Amos 2

Amos 2

¹Thus says the Lord :[#Isa 15; 16; Jer 48; Zeph 2.8, 9]

For three transgressions of Moab,

and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,

because he burned to lime

the bones of the king of Edom.

²So I will send a fire on Moab,[#Jer 48.41, 45]

and it shall devour the strongholds of Kerioth,

and Moab shall die amid uproar,

amid shouting and the sound of the trumpet;

³I will cut off the ruler from its midst[#Ps 2.10; Isa 40.23; Jer 48.7; Am 5.7, 12]

and will kill all its officials with him, says the Lord .

Judgment on Judah

⁴Thus says the Lord :[#2 Kings 17.19; Jer 6.19; Ezek 20.13; Joel 3.2]

For three transgressions of Judah,

and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,

because they have rejected the instruction of the Lord

and have not kept his statutes,

but they have been led astray by the same lies

after which their ancestors walked.

⁵So I will send a fire on Judah,[#Jer 17.27; Hos 8.14]

and it shall devour the strongholds of Jerusalem.

Judgment on Israel

⁶Thus says the Lord :[#2 Kings 18.12; Joel 3.3; Am 5.11, 12]

For three transgressions of Israel,

and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,

because they sell the righteous for silver

and the needy for a pair of sandals—

⁷they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth[#Lev 20.3; Hos 4.14; Am 5.12; 8.4]

and push the afflicted out of the way;

father and son go in to the same young woman,

so that my holy name is profaned;

⁸they lay themselves down beside every altar[#Ex 22.26; Am 4.1; 6.6; 1 Cor 8.10]

on garments taken in pledge;

and in the house of their God they drink

wine bought with fines they imposed.

⁹Yet I destroyed the Amorite before them,[#Num 13.33; Deut 2.31; Isa 5.24; Mal 4.1]

whose height was like the height of cedars

and who was as strong as oaks;

I destroyed his fruit above

and his roots beneath.

¹⁰Also I brought you up out of the land of Egypt[#Ex 3.8; 12.51; Deut 2.7]

and led you forty years in the wilderness,

to possess the land of the Amorite.

¹¹And I raised up some of your children to be prophets[#Num 6.2, 3; Jer 7.25]

and some of your youths to be nazirites.

Is it not indeed so, O people of Israel? says the Lord .

¹²But you made the nazirites drink wine[#Isa 30.10; Jer 11.21; Am 7.12, 13; Mic 2.6]

and commanded the prophets,

saying, “You shall not prophesy.”

¹³So, I will press you down in your place,[#Joel 3.13]

just as a cart presses down

when it is full of sheaves.

¹⁴Flight shall perish from the swift,[#Ps 33.16; Isa 30.16, 17; Jer 9.23]

and the strong shall not retain their strength,

nor shall the mighty save their lives;

¹⁵those who handle the bow shall not stand,[#Isa 31.3; Jer 51.26; Ezek 39.3]

and those who are swift of foot shall not save themselves,

nor shall those who ride horses save their lives;

¹⁶and those who are stout of heart among the mighty[#Jer 48.41]

shall flee away naked on that day, says the Lord .