Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
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Amos
Amos 1
¶1. The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of Tekoah, which he prophesied about Israel in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam ben-Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.
2. And he said, “Jehovah will roar from Zion, and he will send forth his voice from Jerusalem. And the shepherds’ pastures will mourn, and the top of Carmel will wither.
¶3.“Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn it away because they threshed Gilead with sharp, iron tools.
4.I will cast fire on the house of Hazael, and it will devour the citadels of Ben-Hadad.
5.I will break the bar of Damascus, and I will cut off the inhabitant of the Valley of Aven and he who holds the scepter of the house of Beth-Eden. And the people of Syria will go into exile to Kir, says the Lord.
¶6.“Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not turn it away because they deported as exiles an entire population, to turn them over to Edom.
7.I will cast fire on the wall of Gaza, and it will devour her citadels.
8.And I will cut off the inhabitant of Ashdod and he who holds the scepter of Ashkelon. And then I will turn my hand against Ekron. And the remnant of the Philistines will perish, says my Lord, Jehovah.
¶9.“Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Tyre, and for four, I will not turn it away because they delivered an entire population as exiles to Edom, and they did not remember the brotherly covenant.
10.Therefore will I cast fire on the wall of Tyre, and it will devour her citadels.
¶11.“Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not turn it away because he pursued his brother with the sword and stifled his compassion. His anger tore continually, and as for his wrath, he kept it forever.
12.Therefore will I cast fire on Teman, and it will devour the citadels of Bozrah.
¶13.“Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Ammon, and for four, I will not turn it away because they ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead in order to enlarge their border.
14.Therefore will I kindle a fire on the wall of Rabbah, and it will devour her citadels amid shouting in the day of battle, with a tempest in the day of the windstorm.
15.And their king will go into exile, he and his princes together, says the Lord.
Amos 2
¶1.“Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not turn it away because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime.
2.Therefore will I cast fire on Moab, and it will consume the citadels of Kerioth. And Moab will perish amid tumult, with shouting and with the sound of a shofar.
3.I will cut off the judge from her midst and kill all her princes with him, says the Lord.
¶4.“Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn it away because they rejected the law of Jehovah and did not keep His statutes. And their lies, after which their fathers walked, led them astray.
5.Therefore will I cast fire on Judah, and it will consume the citadels of Jerusalem.
¶6.“Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn it away because they sell the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of sandals.
7.They pant after the dust of the earth that is on the head of the oppressed, and they cast aside the way of the poor. And a man and his father will go in to the same young woman in order to pollute my holy name.
8.And they stretch out beside every altar on garments taken in pledge, and they drink in the house of their God the wine of those who are mulcted.
9.Yet, I am the one who destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was as the height of the cedars. He was strong as the oaks, but I destroyed his fruit above and his roots beneath.
10.And I am the one who brought you up from the land of Egypt, and I led you in the wilderness forty years, to inherit the land of the Amorite.
11.I raised up your sons for prophets and your young men for Nazirites. Is it not so, O children of Israel? says the Lord.
12.But you made the Nazirites drink wine, and you commanded the prophets, ‘Do not prophesy!’
13.Behold, I am weighed down with you, as a loaded cart is weighed down with sheaves.
14.Flight will perish from the swift; the strong will not retain his power; the mighty will not save his life.
15.He who handles the bow will not stand, he who is swift of foot will not save himself, the horseman will not save his life,
16.and the stout of heart among the mighty will flee away naked in that day, says the Lord.”
Amos 3
¶1. Hear this word which Jehovah has spoken about you, O children of Israel, about the whole family that I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying,
2.“Of all the families of the earth, I have known only you. Therefore, I will visit all your iniquities upon you.”
3. Can two walk together without agreeing to meet?
4. Will a lion roar in the forest when there is no prey for him? Will a young lion cry out from his den if he has not caught prey?
5. Will a bird be caught in a snare on the ground when there is no bait for it? Will a man take up a snare from the ground when he has caught nothing at all?
6. If a shofar is blown in a city, won’t people tremble? If calamity is in a city, did Jehovah not do it?
7. Surely, the Lord God will do nothing except He reveal His secret to His servants, the prophets.
8. A lion has roared! Who will not be afraid? The Lord God has spoken! Who will not prophesy?
9. You shall cause it to be heard in the citadels in Ashdod and in the citadels in the land of Egypt and say, “Assemble on the mountains of Samaria, and watch the great tumults in it and the wrongs in its midst.
