The Book Of Amos

Modernized spelling by David L. Brown & James Krueger

© 2001 & 2009 David L. Brown  – All Rights Reserved

1 The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen at Tekoa, which he saw upon 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.

2 And he said, The Lord shall roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem, and the dwelling places of the shepherds shall perish, and the top of Carmel shall wither,

3 Thus saith the Lord, For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four I will not turn to it, because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron.

4 Therefore will I send a fire into the house of Hazael, and it shall devour the palaces of Ben-Hadad.

5 I will break also the bars of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant of Bikeath-aven: and him that holdeth the scepter out of Beth-eden, and the people of Aram [Syria] shall go into captivity unto Kir, saith the Lord.

6 Thus saith the Lord, For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not turn to it, because they carried away prisoners the whole captivity to shut them up in Edom.

7 Therefore will I send a fire upon the walls of Gaza, and it shall devour the palaces thereof.

8 And I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod, and him that holdeth the scepter from Ashkelon, and turn mine hand to Ekron, and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, saith the Lord God.

9 Thus saith the Lord, For three transgressions of Tyre, and for four, I will not turn to it, because they shut the whole captivity in Edom, and have not remembered the brotherly covenant.

10 Therefore will I send a fire upon the walls of Tyre, and it shall devour the palaces thereof.

11 Thus saith the Lord, For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not turn to it, because he did pursue his brother with the sword, and did cast off all pity, and his anger spoiled him evermore, and his wrath watched him always.

12 Therefore will I send a fire upon Teman, and it shall devour the palaces of Bozrah.

13 Thus saith the Lord, For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, and for four, I will not turn to it, because they have ripped up the women with child of Gilead, that they might enlarge their border.

14 Therefore will I kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it shall devour the palaces thereof, with shouting in the day of battle, and with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind.

15 And their king shall go into captivity, he and his princes together, saith the Lord.

Amos Chapter 1

1 Thus saith the Lord, For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not turn to it, because it burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime.

2 Therefore will I 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 a trumpet.

3 And I will cut off the judge out of the midst thereof, and will slay all the princes thereof with him, saith the Lord.

4 Thus saith the Lord, For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn to it, because they have cast away the law of the Lord, and have not kept his commandments, and their lies caused them to err after the which their fathers have walked.

5 Therefore will I send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.

6 Thus saith the Lord, For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn to it, because they sold the righteous for silver and the poor for shoes.

7 They gape over the head of the poor, in the dust of the earth, and pervert the ways of the meek: and a man and his father will go in to a maid to dishonor mine holy name.

8 And they lie down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar: and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their God.

9 Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks: notwithstanding I destroyed his fruit from above, and his root from beneath.

10 Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you forty years through the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite.

11 And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites. Is it not even thus, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord?

12 But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink, and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not.

13 Behold, I am pressed under you as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves.

14 Therefore the flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not strengthen his force, neither shall the mighty save his life.

15 Nor he that handleth the bow, shall stand, and he that is swift of foot, shall not escape, neither shall he that rideth the horse, save his life.

16 And he that is of a mighty courage among the strong men, shall flee away naked in that day, saith the Lord.

Amos Chapter 3

Hear this word that the Lord pronounceth against you, O children of Israel, even

  against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying,

2 You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will visit you for all your iniquities.

3 Can two walk together except they be agreed?

4 Will a lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey? Or will a lion's whelp cry out of his den, if he have taken nothing?

5 Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no fowler is? Or will he take up the snare from the earth, and have taken nothing at all?

6 Or shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people be not afraid? Or shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?

7 Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.

8 The lion hath roared: who will not be afraid? The Lord God hath spoken: who can but prophesy?

9 Proclaim in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria: so behold the great tumults in the midst thereof, and the oppressed in the midst thereof.

10 For they know not to do right, saith the Lord: they store up violence, and robbery in their palaces.

11 Therefore thus saith the Lord God, An adversary shall come even round about the country, and shall bring down thy strength from thee, and thy palaces shall be spoiled.

12 Thus saith the Lord, As the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear: so shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria in the corner of a bed, and in Damascus, as in a couch.

13 Hear, and testify in the house of Jacob, saith the Lord God, the God of hosts.

14 Surely 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 broken off, and fall to the ground.

15 And I will smite the winter house with the summer house, and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall be consumed, saith the Lord.

