.

This is the heavy burden of Nineveh, which Nahum of Elkosh did write, as he saw it.

The LORD suffereth long, he is of great power, and so innocent that he leaveth no man faultless before him. The LORD goeth forth in tempest and stormy weather; the clouds are the dust of his feet.

When he reproveth the sea, he drieth it up, and turneth all the floods to dry land. Bashan is desolate, Carmel and the pleasure of Lebanon wasteth away.

For like as the thorns that stick together, and as the dry straw, so shall the drunkards be consumed together, even when they be full.

The water ports shall be opened, and the king's palace shall fall.

Where is now the dwelling of the lions, and the pasture of the lion's whelps? Where the lion and the lioness went with the whelps, and no man frayed them away?

Yea, all they that look upon thee shall start back, and say, "Nineveh is destroyed!" Who will have pity upon thee? Where shall I seek one to comfort thee?

Art thou better than the great city of Alexandria: that lay in the waters, and had the waters round about it? Which was strongly fenced and walled with the sea?

Even so shalt thou also be drunken, and hide thyself, and seek some help against thine enemy.

yet the fire shall consume thee, the sword shall destroy thee. Yea, as the locust doth, so shall it eat thee up. It shall fall heavily upon thee as the locusts, yea right heavily shall it fall upon thee, even as the grasshoppers.

Thy wound cannot be hid, thy plague is so sore. All they that hear this of thee, shall clap their hands over thee. For what is he, to whom thou hast not always been doing hurt?

This is the heavy burden, which the Prophet Habakkuk did see.

Why lettest thou me see weariness and labour? Tyranny and violence are before me, power overgoeth right:

Then shall they take a fresh courage unto them, to go forth and do more evil, and so ascribe that power unto their God.

Thine eyes are clean, thou mayest not see evil, thou cannot behold the thing that is wicked. Wherefore then doest thou look upon the ungodly, and holdest thy tongue, when the wicked devoureth the man that is better than himself?

Thou makest men as the fish in the sea, and like as the creeping beasts, that have no guide.