More Visions and Messages of Judgment

¹The sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw a basket of summer fruit.[#tn Heb “behold” or “look.”; #sn The basket of summer fruit (also in the following verse) probably refers to figs from the summer crop, which ripens in August-September. See O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 115.]

²He said, “What do you see, Amos?” I replied, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me, “The end has come for my people Israel! I will no longer overlook their sins.[#tn There is a wordplay here. The Hebrew word קֵץ (qets, “end”) sounds like קָיִץ (qayits, “summer fruit”). The summer fruit arrived toward the end of Israel’s agricultural year; Israel’s national existence was similarly at an end.; #tn Heb “I will no longer pass over him.”]

³The women singing in the temple will wail in that day.”[#tn Or “palace” (NASB, NCV, TEV).]

The sovereign Lord is speaking.

“There will be many corpses littered everywhere! Be quiet!”

⁴Listen to this, you who trample the needy,[#tn See the note on the word “trample” in 2:7.]

and do away with the destitute in the land.

⁵You say,

“When will the new moon festival be over, so we can sell grain?

When will the Sabbath end, so we can open up the grain bins?

We’re eager to sell less for a higher price,

and to cheat the buyer with rigged scales!

⁶We’re eager to trade silver for the poor,[#tn Heb “to buy the poor for silver.”sn The expression trade silver for the poor refers to the slave trade.]

a pair of sandals for the needy!

We want to mix in some chaff with the grain!”

⁷The Lord confirms this oath by the arrogance of Jacob:[#tn Or “swears.”; #sn In an oath one appeals to something permanent to emphasize one’s commitment to the promise. Here the Lord sarcastically swears by the arrogance of Jacob, which he earlier had condemned (6:8), something just as enduring as the Lord’s own life (see 6:8) or unchanging character (see 4:2). Other suggestions include that the Lord is swearing by the land, his most valuable possession (cf. Isa 4:2; Ps 47:4 [47:5 HT]); that this is a divine epithet analogous to “the Glory of Israel” (1 Sam 15:29); or that an ellipsis should be understood here, in which case the meaning is the same as that of 6:8 (“The Lord has sworn [by himself] against the arrogance of Jacob”).]

“I swear I will never forget all you have done!

⁸Because of this the earth will quake,[#tn Or “land” (also later in this verse).; #tn It is not clear whether the speaker in this verse is the Lord or the prophet.]

and all who live in it will mourn.

The whole earth will rise like the River Nile,

it will surge upward and then grow calm, like the Nile in Egypt.

⁹In that day,” says the sovereign Lord , “I will make the sun set at noon,

and make the earth dark in the middle of the day.

¹⁰I will turn your festivals into funerals,[#tn Heb “mourning.”]

and all your songs into funeral dirges.

I will make everyone wear funeral clothes

and cause every head to be shaved bald.

I will make you mourn as if you had lost your only son;

when it ends it will indeed have been a bitter day.

¹¹Be certain of this, the time is coming,” says the sovereign Lord ,[#tn Heb “behold” or “look.”; #tn Heb “the days are.”]

“when I will send a famine through the land –

not a shortage of food or water

but an end to divine revelation!

¹²People will stagger from sea to sea,[#tn Heb “they”; the referent (people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.; #tn That is, from the Mediterranean Sea in the west to the Dead Sea in the east – that is, across the whole land.]

and from the north around to the east.

They will wander about looking for a revelation from the Lord ,

but they will not find any.

¹³In that day your beautiful young women and your young men will faint from thirst.[#tn Heb “the.”; #tn Or “virgins.”; #tn Heb “the.”; #tn It is not clear whether the speaker in this verse is the Lord or the prophet.]

¹⁴These are the ones who now take oaths in the name of the sinful idol goddess of Samaria.[#tn Heb “those who swear.”; #tn Heb “the sin [or “guilt”] of Samaria.” This could be a derogatory reference to an idol-goddess popular in the northern kingdom, perhaps Asherah (cf. 2 Chr 24:18, where this worship is labeled “their guilt”), or to the golden calf at the national sanctuary in Bethel (Hos 8:6, 10:8). Some English versions (e.g., NEB, NRSV, CEV) repoint the word and read “Ashimah,” the name of a goddess worshiped in Hamath in Syria (see 2 Kgs 17:30).]

They vow, ‘As surely as your god lives, O Dan,’ or ‘As surely as your beloved one lives, O Beer Sheba!’

But they will fall down and not get up again.”