10.They do not know to do right, says the Lord, who store up violence and devastation in their citadels.
11.Therefore, thus says my Lord Jehovah: An adversary shall surround the land! And he will bring down your stronghold from you, and your citadels will be plundered.
12.Thus says the Lord: As the shepherd snatches two legs or a piece of an ear from the mouth of a lion, so the children of Israel will be snatched, who are sitting on the edge of a couch in Samaria and on a divan in Damascus.
13.Hear! And bear witness against the house of Jacob, says my Lord Jehovah, the God of Hosts,
14.for in the day that I visit the transgressions of Israel upon him, I will also visit them upon the altars of Bethel. And the horns of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground.
15.I will also strike the winter house along with the summer house, and the ivory houses will perish. Many houses will be swept away, says the Lord.”
Amos 4
¶1. Heed the word, O cows of Bashan who are in the hill of Samaria, women who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to their husbands, “Bring, that we may drink!”
2. The Lord God has sworn by His holiness, “Behold, the days are coming upon you when He will carry you off with hooks, and your posterity with fish-hooks.
3.You will go out at the breaches, each in front of the other. And you will be driven toward Harmon[1], says the Lord.
4.Come to Bethel and transgress! At Gilgal, multiply transgression, and bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three years,
5.so that you might offer the thanksgiving sacrifice with leaven! And cry aloud and advertise your freewill offerings! For this is what you love, O children of Israel, says the Lord God.
6.And yet, I am the One who gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, even a lack of food in all your places. But you did not return to me, says the Lord.
7.And yet, I am the One who held back the rain from you while there were yet three months before the harvest. I sent rain on one city and did not send it on another city; one portion was rained upon, and the portion that it did not rain on withered.
8.So, two or three cities went staggering to another city to drink water, yet they were not satisfied. But you did not return to me, says the Lord.
9.I scourged you with blight and mildew. When your gardens, and your vineyards, and your fig trees, and your olive trees increased, the cutting locust devoured them. But you did not return to me, says the Lord.
10.I sent a pestilence upon you after the manner of Egypt. I killed your young men with the sword and took your horses captive. I made the stench of your camps rise up, even into your nostrils. But you did not return to me, says the Lord.
11.I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. You were like a brand plucked from the fire. Still, you did not return to me, says the Lord.
12.Therefore, thus will I do to you, O Israel, and because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!
13.For behold, He who forms mountains, and creates the wind, and makes known to man what his thought is, who makes dawn out of darkness and treads on the high places of the earth – Jehovah, the God of Hosts, is His name.”
Amos 5
¶1. Hear this saying that I take up against you, a dirge for the house of Israel:
2.“The virgin Israel has fallen. She will not rise again. She is forsaken. There is no one in her land to raise her up.
3.For thus says the Lord God: The city that goes out by a thousand will have a hundred left, and the city that goes out by a hundred will have ten left to the house of Israel.”
¶4. This, then, is what Jehovah says to the house of Israel: “Seek me and live!
5.Do not seek Bethel, or enter Gilgal, or cross over to Beersheba, for Gilgal will surely go into exile, and Bethel will come to nothing.”
6. Seek Jehovah and live, lest He rush like fire upon the house of Joseph, and it consume, and there is no one in Bethel to extinguish it.
7. O you who turn judgment into wormwood and cast righteousness down to the ground,
8.He is the One who made Pleiades and Orion, and turns the shadow of death into morning, and makes the day dark with night, and summons the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the surface of the earth. Jehovah is His name!
¶9. He who makes devastation to burst upon the mighty, so that devastation comes upon a fortress.
10. They hate him who rebukes at the gate, and they abhor him who speaks uprightly.
11. Therefore, because you trample on the poor and take a portion of his grain, you will not live in the houses of hewn stone that you have built, and you will not drink wine from the pleasant vineyards you have planted.
12. For I know your many transgressions and your countless sins, you who vex the righteous man by taking a bribe and push aside needy people at the gate.
13. That is why the prudent man stays quiet in such a time, for the time is evil.
14. Seek good and not evil so that you may live! And then Jehovah, the God of Hosts, will be with you, the way you claim.
15. Hate evil, and love good! Establish justice at the gate! It may be that Jehovah, the God of Hosts, will show favor to the remnant of Joseph.
¶16. Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of Hosts, my Lord: “Wailing shall be in all the squares, and in all the streets, they will say, ‘Woe, Woe!’ They will even call the plowman to mourning and wailing, like those skilled in lamentation,
17.and wailing will be in every vineyard, for I will pass through your midst, says the Lord.
