Day 32 · Amos 1; 4–5; 8
Old Testament · Phase 4 · Divided Kingdom & The Assyrian Shadow
Amos warns northern Israel of social injustice and ruin
Amos 1
Section titled “Amos 1”Judgment on Israel’s Neighbors
1These are the words of Amos, who was among the sheepherders of Tekoa— what he saw concerning Israel two years before the earthquake, in the days when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel. 2He said:
“The LORD roars from Zion
and raises His voice from Jerusalem;
the pastures of the shepherds mourn,
and the summit of Carmel withers.”
3This is what the LORD says:
“For three transgressions of Damascus, even four,
I will not revoke My judgment,
because they threshed Gilead
with sledges of iron.
4So I will send fire upon the house of Hazael
to consume the citadels of Ben-hadad.
5I will break down the gates of Damascus;
I will cut off the ruler from the Valley of Aven
and the one who wields the scepter in Beth-eden.
The people of Aram will be exiled to Kir,”
says the LORD.
6This is what the LORD says:
“For three transgressions of Gaza, even four,
I will not revoke My judgment,
because they exiled a whole population,
delivering them up to Edom.
7So I will send fire upon the walls of Gaza,
to consume its citadels.
8I will cut off the ruler of Ashdod
and the one who wields the scepter in Ashkelon.
I will turn My hand against Ekron,
and the remnant of the Philistines will perish,”
says the Lord GOD.
9This is what the LORD says:
“For three transgressions of Tyre, even four,
I will not revoke My judgment,
because they delivered up a whole congregation of exiles to Edom
and broke a covenant of brotherhood.
10So I will send fire upon the walls of Tyre
to consume its citadels.”
11This is what the LORD says:
“For three transgressions of Edom, even four,
I will not revoke My judgment,
because he pursued his brother with the sword
and stifled all compassion;
his anger raged continually,
and his fury flamed incessantly.
12So I will send fire upon Teman
to consume the citadels of Bozrah.”
13This is what the LORD says:
“For three transgressions of the Ammonites, even four,
I will not revoke My judgment,
because they ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead
in order to enlarge their territory.
14So I will kindle a fire in the walls of Rabbah
to consume its citadels
amid war cries on the day of battle
and a violent wind on the day of tempest.
15Their king will go into exile —
he and his princes together,”
says the LORD.
Amos 4–5
Section titled “Amos 4–5”Punishment Brings No Repentance
1Hear this word,
you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria,
you women who oppress the poor
and crush the needy,
who say to your husbands,
“Bring us more to drink.”
2The Lord GOD has sworn by His holiness:
“Behold, the days are coming
when you will be taken away with hooks,
and your posterity with fishhooks.
3You will go out through broken walls,
each one straight ahead of her,
and you will be cast out toward Harmon,”
declares the LORD.
4“Go to Bethel and transgress;
rebel even more at Gilgal!
Bring your sacrifices every morning,
your tithes every three days.
5Offer leavened bread as a thank offering,
and loudly proclaim your freewill offerings.
For that is what you children of Israel love to do,”
declares the Lord GOD.
6“I afflicted all your cities with cleanness of teeth
and all your towns with lack of bread,
yet you did not return to Me,”
declares the LORD.
7“I also withheld the rain from you
when the harvest was three months away.
I sent rain on one city
but withheld it from another.
One field received rain;
another without rain withered.
8People staggered from city to city
for water to drink,
but they were not satisfied;
yet you did not return to Me,”
declares the LORD.
9“I struck you with blight and mildew
in your growing gardens and vineyards;
the locust devoured your fig and olive trees,
yet you did not return to Me,”
declares the LORD.
10“I sent plagues among you
like those of Egypt;
I killed your young men with the sword,
along with your captured horses.
I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camp,
yet you did not return to Me,”
declares the LORD.
11“Some of you I overthrew
as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,
and you were like a firebrand snatched from a blaze,
yet you did not return to Me,”
declares the LORD.
12“Therefore, that is what I will do
to you, O Israel,
and since I will do this to you,
prepare to meet your God, O Israel!
13For behold, He who forms the mountains,
who creates the wind
and reveals His thoughts to man,
who turns the dawn to darkness
and strides on the heights of the earth—
the LORD, the God of Hosts, is His name.”
A Lamentation against Israel
1Hear this word, O house of Israel, this lamentation I take up against you:
2“Fallen is Virgin Israel,
never to rise again.
She lies abandoned on her land,
with no one to raise her up.”
