1 {1:1} The words of Amos, who was among the herdmen
of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of
Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son
of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.
{1:2} And he said, The LORD will roar from Zion, and
utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the pastures of the
shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither.
{1:3} Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of
Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away [the
punishment] thereof; because they have threshed Gilead
with threshing instruments of iron: {1:4} But I will send a
fire into the house of Hazael, which shall devour the palaces
of Ben-hadad. {1:5} I will break also the bar of Damascus,
and cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven, and him
that holdeth the sceptre from the house of Eden: and the
people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir, saith the
LORD.
{1:6} Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of
Gaza, and for four, I will not turn away [the punishment]
thereof; because they carried away captive the whole
captivity, to deliver [them] up to Edom: {1:7} But I will
send a fire on the wall of Gaza, which shall devour the
palaces thereof: {1:8} And I will cut off the inhabitant from
Ashdod, and him that holdeth the sceptre from Ashkelon,
and I will turn mine hand against Ekron: and the remnant of
the Philistines shall perish, saith the Lord GOD.
{1:9} Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of
Tyrus, and for four, I will not turn away [the punishment]
thereof; because they delivered up the whole captivity to
Edom, and remembered not the brotherly covenant: {1:10}
But I will send a fire on the wall of Tyrus, which shall
devour the palaces thereof.
{1:11} Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of
Edom, and for four, I will not turn away [the punishment]
thereof; because he did pursue his brother with the sword,
and did cast off all pity, and his anger did tear perpetually,
and he kept his wrath for ever: {1:12} But I will send a fire
upon Teman, which shall devour the palaces of Bozrah.
{1:13} Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of
the children of Ammon, and for four, I will not turn away
[the punishment] thereof; because they have ripped up the
women with child of Gilead, that they might enlarge their
border: {1:14} But I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah,
and it shall devour the palaces thereof, with shouting in the
day of battle, with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind:
{1:15} And their king shall go into captivity, he and his
princes together, saith the LORD.
2 {2:1} Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of
Moab, and for four, I will not turn away [the punishment]
thereof; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom
into lime: {2:2} But I will send a fire upon Moab, and it
shall devour the palaces of Kirioth: and Moab shall die with
tumult, with shouting, [and] with the sound of the trumpet:
{2:3} And I will cut off the judge from the midst thereof,
and will slay all the princes thereof with him, saith the
LORD.
{2:4} Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of
Judah, and for four, I will not turn away [the punishment]
thereof; because they have despised the law of the LORD,
and have not kept his commandments, and their lies caused
them to err, after the which their fathers have walked: {2:5}
But I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the
palaces of Jerusalem.
{2:6} Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of
Israel, and for four, I will not turn away [the punishment]
thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the
poor for a pair of shoes; {2:7} That pant after the dust of the
earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the
meek: and a man and his father will go in unto the [same]
maid, to profane my holy name: {2:8} And they lay
[themselves] down upon clothes laid to pledge by every
altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house
of their god.
{2:9} Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose
height [was] like the height of the cedars, and he [was]
strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and
his roots from beneath. {2:10} Also I brought you up from
the land of Egypt, and led you forty years through the
wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite. {2:11} And I
raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men
for Nazarites. [Is it] not even thus, O ye children of Israel?
saith the LORD. {2:12} But ye gave the Nazarites wine to
drink; and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not.
{2:13} Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed
[that is] full of sheaves. {2:14} Therefore the flight shall
perish from the swift, and the strong shall not strengthen his
force, neither shall the mighty deliver himself: {2:15}
Neither shall he stand that handleth the bow; and [he that is]
swift of foot shall not deliver [himself:] neither shall he that
rideth the horse deliver himself. {2:16} And [he that is]
courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that
day, saith the LORD.
3 {3:1} Hear this word that the LORD hath spoken against
you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I
brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, {3:2} You only
have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will
punish you for all your iniquities. {3:3} Can two walk
together, except they be agreed? {3:4} Will a lion roar in
the forest, when he hath no prey? will a young lion cry out
of his den, if he have taken nothing? {3:5} Can a bird fall in
a snare upon the earth, where no gin [is] for him? shall
[one] take up a snare from the earth, and have taken nothing
at all? {3:6} Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the
people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the
LORD hath not done [it?] {3:7} Surely the Lord GOD will
do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the
prophets. {3:8} The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the
Lord GOD hath spoken, who can but prophesy?
{3:9} Publish in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces
in the land of Egypt, and say, Assemble yourselves upon the
mountains of Samaria, and behold the great tumults in the
midst thereof, and the oppressed in the midst thereof.
{3:10} For they know not to do right, saith the LORD, who
store up violence and robbery in their palaces. {3:11}
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; An adversary [there
shall be] even round about the land; and he shall bring down
thy strength from thee, and thy palaces shall be spoiled.