18.Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! Why should you want the day of the Lord? It will be darkness and not light.
19.It will be like a man who escapes from a lion, and a bear meets him, or he enters the house, lays his hand on the wall, and a serpent bites him.
20.Is not the day of the Lord darkness and not light, and gloom with no brightness in it?
21.I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no pleasure in your sacred Assemblies.
22.For though you offer burnt offerings and your gift offerings to me, I will not accept them. And the peace offering of your fatlings, I will not regard.
23.Take from me the noise of your songs and the melody of your harps! I will not listen!
24.Let justice roll down like water, and righteousness, like an ever-flowing stream!
25.Did you bring the sacrifices and gift-offerings to me in the wilderness for forty years, O house of Israel?
26.You carried Sikkuth your king and Chiun, your images, the star of your gods[2] that you made for yourselves.
27.So, I will carry you into exile beyond Damascus, says the Lord, whose name is the God of Hosts.”
Amos 6
¶1. Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and those who trust in the hill of Samaria – the notable of the highest of the nations, to whom the house of Israel goes.
2. Pass through Calneh, and see. Go from there to Hamath Rabbah, and go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are you better than these kingdoms? Or is their territory greater than your territory?
3. You who put far off the evil day and bring near the seat of violence,
4.who lie on ivory couches, relaxed upon their divans, eating rams from the flock and calves of the stall,
5.who chant to the sound of the harp like David (they invent musical instruments for themselves),
6.who drink bowls of wine and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved for the ruin of Joseph!
7. Therefore, they will now go into exile with the first exiles, and He will refuse the cry of those who are at ease.
¶8. “The Lord God has sworn by His life,” says the Lord, the God of Hosts, ‘I abhor the pride of Jacob and hate his citadels, and I will deliver up the city and its fullness.’”
9. And it will come to pass that if ten men remain in one house, they will die.
10.And his kinsman will take him up, with the one burning incense for him, to carry his bones from the house. And he will say to someone in the innermost parts of the house, “Are any still with you?” And that one will say, “None.” And he will say, “Hush!” (So as not to bring the name of the Lord to remembrance.)
11. For behold, Jehovah is giving commandment, and He will beat the great house into fragments and the little house into pieces.
12. Do horses run on a crag, or does one plow there with oxen? But you turn judgment into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood,
13.you who rejoice at Lo-debar,[3] who say, “Was it not by our own strength that we captured Karnaim?”
14. “Behold, I am raising up a nation against you, O house of Israel,” says the Lord, the God of Hosts. “ They will oppress you from the entrance of Hamath unto the valley of Arbah.”
Amos 7
¶1. Thus the Lord God has shown me, and behold, He was forming a swarm of locusts when the after-growth was beginning to sprout, that is, the growth after the king’s mowings.
2. And it came to pass when it finished eating the vegetation of the land, I said, “My Lord Jehovah! Forgive, please! How will Jacob survive? For he is small.”
3. Jehovah relented concerning this. “It shall not be,” said the Lord.
¶4. Thus the Lord God has shown me, and behold, the Lord God called for a judgment by fire, and it consumed the great deep and was consuming the land.
5. And I said, “My Lord Jehovah! Stop, I pray! How will Jacob survive? For he is small.”
6. Jehovah relented concerning this. “This also shall not be,” said the Lord God.
¶7. Thus He has shown me, and behold, my Lord was standing upon a wall with a plumb-line, and the plumb-line was in His hand.
8. And Jehovah said to me, “What do you see, Amos?” I said, “A plumb-line.” Then my Lord said, “Behold, I am setting a plumb-line in the midst of my people, Israel. I will not hold back from passing over him anymore.
9.Isaac’s high places will be desolate, Israel’s sacred places will be waste, and I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”
¶10. Then Amaziah, priest of Bethel, sent to Jeroboam, king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to endure all his words!
11.For thus Amos has said: ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will surely go into exile from his land.’ ”
12. And Amaziah said to Amos, “You Seer! Go! Flee to the land of Judah! Eat bread and prophesy there!
13.But never again prophesy in Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is the temple of the kingdom.”
14. Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, “I was no prophet, nor was I a prophet’s son, but I was a herdsman and a gatherer of sycamore fruit.
15.But Jehovah took me from following the flock, and Jehovah said to me, ‘Go prophesy to my people, Israel!’
16.So, hear now the word of the Lord! You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not drop a word against the house of Isaac.’