3This is what the Lord GOD says:
“The city that marches out a thousand strong
will have but a hundred left,
and the one that marches out a hundred strong
will have but ten left in the house of Israel.”
A Call to Repentance
4For this is what the LORD says to the house of Israel:
“Seek Me and live!
5Do not seek Bethel or go to Gilgal;
do not journey to Beersheba,
for Gilgal will surely go into exile,
and Bethel will come to nothing.
6Seek the LORD and live,
or He will sweep like fire through the house of Joseph;
it will devour everything,
with no one at Bethel to extinguish it.
7There are those who turn justice into wormwood
and cast righteousness to the ground.
8He who made the Pleiades and Orion,
who turns darkness into dawn
and darkens day into night,
who summons the waters of the sea
and pours them over the face of the earth —
the LORD is His name —
9He flashes destruction on the strong,
so that fury comes upon the stronghold.
10There are those who hate the one who reproves in the gate
and despise him who speaks with integrity.
11Therefore, because you trample on the poor
and exact from him a tax of grain,
you will never live
in the stone houses you have built;
you will never drink the wine
from the lush vineyards you have planted.
12For I know that your transgressions are many
and your sins are numerous.
You oppress the righteous by taking bribes;
you deprive the poor of justice in the gate.
13Therefore, the prudent keep silent in such times,
for the days are evil.
14Seek good, not evil,
so that you may live.
And the LORD, the God of Hosts,
will be with you, as you have claimed.
15Hate evil and love good;
establish justice in the gate.
Perhaps the LORD, the God of Hosts,
will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”
Woe to Rebellious Israel
16Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Hosts, the Lord, says:
“There will be wailing in all the public squares
and cries of ‘Alas! Alas!’ in all the streets.
The farmer will be summoned to mourn,
and the mourners to wail.
17There will be wailing in all the vineyards,
for I will pass through your midst,”
says the LORD.
18Woe to you who long for the Day of the LORD!
What will the Day of the LORD be for you?
It will be darkness and not light.
19It will be like a man who flees from a lion,
only to encounter a bear,
or who enters his house and rests his hand against the wall,
only to be bitten by a snake.
20Will not the Day of the LORD
be darkness and not light,
even gloom with no brightness in it?
21“I hate, I despise your feasts!
I cannot stand the stench of your solemn assemblies.
22Even though you offer Me burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them;
for your peace offerings of fattened cattle
I will have no regard.
23Take away from Me the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.
24But let justice roll on like a river,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
25Did you bring Me sacrifices and offerings
forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
26You have taken along Sakkuth your king
and Kaiwan your star god,
the idols you made for yourselves.
27Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,”
says the LORD, whose name is the God of Hosts.
Amos 8
Section titled “Amos 8”The Basket of Summer Fruit
1This is what the Lord GOD showed me: I saw a basket of summer fruit.
2“Amos, what do you see?” He asked.
“A basket of summer fruit,” I replied.
So the LORD said to me, “The end has come for My people Israel; I will no longer spare them.”
3“In that day,” declares the Lord GOD, “the songs of the temple will turn to wailing. Many will be the corpses, strewn in silence everywhere!”
4Hear this, you who trample the needy,
who do away with the poor of the land,
5asking, “When will the New Moon be over,
that we may sell grain?
When will the Sabbath end,
that we may market wheat?
Let us reduce the ephah and increase the shekel;
let us cheat with dishonest scales.
6Let us buy the poor with silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals,
selling even the chaff with the wheat!”
7The LORD has sworn by the Pride of Jacob:
“I will never forget any of their deeds.
8Will not the land quake for this,
and all its dwellers mourn?
All of it will swell like the Nile;
it will surge and then subside
like the Nile in Egypt.
9And in that day,
declares the Lord GOD,
I will make the sun go down at noon,
and I will darken the earth in the daytime.
10I will turn your feasts into mourning
and all your songs into lamentation.
I will cause everyone to wear sackcloth
and every head to be shaved.
I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son,
and its outcome like a bitter day.
11Behold, the days are coming,
declares the Lord GOD,
when I will send a famine on the land —
not a famine of bread or a thirst for water,
but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.
12People will stagger from sea to sea
and roam from north to east,
seeking the word of the LORD,
but they will not find it.
13In that day the lovely young women —
the young men as well —
will faint from thirst.
14Those who swear by the guilt of Samaria
and say, ‘As surely as your god lives, O Dan,’
or, ‘As surely as the way of Beersheba lives’—
they will fall, never to rise again.”