Amos Chapter 4

1 Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, and destroy the needy, and they say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink.

2 The Lord God hath sworn by his holiness, that lo, the days shall come upon you, that he will take you away with thorns, and your posterity with fish hooks.

3 And ye shall go out at the breaches every cow forward: and ye shall cast yourselves out of the palace, saith the Lord.

4 Come to Beth-el, and transgress: to Gilgal, and multiply transgression, and bring your sacrifices in the morning, and your tithes after three years.

5 And offer a thanksgiving of leaven, publish and proclaim the free offerings: for this liketh you, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord God.

6 And therefore have I given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and scarceness of bread in all your places, yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.

7 And also I 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 have not caused it to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not, withered.

8 So two or three cities wandered unto one city to drink water, but they were not satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.

9 I have smitten you with blasting, and mildew: your great gardens and your vineyards, and your fig trees, and your olive trees did the palmer worm devour: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.

10 Pestilence have I sent among you, after the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses: and I have made the stink of your tents to come up even into your nostrils: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.

11 I have overthrown you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah: and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.

12 Therefore, thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.

13 For lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought: which maketh the morning darkness, and walketh upon the high places of the earth, the Lord God of hosts is his name.

Amos Chapter 5

1 Hear ye this word, which I lift up upon you, even a lamentation of the house of Israel.

2 The virgin Israel is fallen, and shall no more rise: she is left upon her land, and there is none to raise her up.

3 For thus saith the Lord God, The city which went out by a thousand, shall leave an hundred: and that which went forth by an hundred, shall leave ten to the house of Israel.

4 For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live.

5 But seek not Beth-el, nor enter into Gilgal, and go not to Beer-sheba: for Gilgal shall go into captivity, and Beth-el shall come to naught.

6 Seek the Lord, and ye shall live, lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Beth-el.

7 They turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth.

8 He maketh Pleiades, and Orion, and he turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and he maketh the day dark as night: he calleth the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the open earth: the Lord is his name.

9 He strengtheneth the destroyer against the mighty: and the destroyer shall come against the fortress.

10 They have hated him, that rebuked in the gate: and they abhorred him that speaketh uprightly.

11 For as much then as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens 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 wine of them.

12 For I know your manifold transgressions, and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take rewards, and they oppress the poor in the gate.

13 Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time, for it is an evil time.

14 Seek good and not evil, that ye may live: and the Lord God of hosts shall be with you, as you have spoken.

15 Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the Lord God of hosts will be merciful unto the remnant of Joseph.

16 Therefore the Lord God of hosts, the Lord saith thus, Mourning shall be in all streets: and they shall say in all the highways, Alas, alas: and they shall call the husbandman to lamentation, and such as can mourn, to mourning.

17 And in all the vines shall be lamentation: for I will pass through thee, saith the Lord.

18 Woe unto you, that desire the day of the Lord: what have you to do with it? The day of the Lord is darkness and not light.

19 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.

20 Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light? Even darkness and no light in it?

21 I hate and abhor your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.

22 Though ye offer me burnt offerings and meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.

23 Take thou away from me the multitude of thy songs (for I will not hear the melody of thy viols)

24 And let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty river.

25 Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?

26 But you have born Siccuth your king, and Chiun your images, and the star of your gods, which ye made to yourselves.

27 Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.

Amos Chapter 6

1 Woe to them that are at ease in Zion and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which were famous at the beginning of the nations: and the house of Israel came to them.

2 Go you unto Calneh, and see: and from thence go you to Hamath the great: then go down to Gath of the Philistines: be they better than these kingdoms? Or the border of their land greater than your border,

3 Ye that put far away the evil day, and approach to the seat of iniquity?

4 They lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their beds, and eat the lambs of the flock, and the calves out of the stall.

5 They sing to the sound of the viol: they invent to themselves instruments of music like David.

6 They drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments, but no man is sorry for the affliction of Joseph.

7 Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive, and the sorrow of them that stretched themselves, is at hand.

8 The Lord God hath sworn by himself, saith the Lord 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.

9 And if there remain ten men in one house, they shall die.

10 And his uncle shall take him up and burn him to carry out the bones out of the house, and shall say unto him, that is by the sides of the house, Is there yet any with thee? And he shall say, None. Then shall he say, Hold thy tongue: for we may not remember the name of the Lord.