{3:12} Thus saith the LORD; As the shepherd taketh out of
the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear; so shall
the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria in
the corner of a bed, and in Damascus [in] a couch. {3:13}
Hear ye, and testify in the house of Jacob, saith the Lord
GOD, the God of hosts, {3:14} That in the day that I shall
visit the transgressions of Israel upon him I will also visit
the altars of Bethel: and the horns of the altar shall be cut
off, and fall to the ground. {3:15} And I will smite the
winter house with the summer house; and the houses of
ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end,
saith the LORD.
4 {4:1} Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, that [are] in the
mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush
the needy, which say to their masters, Bring, and let us
drink. {4:2} The Lord GOD hath sworn by his holiness,
that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that he will take you
away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks. {4:3}
And ye shall go out at the breaches, every [cow at that
which is] before her; and ye shall cast [them] into the
palace, saith the LORD.
{4:4} Come to Bethel, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply
transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning,
[and] your tithes after three years: {4:5} And offer a
sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, and proclaim [and]
publish the free offerings: for this liketh you, O ye children
of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.
{4:6} And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all
your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye
not returned unto me, saith the LORD. {4:7} And also I
have withholden the rain from you, when [there were] yet
three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one
city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece
was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not
withered. {4:8} So two [or] three cities wandered unto one
city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied: yet have ye
not returned unto me, saith the LORD. {4:9} I have smitten
you with blasting and mildew: when your gardens and your
vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased,
the palmerworm devoured [them:] yet have ye not returned
unto me, saith the LORD. {4:10} I have sent among you the
pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men have
I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses;
and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto
your nostrils: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the
LORD. {4:11} I have overthrown [some] of you, as God
overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand
plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto
me, saith the LORD. {4:12} Therefore thus will I do unto
thee, O Israel: [and] because I will do this unto thee, prepare
to meet thy God, O Israel. {4:13} For, lo, he that formeth
the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto
man what [is] his thought, that maketh the morning
darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth,
The LORD, The God of hosts, [is] his name.
5 {5:1} Hear ye this word which I take up against you,
[even] a lamentation, O house of Israel. {5:2} The virgin of
Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken upon
her land; [there is] none to raise her up. {5:3} For thus saith
the Lord GOD; The city that went out [by] a thousand shall
leave an hundred, and that which went forth [by] an
hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel.
{5:4} For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel,
Seek ye me, and ye shall live: {5:5} But seek not Bethel,
nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beer-sheba: for Gilgal
shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to
nought. {5:6} Seek the LORD, and ye shall live; lest he
break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour [it,]
and [there be] none to quench [it] in Bethel. {5:7} Ye who
turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in
the earth, {5:8} [Seek him] that maketh the seven stars and
Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the 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: {5:9} That strengtheneth
the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come
against the fortress. {5:10} They hate him that rebuketh in
the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly. {5:11}
Forasmuch therefore as your treading [is] upon the poor,
and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built
houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye
have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine
of them. {5:12} For I know your manifold transgressions
and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe,
and they turn aside the poor in the gate [from their right.
]{5:13} Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that
time; for it [is] an evil time. {5:14} Seek good, and not evil,
that ye may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall
be with you, as ye have spoken. {5:15} Hate the evil, and
love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be
that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the
remnant of Joseph. {5:16} Therefore the LORD, the God of
hosts, the Lord, saith thus; Wailing [shall be] in all streets;
and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they
shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are
skilful of lamentation to wailing. {5:17} And in all
vineyards [shall be] wailing: for I will pass through thee,
saith the LORD. {5:18} Woe unto you that desire the day of
the LORD! to what end [is] it for you? the day of the LORD
[is] darkness, and not light. {5:19} 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. {5:20}
[Shall] not the day of the LORD [be] darkness, and not
light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?
{5:21} I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not
smell in your solemn assemblies. {5:22} 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. {5:23} Take thou away from me the noise
of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.
{5:24} But let judgment run down as waters, and
righteousness as a mighty stream. {5:25} Have ye offered
unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty
years, O house of Israel? {5:26} But ye have borne the
tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star
of your god, which ye made to yourselves. {5:27} Therefore
will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith
the LORD, whose name [is] The God of hosts.
{6:1} 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! {6:2} 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? {6:3} Ye that put far away the evil day, and
cause the seat of violence to come near; {6:4} That lie upon
beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches,
and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the
midst of the stall; {6:5} That chant to the sound of the viol,
[and] invent to themselves instruments of musick, like
David; {6:6} That drink wine in bowls, and anoint
themselves with the chief ointments: but they are not
grieved for the affliction of Joseph.
{6:7} Therefore now shall they go captive with the first
that go captive, and the banquet of them that stretched
themselves shall be removed. {6:8} The Lord GOD hath
sworn by himself, saith the LORD the God of hosts, I abhor
Page 531 Amos
the excellency of Jacob, and hate his palaces: therefore will
I deliver up the city with all that is therein. {6:9} And it
shall come to pass, if there remain ten men in one house,
that they shall die. {6:10} And a man’s uncle shall take him
up, and he that burneth him, to bring out the bones out of
the house, and shall say unto him that [is] by the sides of the
house, [Is there] yet [any] with thee? and he shall say, No.
