Amos

Amos, spoke words for God, and then was challenged.

In Amos chapter 7: 12 Also Amaziah said to Amos, "O you seer, go, flee away into the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there, 13 But don't prophesy again anymore at Bethel, for it is the king's chapel, and it is the king's court." 14 Then Amos answered Amaziah, "I was no prophet, nor was I a prophet's son, but I was a herdsman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit, 15 And the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said to me, go, prophesy to my people Israel."

Amos had been a shepherd. But God made him a prophet. He wasn't about to apologize for doing what God sent him to do. Many of the prophets have been challenged. Jeremiah was thrown into the dungeon. But prophets do important work, whether the people listen or not.]

___Amos chapter 1 1 The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of Tekoa, that 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. 2 And he said, "The Lord will roar from Zion, and speak his voice from Jerusalem, and the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither." 3 Thus says the Lord, "For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I won't turn away the punishment of it, because they've threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron, 4 But I'll send a fire into the house of Hazael, that will devour the palaces of Benhadad. 5 I'll also break the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven, and him that holds the scepter from the house of Eden, and the people of Syria shall go into captivity to Kir," says the Lord. 6 Thus says the Lord, "For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I won't turn away the punishment of it, because they carried away captive the whole captivity, to deliver them to Edom, 7 But I'll send a fire on the wall of Gaza, that will devour the palaces of it, 8 And I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod, and him that holds the scepter from Ashkelon, and I will turn my hand against Ekron, and the remnant of the Philistines shall die, says the Lord God." 9 Thus says the Lord, "For three transgressions of Tyrus, and for four, I won't turn away the punishment of it, because they delivered up the whole captivity to Edom, and didn't remember the brotherly covenant, 10 But I'll send a fire on the wall of Tyrus, that will devour the palaces of it." 11 Thus says the Lord, "For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I won't turn away the punishment of it, because he pursued his brother with the sword, and threw away all pity, and his anger tore perpetually, and he kept his anger forever, 12 But I'll send a fire on Teman, that will devour the palaces of Bozrah." 13 Thus says the Lord, "For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, and for four, I won't turn away the punishment of it, because they have ripped up the pregnant women of Gilead, so they could enlarge their border, 14 But I'll kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it shall devour the palaces of it, with shouting in the day of battle, with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind, 15 And their king shall go into captivity, he and his princes together," says the Lord.

___Amos chapter 2 1 Thus says the Lord, "For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I won't turn away the punishment of it, because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime, 2 But I'll send a fire on Moab, and it shall devour the palaces of Kerioth, and Moab shall die with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet, 3 And I'll cut off the judge from the middle of it, and will kill all the princes of it with him," says the Lord. 4 Thus says the Lord, "For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I won't turn away the punishment of it, because they've despised the law of the Lord, and haven't kept his commandments, and their lies caused them to err, after which their fathers have walked, 5 But I'll send a fire on Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem." 6 Thus says the Lord, "For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I won't turn away the punishment of it, because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes, 7 That pant for 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 will go in to the same maid, to profane my holy name, 8 And they lay themselves down on clothes that are security deposits by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god. 9 Yet I destroyed 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. 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 from your sons for prophets, and from your young men for Nazarites. Is it not just like that, O you children of Israel?" Says the Lord. 12 "But you gave the Nazarites wine to drink, and commanded the prophets, Don't prophesy. 13 See, I am pressed under you, like a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves. 14 Therefore the escape shall go away from the swift, and the strong shall not strengthen his force, nor shall the mighty deliver himself, 15 Nor shall he stand that handles the bow, and he that is swift of foot won't deliver himself, nor shall he that rides the horse deliver himself. 16 And he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day," says the Lord.

___Amos chapter 3 1 "Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, 2 I've known only you of all the families of the earth, therefore I'll punish you for all your sins. 3 Can two walk together, unless they're in agreement? 4 Will a lion roar in the forest, when he has no prey? Will a young lion cry out of his den, if he's taken nothing? 5 Can a bird fall in a trap on the earth, where there's no trap for him? Shall someone take up a trap from the earth, and have taken nothing at all? 6 Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord has not done it? 7 Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he reveals his secret to his servants the prophets. 8 The lion has roared, who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken, who can but prophesy? 9 Publish in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria, and see the great tumults in the middle of it, and the oppressed in the middle of it. 10 For they don't know to do right, says the Lord, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces. 11 Therefore thus says the Lord God, there shall be an adversary around the land, and he shall bring down your strength from you, and your palaces shall be spoiled. 12 Thus says the Lord, as the shepherd takes 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 live in Samaria in the corner of a bed, and in Damascus in a couch. 13 Hear, and testify in the house of Jacob, says the Lord God, the God of hosts, 14 That in the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel on him I'll also visit the altars of Bethel, and the horns of the altar shall be cut off, and they'll fall to the ground. 15 And I'll strike the winter house with the summer house, and the houses of ivory shall be destroyed, and the great houses shall have an end," says the Lord.