11 For behold, the Lord commandeth, and he will smite the great house with breaches, and the little house with clefts.

12 Shall horses run upon the rock? Or will one plow there with oxen? For ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood.

13 Ye rejoice in a thing of nought: ye say, Have not we gotten us horns by our own strength?

14 But behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, saith the Lord God of hosts: and they shall afflict you, from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of the wilderness.

Amos Chapter 7

1 Thus hath the Lord God showed unto me, and behold, he formed grasshoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth: and lo, it was in the latter growth after the king's mowing.

2 And when they had made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, O Lord God, spare, I beseech thee: who shall raise up Jacob? For he is small.

3 So the Lord repented for this. It shall not be, saith the Lord.

4 Thus also hath the Lord God showed unto me, and behold, the Lord God called to judgment by fire, and it devoured the great deep, and did eat up a part.

5 Then said I, O Lord God, cease, I beseech thee: who shall raise up Jacob? For he is small.

6 So the Lord repented for this. This also shall not be, saith the Lord God.

7 Thus again he showed me, and behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by line with a line in his hand.

8 And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A line. Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a line in the midst of my people Israel, and will pass by them no more.

9 And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the temples of Israel shall be destroyed: and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.

10 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.

11 For thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall be led away captive out of their own land.

12 Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou the Seer, go, flee thou away into the land of Judah, and there eat thy bread and prophesy there.

13 But prophesy no more at Beth-el: for it is the king's chapel, and it is the king's court.

14 Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son, but I was an herdsman, and a gatherer of wild figs.

15 And the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel.

16 Now therefore hear thou the word of the Lord. Thou sayest, Prophesy not against Israel, and speak nothing against the house of Isaac.

17 Therefore thus saith the Lord, Thy wife shall be an 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 shalt die in a polluted land, and Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his land.

Amos Chapter 8

1 Thus hath the Lord God showed unto me, and behold, a basket of summer fruit.

2 And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the Lord unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel, I will pass by them no more.

3 And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord God: many dead bodies shall be in every place: they shall cast them forth with silence.

4 Hear this, O ye that swallow up the poor, that ye may make the needy of the land to fail,

5 Saying, When will the new month be gone, that we may sell corn? And the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, and make the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsify the weights by deceit?

6 That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for shoes: yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat.

7 The Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works.

8 Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn, that dwelleth therein? And it shall rise up wholly as a flood, and it shall be cast out, and drowned as by the flood of Egypt.

9 And in that day, saith the Lord God, I will even cause the sun to go down at noon: and I will darken the earth in the clear day.

10 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 of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day.

11 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the word of the Lord.

12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even unto the east shall they run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.

13 In that day shall the fair virgins and the young men perish for thirst.

14 They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and that say, Thy God, O Dan, liveth, and the manner of Beer-sheba liveth, even they shall fall, and never rise up again.

Amos Chapter 9

1 I saw the Lord standing upon the altar, and he said, Smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake: and cut them in pieces, even the heads of them all, and I will slay the last of them with the sword: he that fleeth of them, shall not flee away: and he that escapeth of them, shall not be delivered.

2 Though they dig into the hell, thence shall mine hand take them: though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down.

3 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 he shall bite them.

4 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.

5 And the Lord God of hosts shall touch the land, and it shall melt away, and all that dwell therein shall mourn, and it shall rise up wholly like a flood, and shall be drowned as by the flood of Egypt.

6 He buildeth his spheres in the heaven, and hath laid the foundation of his globe of elements in the earth: he calleth the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the open earth: the Lord is his name.

7 Are ye not as the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel, saith the Lord? Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? And the Philistines from Caphtor, and Aram [Syria] from Kir?

8 Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it clean out of the earth. Nevertheless I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the Lord.

9 For lo, I will command and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn

      is sifted in a sieve: yet shall not the least stone fall upon the earth.

10 But all the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil shall not come, nor hasten for us.

11 In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David, that is fallen down, and close up the breaches thereof, and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it, as in the days of old,

12 That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, because my name is called upon them, saith the Lord, that doeth this.

13 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall touch the mower, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed: and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.

14 And I will bring again the captivity of my people of 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 fruits of them.