Then shall he say, Hold thy tongue: for we may not make
mention of the name of the LORD. {6:11} For, behold, the
LORD commandeth, and he will smite the great house with
breaches, and the little house with clefts.
{6:12} Shall horses run upon the rock? will [one] plow
[there] with oxen? for ye have turned judgment into gall,
and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock: {6:13} Ye
which rejoice in a thing of nought, which say, Have we not
taken to us horns by our own strength? {6:14} But, behold,
I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, saith
the LORD the God of hosts; and they shall afflict you from
the entering in of Hemath unto the river of the wilderness.
{7:1} Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me; and,
behold, he formed grasshoppers in the beginning of the
shooting up of the latter growth; and, lo, [it was] the latter
growth after the king’s mowings. {7:2} And it came to pass,
[that] when they had made an end of eating the grass of the
land, then I said, O Lord GOD, forgive, I beseech thee: by
whom shall Jacob arise? for he [is] small. {7:3} The LORD
repented for this: It shall not be, saith the LORD.
{7:4} Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me: and,
behold, the Lord GOD called to contend by fire, and it
devoured the great deep, and did eat up a part. {7:5} Then
said I, O Lord GOD, cease, I beseech thee: by whom shall
Jacob arise? for he [is] small. {7:6} The LORD repented for
this: This also shall not be, saith the Lord GOD.
{7:7} Thus he shewed me: and, behold, the Lord stood
upon a wall [made] by a plumbline, with a plumbline in his
hand. {7:8} And the LORD said unto me, Amos, what seest
thou? And I said, A plumbline. Then said the Lord, Behold,
I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel: I will
not again pass by them any more: {7:9} And the high places
of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall
be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam
with the sword.
{7:10} Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to
Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired
against thee in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is
not able to bear all his words. {7:11} For thus Amos saith,
Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be
led away captive out of their own land. {7:12} Also
Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go, flee thee away
into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy
there: {7:13} But prophesy not again any more at Bethel:
for it [is] the king’s chapel, and it [is] the king’s court.
{7:14} Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I
[was] no prophet, neither [was] I a prophet’s son; but I
[was] an herdman, and a gatherer of sycomore fruit: {7:15}
And the LORD took me as I followed the flock, and the
LORD said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel.
{7:16} Now therefore hear thou the word of the LORD:
Thou sayest, Prophesy not against Israel, and drop not [thy
word] against the house of Isaac. {7:17} Therefore thus
saith the LORD; Thy wife shall be an harlot in the city, and
thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy
land shall be divided by line; and thou shalt die in a polluted
land: and Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his
land.
{8:1} Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me: and
behold a basket of summer fruit. {8:2} And he said, Amos,
what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then
said the LORD unto me, The end is come upon my people
of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more. {8:3} And
the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith
the Lord GOD: [there shall be] many dead bodies in every
place; they shall cast [them] forth with silence.
{8:4} Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to
make the poor of the land to fail, {8:5} Saying, When will
the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the
sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah
small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by
deceit? {8:6} That we may buy the poor for silver, and the
needy for a pair of shoes; [yea,] and sell the refuse of the
wheat? {8:7} The LORD hath sworn by the excellency of
Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works. {8:8}
Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that
dwelleth therein? and it shall rise up wholly as a flood; and
it shall be cast out and drowned, as [by] the flood of Egypt.
{8:9} And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord
GOD, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I
will darken the earth in the clear day: {8:10} 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.
{8:11} Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I
will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a
thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:
{8:12} And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the
north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the
word of the LORD, and shall not find [it. ]{8:13} In that
day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.
{8:14} They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy
god, O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beer-sheba liveth;
even they shall fall, and never rise up again.
{9:1} I saw the LORD standing upon the altar: and he
said, Smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake:
and cut them in the head, all of them; and I will slay the last
of them with the sword: he that fleeth of them shall not flee
away, and he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered.
{9:2} Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand
take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I
bring them down: {9:3} And though they hide themselves
in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence;
and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the
sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite
them: {9:4} And though they go into captivity before their
enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay
them: and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil, and not
for good. {9:5} And the Lord GOD of hosts [is] he that
toucheth the land, and it shall melt, and all that dwell
therein shall mourn: and it shall rise up wholly like a flood;
and shall be drowned, as [by] the flood of Egypt. {9:6} [It
is] he that buildeth his stories in the heaven, and hath
founded his troop in the earth; he that calleth for the waters
of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth:
The LORD [is] his name. {9:7} [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
Amos Page 532
Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians
from Kir? {9:8} 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. {9:9} For, lo, I will
command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all
nations, like as [corn] is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the
least grain fall upon the earth. {9:10} All the sinners of my
people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil shall not
overtake nor prevent us.
{9:11} In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David
that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will
raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:
{9:12} 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. {9:13} Behold, the days come, saith
the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and
the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the
mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.
{9:14} And I will bring again the captivity of my people of
Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit
[them;] and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine
thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of
them. {9:15} And I will plant them upon their land, and
they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I
have given them, saith the LORD thy God.