17.Therefore, thus says the Lord: Your wife will be a harlot in the city, and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword. Your land will be divided into lots, and you will die in an unclean land, and Israel will surely go into exile from his land!”
Amos 8
¶1. Thus the Lord God showed me: there was a basket of summer fruit.
2. And He said, “What do you see, Amos?” I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then Jehovah said to me, “The end[4] has come for my people Israel. I will no longer hold back from passing over him.
3.They will wail temple-songs in that day, says the Lord God.” He will cast down many dead bodies everywhere. Hush!
¶4. Hear this! You who crush the needy man and destroy the poor man of the land,
5.saying, “When will the new moon pass, so that we can sell grain? And the Sabbath, so that we can uncover the grain, making an ephah little and a shekel big, cheating with deceitful scales,
6.so that we might buy destitute men with silver and the needy man for a pair of sandals, and sell the refuse of grain?”
7. Jehovah has sworn by the pride of Jacob, “I will damn myself if I ever forget any of their deeds!”[5]
8. Will the land not tremble and everyone who dwells in it mourn because of this? All of it will rise like the Nile, be tossed about, and fall like the Nile of Egypt.
¶9. “And it will come to pass in that day, says my Lord Jehovah, that I will make the sun go down at noon, and I will make the earth dark when it should be light.
10.I will turn your feasts into mourning and all of your songs into a dirge. I will make sackcloth be on all loins, and baldness on every head. I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and its end will be a day of bitterness.
11.Behold, the days are coming, says my Lord Jehovah, that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.
12.They will stagger from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east. Men will desperately go about, seeking the word of the Lord, but they will not find it.
13.In that day, the beautiful virgins and the young men will faint because of this thirst.
14.They will fall and not rise again who swear by the shame of Samaria and say, ‘Your god, O Dan, is alive!’ and, ‘The manner of Beersheba lives!’ ”
Amos 9
¶1. I saw my Lord standing over the altar, and he said, “Strike the lintel[6] and make the thresholds shake; break them down on the chief of them all, and the rest of them will I slay with the sword. Whoever among them flees will not escape, and whoever among them escapes will not get away.
2.Though they dig into Sheol, there my hand will take hold of them, and though they ascend into heaven, from there will I bring them down.
3.And though they hide themselves on Carmel’s summit, I will search and take them from there, and though they hide themselves from me at the bottom of the sea, I will command the serpent, and there will he bite them.
4.And though they go into captivity before their enemies, I will command the sword, and there will it slay them. I will set my eye upon them for evil, not for good.”
5. My Lord, the Lord of the Hosts, is the One who will touch the earth, and it will melt, and all of its inhabitants will mourn. Yea, all of it will rise up like the Nile and subside like the Nile of Egypt.
6. It is He who built His levels in the heavens and fixed His vault over the earth. It is He who summons the waters of the sea and pours them upon the surface of the earth. Jehovah is His name!
7. “Are you not as the children of the Cushites to me, O sons of Israel? says the Lord. Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrian from Kir?
8.Behold! The eyes of the Lord God are on the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth; however, I will not completely destroy the house of Jacob, says the Lord.
9.For, behold, I am giving commandment, and I will sift the house of Israel among all the nations as if sifted in a sieve; yet, not a kernel[7] will fall to the ground.
10.The sinners of my people, those who say, ‘Evil will not come near or overtake us,’ will all die by the sword.
11.In that day, I will raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and I will close up its breaches, and I will raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in days of old,
12.so that those who are called by my name might inherit the remnant of Edom and all the nations, says the Lord, who is doing this.
¶13. “Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when the plowman will overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes, the sower of the seed, and the mountains will drip sweet wine, and all the hills will flow with it.
14.And I will return the captivity of my people Israel, and they will rebuild and inhabit cities that were laid waste, and they will plant vineyards and drink their wine, and plant gardens and eat their fruit.
15.And I will plant them in their land, and they will never be uprooted again from their land that I gave them, says the Lord your God.”
Footnotes
[1] Hebrew meaning uncertain.
[2] Hebrew uncertain.
[3] Or, “rejoice for nothing.”
[4] There is a play on words here that does not translate into English. The Hebrew word for “summer fruit” sounds much like the Hebrew word for “end”.
[5] Literally, only “–– if I ever forget any of their deeds!” The first part of the curse is so unthinkable – God’s death and damnation – that it is not even uttered.
[6] Hebrew uncertain.
[7] Literally, a pebble.