¹The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds1 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 years2 before the earthquake.

Judgment on Israel's Neighbors

²And he said:

“The Lord roars from Zion

and utters his voice from Jerusalem;

the pastures of the shepherds mourn,

and the top of Carmel withers.”

³Thus says the Lord:

“For three transgressions of Damascus,

and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,3

because they have threshed Gilead

with threshing sledges of iron.

⁴So I will send a fire upon the house of Hazael,

and it shall devour the strongholds of Ben-hadad.

⁵I will break the gate-bar of Damascus,

and cut off the inhabitants from the Valley of Aven,4

and him who holds the scepter from Beth-eden;

and the people of Syria shall go into exile to Kir,”

says the Lord.

⁶Thus says the Lord:

“For three transgressions of Gaza,

and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,

because they carried into exile a whole people

to deliver them up to Edom.

⁷So I will send a fire upon the wall of Gaza,

and it shall devour her strongholds.

⁸I will cut off the inhabitants from Ashdod,

and him who holds the scepter from Ashkelon;

I will turn my hand against Ekron,

and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish,”

says the Lord God.

⁹Thus says the Lord:

“For three transgressions of Tyre,

and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,

because they delivered up a whole people to Edom,

and did not remember the covenant of brotherhood.

¹⁰So I will send a fire upon the wall of Tyre,

and it shall devour her strongholds.”

¹¹Thus says the Lord:

“For three transgressions of Edom,

and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,

because he pursued his brother with the sword

and cast off all pity,

and his anger tore perpetually,

and he kept his wrath forever.

¹²So I will send a fire upon Teman,

and it shall devour the strongholds of Bozrah.”

¹³Thus says the Lord:

“For three transgressions of the Ammonites,

and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,

because they have ripped open pregnant women in Gilead,

that they might enlarge their border.

¹⁴So I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah,

and it shall devour her strongholds,

with shouting on the day of battle,

with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind;

¹⁵and their king shall go into exile,

he and his princes5 together,”

says the Lord.

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¹Thus says the Lord:

“For three transgressions of Moab,

and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,1

because he burned to lime

the bones of the king of Edom.

²So I will send a fire upon Moab,

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,

and will kill all its princes2 with him,”

says the Lord.

Judgment on Judah

⁴Thus says the Lord:

“For three transgressions of Judah,

and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,

because they have rejected the law of the Lord,

and have not kept his statutes,

but their lies have led them astray,

those after which their fathers walked.

⁵So I will send a fire upon Judah,

and it shall devour the strongholds of Jerusalem.”

Judgment on Israel

⁶Thus says the Lord:

“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—

⁷those who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth

and turn aside the way of the afflicted;

a man and his father go in to the same girl,

so that my holy name is profaned;

⁸they lay themselves down beside every altar

on garments taken in pledge,

and in the house of their God they drink

the wine of those who have been fined.

⁹“Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them,

whose height was like the height of the cedars

and who was as strong as the oaks;

I destroyed his fruit above

and his roots beneath.

¹⁰Also it was I who brought you up out of the land of Egypt

and led you forty years in the wilderness,

to possess the land of the Amorite.

¹¹And I raised up some of your sons for prophets,

and some of your young men for Nazirites.

Is it not indeed so, O people of Israel?”

declares the Lord.

¹²“But you made the Nazirites drink wine,

and commanded the prophets,

saying, ‘You shall not prophesy.’

¹³“Behold, I will press you down in your place,

as a cart full of sheaves presses down.

¹⁴Flight shall perish from the swift,

and the strong shall not retain his strength,

nor shall the mighty save his life;

¹⁵he who handles the bow shall not stand,

and he who is swift of foot shall not save himself,

nor shall he who rides the horse save his life;

¹⁶and he who is stout of heart among the mighty

shall flee away naked in that day,”

declares the Lord.

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Israel's Guilt and Punishment

¹Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt:

²“You only have I known

of all the families of the earth;

therefore I will punish you

for all your iniquities.

³“Do two walk together,

unless they have agreed to meet?

⁴Does a lion roar in the forest,

when he has no prey?

Does a young lion cry out from his den,

if he has taken nothing?

⁵Does a bird fall in a snare on the earth,

when there is no trap for it?

Does a snare spring up from the ground,

when it has taken nothing?

⁶Is a trumpet blown in a city,

and the people are not afraid?

Does disaster come to a city,

unless the Lord has done it?

⁷“For the Lord God does nothing

without revealing his secret

to his servants the prophets.

⁸The lion has roared;

who will not fear?

The Lord God has spoken;

who can but prophesy?”

⁹Proclaim to the strongholds in Ashdod

and to the strongholds in the land of Egypt,

and say, “Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria,

and see the great tumults within her,

and the oppressed in her midst.”

¹⁰“They do not know how to do right,” declares the Lord,

“those who store up violence and robbery in their strongholds.”

¹¹Therefore thus says the Lord God:

“An adversary shall surround the land

and bring down1 your defenses from you,

and your strongholds shall be plundered.”