___Amos chapter 4 1 "Hear this word, you kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to their masters, bring, and let us drink. 2 The Lord God has sworn by his holiness, that see, the days shall come on you, that he will take you away with hooks, and your descendants with fishhooks. 3 And you'll go out at the breaches, every cow at what is before her, and you'll throw them into the palace," says the Lord. 4 "Come to Bethel, and transgress, at Gilgal multiply transgression, and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes after three years, 5 And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, and proclaim and publish the free offerings, for you like this, O you children of Israel," says the Lord God. 6 "And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places, yet you haven't returned to me," says the Lord. 7 "And also I've withheld the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest, and I caused it to rain on one city, and caused it not to rain on another city, one piece was rained on, and the piece on which it didn't rain withered. 8 So two or three cities wandered to one city, to drink water, but they were not satisfied, yet you haven't returned to me," says the Lord. 9 "I have struck you with blasting and mildew, when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmerworm devoured them, yet you haven't returned to me," says the Lord. 10 "I've sent among you the pestilence like in Egypt, I've killed your young men with the sword, and have taken away your horses, and I've made the stink of your camps to come up to your nostrils, yet you haven't returned to me," says the Lord. 11 "I've overthrown some of you, like God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a firebrand plucked out of the burning, yet you haven't returned to me," says the Lord. 12 "Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel, and because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel. 13 For see, he that forms the mountains, and creates the wind, and declares to man he's thinking, that makes the morning darkness, and treads on the high places of the earth, the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name."

___Amos chapter 5 1 Hear this word that I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel. 2 The virgin of Israel has fallen, she shall rise no more, she's been forsaken on her land, there is no one to raise her up. 3 For thus says the Lord God, "The city that went out by a thousand shall leave a hundred, and what went out by a hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel." 4 For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel, "Seek me, and you shall live, 5 But don't seek Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and don't pass to Beersheba, for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nothing. 6 Seek the Lord, and you'll live, so he doesn't break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be no one to quench it in Bethel. 7 You who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off with righteousness in the earth, 8 Seek him that makes the seven stars and Orion, and turns the shadow of death into the morning, and makes the day dark with night, that calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the face of the earth, the Lord is his name, 9 That strengthens the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress. 10 They hate him that reprimands in the gate, and they abhor him that speaks uprightly. 11 Since therefore your treading is on the poor, and you take from him burdens of wheat, you've built houses of cut stone, but you won't live in them, you've planted pleasant vineyards, but you won't drink wine from them. 12 For I know your many transgressions and your mighty sins, they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their rights. 13 Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time, for it is an evil time. 14 Seek good, and not evil, so you'll may live, and so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you, like you've said. 15 Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish justice in the gate, it may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph." 16 Therefore the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord, says thus, "Wailing shall be in all streets, and they'll say in all the highways, alas!, alas! And they'll call the farmer to mourning, and such as are skillful at lamentation to wailing. 17 And in all vineyards there'll be wailing, for I will pass through you," says the Lord. 18 "Woe to you that desire the day of the Lord! To what end is it for you? The day of the Lord is darkness, and not light. 19 As if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him, or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a snake bit him. 20 Won't the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light? Even very dark, and no brightness in it? 21 I hate, I despise your feast days, and I won't smell in your solemn assemblies. 22 Though you offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I won't accept them, nor will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. 23 Take away from me the noise of your songs, for I won't listen to the melody of your stringed instruments. 24 But let judgment run down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream. 25 Have you offered to me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? 26 But you've carried the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun, your images, the star of your god, that you made for yourselves. 27 Therefore I'll cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus," says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.

___Amos chapter 6 1 Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, that are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came! 2 Pass to Calneh, and see, and from there go to Hamath the great, then go down to Gath of the Philistines, are they better than these kingdoms? Or their border greater than your border? 3 You that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near, 4 That lie on beds of ivory, and stretch themselves on their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the middle of the stall, 5 That chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of music, like David, 6 That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments, but they aren't grieved for the affliction of Joseph. 7 Therefore now they'll go captive with the first that go captive, and the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed. 8 The Lord God has sworn by himself, says the Lord the God of hosts, I hate the excellence of Jacob, and hate his palaces, therefore I'll deliver up the city with all that is in it. 9 And it shall happen that if ten men remain in one house, that they'll die. 10 And a man's uncle shall take him up, and he that burns him, to bring out the bones out of the house, and shall say to him that is by the sides of the house, are there any more with you? And he shall say, No. Then he'll say, hold your tongue, for we may not make mention of the name of the Lord. 11 For, see, the Lord commands, and he will strike the great house with breaches, and the little house with clefts. 12 Shall horses run on the rock? Will one plow there with oxen? For you've turned justice into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock, 13 You who rejoice in a thing of nothing, who say, haven't we taken to us horns by our own strength? 14 But, see, I'll raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, says the Lord the God of hosts, and they shall afflict you from the entering in of Hemath to the river of the wilderness.

