Bible (American Standard)/Amos

Amos
==Chapter 1==
 The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen 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. 
 And he said,
Jehovah 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. 
 Thus saith Jehovah: For three
transgressions of Damascus, yea, for four, I will not turn away
the punishment thereof; because they have threshed Gilead with
threshing instruments of iron: 
 but I will send a fire into
the house of Hazael, and it shall devour the palaces of
Ben-hadad. 
 And I will break the bar of Damascus, and cut
off the inhabitant from the valley 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 Jehovah. 
 Thus
saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Gaza, yea, for four,
I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they
carried away captive the whole people, to deliver them up to
Edom: 
 but I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, and it
shall devour the palaces thereof. 
 And I will cut off the
inhabitant from Ashdod, and him that holdeth the sceptre from
Ashkelon; and I will turn my hand against Ekron; and the remnant
of the Philistines shall perish, saith the Lord Jehovah. 
 Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Tyre, yea, for
four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they
delivered up the whole people to Edom, and remembered not the
brotherly covenant: 
 but I will send a fire on the wall of
Tyre, and it shall devour the palaces thereof. 
 Thus saith
Jehovah: For three transgressions of Edom, yea, 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: 
 but
I will send a fire upon Teman, and it shall devour the palaces
of Bozrah. 
 Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions
of the children of Ammon, yea, for four, I will not turn away
the punishment thereof; because they have ripped up the women
with child of Gilead, that they may enlarge their border. 
 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; 
 and their
king shall go into captivity, he and his princes together, saith
Jehovah.
==Chapter 2==
 Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Moab,
yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof;
because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime: 
 but I will send a fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the
palaces of Kerioth; and Moab shall die with tumult, with
shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet; 
 and I will
cut off the judge from the midst thereof, and will slay all the
princes thereof with him, saith Jehovah. 
 Thus saith
Jehovah: For three transgressions of Judah, yea, for four, I
will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have
rejected the law of Jehovah, and have not kept his statutes, and
their lies have caused them to err, after which their fathers
did walk: 
 but I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall
devour the palaces of Jerusalem. 
 Thus saith Jehovah: For
three transgressions of Israel, yea, for four, I will not turn
away the punishment thereof; because they have sold the
righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes- 
 they 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 go unto the [same] maiden, to profane my holy name: 
 and they lay themselves down beside every altar upon clothes
taken in pledge; and in the house of their God they drink the
wine of such as have been fined. 
 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. 
 Also I brought
you up out of the land of Egypt, and led you forty years in the
wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite. 
 And I
raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for
Nazirites. Is it not even thus, O ye children of Israel? saith
Jehovah. 
 But ye gave the Nazirites wine to drink, and
commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not. 
 Behold, I
will press [you] in your place, as a cart presseth that is full
of sheaves. 
 And flight shall perish from the swift; and
the strong shall not strengthen his force; neither shall the
mighty deliver himself; 
 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; 
 and he that is courageous among the mighty shall
flee away naked in that day, saith Jehovah.
==Chapter 3==
 Hear this word that Jehovah hath spoken against you, O
children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up
out of the land of Egypt, saying, 
 You only have I known of
all the families of the earth: therefore I will visit upon you
all your iniquities. 
 Shall two walk together, except they
have agreed? 
 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? 
 Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where
no gin is [set] for him? shall a snare spring up from the
ground, and have taken nothing at all? 
 Shall the trumpet
be blown in a city, and the people not be afraid? shall evil
befall a city, and Jehovah hath not done it? 
 Surely the
Lord Jehovah will do nothing, except he reveal his secret unto
his servants the prophets. 
 The lion hath roared; who will
not fear? The Lord Jehovah hath spoken; who can but prophesy?
 Publish ye 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 what great tumults are therein,
and what oppressions in the midst thereof. 
 For they know
not to do right, saith Jehovah, who store up violence and
robbery in their palaces. 
 Therefore, thus saith the Lord
Jehovah: An adversary [there shall be], even round about the
land; and he shall bring down thy strength from thee, and thy
palaces shall be plundered. 
 Thus saith Jehovah: As the
shepherd rescueth out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a
piece of an ear, so shall the children of Israel be rescued that
sit in Samaria in the corner of a couch, and on the silken
cushions of a bed. 
 Hear ye, and testify against the house
of Jacob, saith the Lord Jehovah, the God of hosts. 
 For
in the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel upon
him, I will also visit the altars of Beth-el; and the horns of
the altar shall be cut off, and fall to the ground. 
 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 Jehovah.
==Chapter 4==
 Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, that are in the
mountain of Samaria, that oppress the poor, that crush the
needy, that say unto their lords, Bring, and let us drink. 
 The Lord Jehovah hath sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the days
shall come upon you, that they shall take you away with hooks,
and your residue with fish-hooks. 
 And ye shall go out at
the breaches, every one straight before her; and ye shall cast
[yourselves] into Harmon, saith Jehovah. 