¹²Thus says the Lord: “As the shepherd rescues from the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so shall the people of Israel who dwell in Samaria be rescued, with the corner of a couch and part2 of a bed.

¹³“Hear, and testify against the house of Jacob,”

declares the Lord God, the God of hosts,

¹⁴“that on the day I punish Israel for his transgressions,

I will punish the altars of Bethel,

and the horns of the altar shall be cut off

and fall to the ground.

¹⁵I will strike the winter house along with the summer house,

and the houses of ivory shall perish,

and the great houses3 shall come to an end,”

declares the Lord.

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¹“Hear this word, you cows of Bashan,

who are on the mountain of Samaria,

who oppress the poor, who crush the needy,

who say to your husbands, ‘Bring, that we may drink!’

²The Lord God has sworn by his holiness

that, behold, the days are coming upon you,

when they shall take you away with hooks,

even the last of you with fishhooks.

³And you shall go out through the breaches,

each one straight ahead;

and you shall be cast out into Harmon,”

declares the Lord.

⁴“Come to Bethel, and transgress;

to Gilgal, and multiply transgression;

bring your sacrifices every morning,

your tithes every three days;

⁵offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened,

and proclaim freewill offerings, publish them;

for so you love to do, O people of Israel!”

declares the Lord God.

Israel Has Not Returned to the Lord

⁶“I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities,

and lack of bread in all your places,

yet you did not return to me,”

declares the Lord.

⁷“I also withheld the rain from you

when there were yet three months to the harvest;

I would send rain on one city,

and send no rain on another city;

one field would have rain,

and the field on which it did not rain would wither;

⁸so two or three cities would wander to another city

to drink water, and would not be satisfied;

yet you did not return to me,”

declares the Lord.

⁹“I struck you with blight and mildew;

your many gardens and your vineyards,

your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured;

yet you did not return to me,”

declares the Lord.

¹⁰“I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt;

I killed your young men with the sword,

and carried away your horses,1

and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils;

yet you did not return to me,”

declares the Lord.

¹¹“I overthrew some of you,

as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,

and you were as a brand2 plucked out of the burning;

yet you did not return to me,”

declares the Lord.

¹²“Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel;

because I will do this to you,

prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”

¹³For behold, he who forms the mountains and creates the wind,

and declares to man what is his thought,

who makes the morning darkness,

and treads on the heights of the earth—

the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name!

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Seek the Lord and Live

¹Hear this word that I take up over you in lamentation, O house of Israel:

²“Fallen, no more to rise,

is the virgin Israel;

forsaken on her land,

with none to raise her up.”

³For thus says the Lord God:

“The city that went out a thousand

shall have a hundred left,

and that which went out a hundred

shall have ten left

to the house of Israel.”

⁴For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel:

“Seek me and live;

⁵but do not seek Bethel,

and do not enter into Gilgal

or cross over to Beersheba;

for Gilgal shall surely go into exile,

and Bethel shall come to nothing.”

⁶Seek the Lord and live,

lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph,

and it devour, with none to quench it for Bethel,

⁷O you who turn justice to wormwood1

and cast down righteousness to the earth!

⁸He who made the Pleiades and Orion,

and turns deep darkness into the morning

and darkens the day into night,

who calls for the waters of the sea

and pours them out on the surface of the earth,

the Lord is his name;

⁹who makes destruction flash forth against the strong,

so that destruction comes upon the fortress.

¹⁰They hate him who reproves in the gate,

and they abhor him who speaks the truth.

¹¹Therefore because you trample on2 the poor

and you exact taxes of grain from him,

you have built houses of hewn stone,

but you shall not dwell in them;

you have planted pleasant vineyards,

but you shall not drink their wine.

¹²For I know how many are your transgressions

and how great are your sins—

you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe,

and turn aside the needy in the gate.

¹³Therefore he who is prudent will keep silent in such a time,

for it is an evil time.

¹⁴Seek good, and not evil,

that you may live;

and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you,

as you have said.

¹⁵Hate evil, and love good,

and establish justice in the gate;

it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts,

will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

¹⁶Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord:

“In all the squares there shall be wailing,

and in all the streets they shall say, ‘Alas! Alas!’

They shall call the farmers to mourning

and to wailing those who are skilled in lamentation,

¹⁷and in all vineyards there shall be wailing,

for I will pass through your midst,”

says the Lord.

Let Justice Roll Down

¹⁸Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord!

Why would you have the day of the Lord?

It is darkness, and not light,

¹⁹as if a man fled from a lion,

and a bear met him,

or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall,

and a serpent bit him.

²⁰Is 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 delight in your solemn assemblies.

²²Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,

I will not accept them;

and the peace offerings of your fattened animals,

I will not look upon them.

²³Take away from me the noise of your songs;

to the melody of your harps I will not listen.

²⁴But let justice roll down like waters,

and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

²⁵“Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? ²⁶You shall take up Sikkuth your king, and Kiyyun your star-god—your images that you made for yourselves, ²⁷and I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.

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