___Amos chapter 7 1 Thus has the Lord God shown me, and see, he formed grasshoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth, and see, it was the latter growth after the king's mowings. 2 And it occurred, that when they had made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, "O Lord God, forgive, I beg of you, by whom shall Jacob arise? For he is small." 3 The Lord repented for this, "It shall not be," says the Lord. 4 Thus has the Lord God shown me, and see, the Lord God called to contend by fire, and it devoured the great deep, and ate up a part. 5 Then I said, "O Lord God, stop, I beg of you, by whom shall Jacob arise? For he is small." 6 The Lord repented for this, "This also shall not be," says the Lord God. 7 Thus he showed me, and see, the Lord stood on a wall made by a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. 8 And the Lord said to me, "Amos, what do you see?" And I said, "A plumb line." Then said the Lord, "See, I'll set a plumb line among my people Israel, I won't pass by them again anymore, 9 And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I'll rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword." 10 Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, and said, "Amos has conspired against you in the middle of the house of Israel, the land is not able to bear all his words. 11 For this is what Amos says, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land." 12 Also Amaziah said to Amos, "O you seer, go, flee away into the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there, 13 But don't prophesy again anymore at Bethel, for it is the king's chapel, and it is the king's court." 14 Then Amos answered Amaziah, "I was no prophet, nor was I a prophet's son, but I was a herdsman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit, 15 And the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said to me, go, prophesy to my people Israel. 16 Now therefore hear the word of the Lord, you say, don't prophesy against Israel, and don't drop your word against the house of Isaac. 17 Therefore thus says the Lord, your wife shall be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided by line, and you'll die in a polluted land, and Israel shall surely go into captivity out of his land."

___Amos chapter 8 1 Thus has the Lord God showed me, and see a basket of summer fruit. 2 And he said, "Amos, what do you see?" And I said, "A basket of summer fruit." Then the Lord said to me, "The end has come on my people of Israel, I won't pass by them again anymore. 3 And the songs of the temple shall be howlings on that day, says the Lord God, there shall be many dead bodies in every place, they shall throw them out in silence. 4 Hear this, O you that swallow up the needy, to make the poor of the land to fail, 5 Saying, when will the new moon be gone, so we can sell corn? And the Sabbath, so we can put out wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel large, and falsifying the balances by deceit? 6 So that we can buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes, yes, and sell the worst of the wheat? 7 The Lord has sworn by the excellence of Jacob, surely I will never forget any of their works. 8 Shall the land not tremble for this, and everyone mourn that lives in it? And it shall rise up completely like a flood, and it shall be thrown out and drowned, like by the flood of Egypt. 9 And it shall happen in that day, says the Lord God, that I will 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 up sackcloth on all mid-sections, and baldness on every head, and I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and the end of it like a bitter day. 11 See, the days come, says 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 words of the Lord, 12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run back and forth to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it. 13 In that day the fair virgins and young men shall faint for thirst. 14 Those who swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, your god, O Dan, lives, and, the manner of Beersheba lives, they shall fall, and never rise up again."

___Amos chapter 9 1 I saw the Lord standing on the altar, and he said, "Strike the lintel of the door, so that the posts will shake, and cut them in the head, all of them, and I will kill the last of them with the sword, he that flees of them shall not flee away, and he that escapes of them shall not get deliverance. 2 Though they dig into hell, there shall my hand take them, though they climb up to heaven, from there I'll bring them down, 3 And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out of there, and though they're hidden from my sight in the bottom of the sea, I'll command the serpent there, and he'll bite them, 4 And though they go into captivity before their enemies, I'll command the sword there, and it shall kill them, and I will set my eyes on them for evil, and not for good. 5 And the Lord God of hosts is he that touches the land, and it shall melt, and all that live in it shall mourn, and it shall rise up completely like a flood, and shall be drowned, like by the flood of Egypt. 6 It is he that builds his stories in the heaven, and has founded his battalion on the earth, he that calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the face of the earth, the Lord is his name. 7 Aren't you like children of the Ethiopians to me, O children of Israel? Says the Lord. Haven't I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? And the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir? 8 See, the eyes of the Lord God are on the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth, except that I won't completely destroy the house of Jacob, says the Lord. 9 For see, I'll command, and I'll sift the house of Israel among all nations, like corn is sifted in a sieve, yet the least grain shall not fall on the ground. 10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who say, the evil shall not overtake nor go before us. 11 In that day I'll raise up the tabernacle of David that has fallen, and close up the holes of it, and I'll raise up his ruins, and I'll build it like in the days of old, 12 So they can possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, who are called by my name, says the Lord that does this. 13 See, the days come, says the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that plants seed, and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. 14 And I will undo the captivity of my people of Israel, and they'll build the waste cities, and inhabit them, and they'll plant vineyards, and drink the wine of them, they'll also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. 15 And I will plant them on their land, and they'll no more be pulled up out of their land that I've given them, says the Lord your God."

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