8:1 This is what the Sovereign LORD showed me: a basket of ripe fruit.
8:2 “What do you see, Amos?” he asked. “A basket of ripe fruit,” I answered. Then the LORD said to me, “The time is ripe for my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.
8:3 “In that day,” declares the Sovereign LORD, “the songs in the temple will turn to wailing. Many, many bodies–flung everywhere! Silence!”
8:4 Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land,
8:5 saying, “When will the New Moon be over that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat?”–skimping the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales,
8:6 buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the sweepings with the wheat.
8:7 The LORD has sworn by the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget anything they have done.
8:8 “Will not the land tremble for this, and all who live in it mourn? The whole land will rise like the Nile; it will be stirred up and then sink like the river of Egypt.
8:9 “In that day,” declares the Sovereign LORD, “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight.
8:10 I will turn your religious feasts into mourning and all your singing into weeping. I will make all of you wear sackcloth and shave your heads. I will make that time like mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day.
8:11 “The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign LORD, “when I will send a famine through the land–not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.
8:12 Men will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the LORD, but they will not find it.
8:13 “In that day “the lovely young women and strong young men will faint because of thirst.
8:14 They who swear by the shame of Samaria, or say, ‘As surely as your god lives, O Dan,’ or, ‘As surely as the god of Beersheba lives’–they will fall, never to rise again.”
8:1 Thus the Lord Jehovah showed me, and there was a basket of summer fruit.
8:2 And He said, What do you see, Amos? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then Jehovah said to me, The end has come upon My people Israel; / I will not pass them by anymore.
8:3 And the songs of the temple will be wailings / In that day, declares the Lord Jehovah. / The corpses will be many; / In every place / They will cast them. Hush!
8:4 Hear this, you who pant after the needy / To destroy the wretched of the earth,
8:5 Saying, When will the new moon be over, that we may sell grain? / And the Sabbath, that we may lay open the wheat? / In order to make the ephah small and the shekel large / And to falsify the balances for deceit;
8:6 That we may buy the poor for silver / And the needy for a pair of sandals, / And sell the refuse of the wheat.
8:7 Jehovah has sworn by the excellency of Jacob, / I shall by no means forget any of their deeds forever.
8:8 Will the land not quake because of this, / And will all who dwell in it not mourn? / Indeed all of it will rise up like the River, / And it will be driven and will sink like the river of Egypt.
8:9 And in that day, / Declares the Lord Jehovah, / I will cause the sun to go down at noon, / And I will darken the land in the light of 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 the loins / And baldness upon every head; / And I will make it like the mourning for an only child / And the end of it like a bitter day.
8:11 Indeed days are coming, / Declares the Lord Jehovah, / When I will send a hunger into the land, / Not a hunger for bread / Nor a thirst for water, / But for hearing the words of Jehovah.
8:12 And they will totter from sea to sea, / And from the north even to the east; / They will rove about, seeking the word of Jehovah, / But they will not find it.
8:13 In that day the beautiful virgins and the young men / Will swoon because of thirst.
8:14 They who swear by the trespass of Samaria / And say, As your god lives, O Dan! / And, As the way of Beer-sheba lives! / Indeed they will fall and not rise up again.