 Come to Beth-el,
and transgress; to Gilgal, [and] multiply transgression; and
bring your sacrifices every morning, [and] your tithes every
three days; 
 and offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that
which is leavened, and proclaim freewill-offerings and publish
them: for this pleaseth you, O ye children of Israel, saith the
Lord Jehovah. 
 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 Jehovah. 
 And I also
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.
 So two or three cities wandered unto one city to drink
water, and were not satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto me,
saith Jehovah. 
 I have smitten you with blasting and
mildew: the multitude of your gardens and your vineyards and
your fig-trees and your olive-trees hath the palmer-worm
devoured: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith Jehovah.
 I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of
Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, and have
carried away your horses; and I have made the stench of your
camp to come up even into your nostrils: yet have ye not
returned unto me, saith Jehovah. 
 I have overthrown
[cities] among you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,
and ye were as a brand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye
not returned unto me, saith Jehovah. 
 Therefore, thus will
I do unto thee, O Israel; [and] because I will do this unto
thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. 
 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-jehovah, the God of
hosts, is his name.
==Chapter 5==
 Hear ye this word which I take up for a lamentation
over you, O house of Israel. 
 The virgin of Israel is
fallen; she shall no more rise: she is cast down upon her land;
there is none to raise her up. 
 For thus saith the Lord
Jehovah: The city that went forth a thousand shall have a
hundred left, and that which went forth a hundred shall have ten
left, to the house of Israel. 
 For thus saith Jehovah unto
the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live; 
 but
seek not Beth-el, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to
Beer-sheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and
Beth-el shall come to nought. 
 Seek Jehovah, and ye shall
live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it
devour, and there be none to quench it in Beth-el. 
 Ye who
turn justice to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the
earth, 
 [seek him] that maketh the Pleiades 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 (Jehovah is his
name); 
 that bringeth sudden destruction upon the strong,
so that destruction cometh upon the fortress. 
 They hate
him that reproveth in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh
uprightly. 
 Forasmuch therefore as ye trample upon the
poor, and take exactions from him 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 the wine thereof.
 For I know how manifold are your transgressions, and how
mighty are your sins-ye that afflict the just, that take a
bribe, and that turn aside the needy in the gate [from their
right]. 
 Therefore, he that is prudent shall keep silence
in such a time; for it is an evil time. 
 Seek good, and
not evil, that ye may live; and so Jehovah, the God of hosts,
will be with you, as ye say. 
 Hate the evil, and love the
good, and establish justice in the gate: it may be that Jehovah,
the God of hosts, will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.
 Therefore, thus saith Jehovah, the God of hosts, the Lord:
Wailing shall be in all the broad ways; and they shall say in
all the streets, Alas! Alas! and they shall call the husbandman
to mourning, and such as are skilful in lamentation to wailing.
 And in all vineyards shall be wailing; for I will pass
through the midst of thee, saith Jehovah. 
 Woe unto you
that desire the day of Jehovah! Wherefore would ye have the day
of Jehovah? It is darkness, and not light. 
 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. 
 Shall not the day of Jehovah be darkness, and not light? even
very dark, and no brightness in it? 
 I hate, I despise
your feasts, and I will take no delight in your solemn
assemblies. 
 Yea, though ye offer me your burnt-offerings
and meal-offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I
regard the peace-offerings of your fat beasts. 
 Take thou
away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the
melody of thy viols. 
 But let justice roll down as waters,
and righteousness as a mighty stream. 
 Did ye bring unto
me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O
house of Israel? 
 Yea, ye have borne the tabernacle of
your king and the shrine of your images, the star of your god,
which ye made to yourselves. 
 Therefore, will I cause you
to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith Jehovah, whose name
is the God of hosts.
==Chapter 6==
 Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and to them that
are secure in the mountain of Samaria, the notable men of the
chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel come! 
 Pass ye unto Calneh, and see; and from thence go ye to Hamath
the great; then go down to Gath of the Philistines: are they
better than these kingdoms? or is their border greater than your
border? 
 -ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the
seat of violence to come near; 
 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; 
 that sing idle songs to the sound of the viol; that
invent for themselves instruments of music, like David; 
 that drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief
oils; but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.
 Therefore, shall they now go captive with the first that go
captive; and the revelry of them that stretched themselves shall
pass away. 
 The Lord Jehovah hath sworn by himself, saith
Jehovah, the God of hosts: I abhor the excellency of Jacob, and
hate his palaces; therefore will I deliver up the city with all
that is therein. 
 And it shall come to pass, if there
remain ten men in one house, that they shall die. 
 And
when a man's uncle shall take him up, even he that burneth him,
to bring out the bones out of the house, and shall say unto him
that is in the innermost parts of the house, Is there yet any
with thee? and he shall say, No; then shall he say, Hold thy
peace; for we may not make mention of the name of Jehovah.
 For, behold, Jehovah commandeth, and the great house
shall be smitten with breaches, and the little house with
clefts. 
 Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plow
[there] with oxen? that ye have turned justice into gall, and
the fruit of righteousness into wormwood; 
 ye that rejoice
in a thing of nought, that say, Have we not taken to us horns by
our own strength? 
 For, behold, I will raise up against
you a nation, O house of Israel, saith Jehovah, the God of
hosts; and they shall afflict you from the entrance of Hamath
unto the brook of the Arabah.
==Chapter 7==
 Thus the Lord Jehovah showed me: and, behold, he formed
locusts in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter
growth; and, lo, it was the latter growth after the king's
mowings. 
 And it came to pass that, when they made an end
of eating the grass of the land, then I said, O Lord Jehovah,
forgive, I beseech thee: how shall Jacob stand? for he is small.
 Jehovah repented concerning this: It shall not be, saith
Jehovah. 
 Thus the Lord Jehovah showed me: and, behold, the
Lord Jehovah called to content by fire; and it devoured the
great deep, and would have eaten up the land. 
 Then said I,
O Lord Jehovah, cease, I beseech thee: how shall Jacob stand?
for he is small. 
 Jehovah repented concerning this: this
also shall not be, saith the Lord Jehovah. 
 Thus he showed
me: and, behold, the Lord stood beside a wall made by a
plumb-line, with a plumb-line in his hand. 
 And Jehovah
said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumb-line.
Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumb-line in the midst
of my people Israel; I will not again pass by them any more;
 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. 
 Then
Amaziah the priest of Beth-el 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.
 For thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and
Israel shall surely be led away captive out of his land. 
 Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go, flee thou away
into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there:
 but prophesy not again any more at Beth-el; for it is the
king's sanctuary, and it is a royal house. 
 Then answered
Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a
prophet's son; but I was a herdsman, and a dresser of
sycomore-trees: 
 and Jehovah took me from following the
flock, and Jehovah said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people
Israel. 
 Now therefore hear thou the word of Jehovah: Thou
sayest, Prophesy not against Israel, and drop not [thy word]
against the house of Isaac; 
 therefore thus saith Jehovah:
Thy wife shall be a 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 thyself shalt die in a land that is unclean,
and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of his land.
==Chapter 8==
 Thus the Lord Jehovah showed me: and, behold, a basket
of summer fruit. 
 And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I
said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said Jehovah unto me, The
end is come upon my people Israel; I will not again pass by them
any more. 
 And the songs of the temple shall be wailings in
that day, saith the Lord Jehovah: the dead bodies shall be many:
in every place shall they cast them forth with silence. 
 Hear this, O ye that would swallow up the needy, and cause the
poor of the land to fail, 
 saying, When will the new moon
be gone, that we may sell grain? and the sabbath, that we may
set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great,
and dealing falsely with balances of deceit; 
 that we may
buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes, and
sell the refuse of the wheat? 
 Jehovah hath sworn by the
excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their
works. 
 Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one
mourn that dwelleth therein? yea, it shall rise up wholly like
the River; and it shall be troubled and sink again, like the
River of Egypt. 
 And it shall come to pass in that day,
saith the Lord Jehovah, that I will cause the sun to go down at
noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day. 
 And I
will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into
lamentation; and I will bring sackcloth upon all loins, and
baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning for
an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day. 
 Behold,
the days come, saith the Lord Jehovah, 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 Jehovah. 
 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 Jehovah, and shall not find
it. 
 In that day shall the fair virgins and the young men
faint for thirst. 
 They that swear by the sin of Samaria,
and say, As thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, As the way of
Beer-sheba liveth; they shall fall, and never rise up again.
==Chapter 9==
 I saw the Lord standing beside the altar: and he said,
Smite the capitals, that the thresholds may shake; and break
them in pieces on the head of all of them; and I will slay the
last of them with the sword: there shall not one of them flee
away, and there shall not one of them escape. 
 Though they
dig into Sheol, thence shall my hand take them; and though they
climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down. 
 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
it shall bite them. 
 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. 
 For the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, [is] he
that toucheth the land and it melteth, and all that dwell
therein shall mourn; and it shall rise up wholly like the River,
and shall sink again, like the River of Egypt; 
 [it is] he
that buildeth his chambers in the heavens, and hath founded his
vault upon the earth; he that calleth for the waters of the sea,
and poureth them out upon the face of the earth; Jehovah is his
name. 
 Are ye not as the children of the Ethiopians unto
me, O children of Israel? saith Jehovah. Have not I brought up
Israel out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from
Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir? 
 Behold, the eyes of the
Lord Jehovah are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it
from off the face of the earth; save that I will not utterly
destroy the house of Jacob, saith Jehovah. 
 For, lo, I will
command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all the
nations, like as [grain] is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the
least kernel fall upon the earth. 
 All the sinners of my
people shall die by the sword, who say, The evil shall not
overtake nor meet us. 
 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 its ruins, and I will build it as
in the days of old; 
 that they may possess the remnant of
Edom, and all the nations that are called by my name, saith
Jehovah that doeth this. 
 Behold, the days come, saith
Jehovah, 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. 
 And I will
bring back the captivity of my people 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. 
 And I will plant them
upon their land, and they shall no more be plucked up out of
their land which I have given them, saith Jehovah thy God.