The Basket of Ripe Fruit

1{7:17}Therefore thus saith the Lord: Thy wife shall play the harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be measured by a line: and thou shalt die in a polluted land, and Israel shall go into captivity out of their land. 2{1}These things the Lord shewed to me: and behold a hook to draw down the fruit. 3{2}And he said: What seest thou, Amos? And I said: A hook to draw down fruit. And the Lord said to me: The end is come upon my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more.

4{3}And the hinges of the temple shall screak in that day, saith the Lord God: many shall die: silence shall be cast in every place.

5{4}Hear this, you that crush the poor, and make the needy of the land to fail,

6{5}Saying: When will the month be over, and we shall sell our wares: and the sabbath, and we shall open the corn: that we may lessen the measure, and increase the sicle, and may convey in deceitful balances,

7{6}That we may possess the needy for money, and the poor for a pair of shoes, and may sell the refuse of the corn?

8{7}The Lord hath sworn against the pride of Jacob: surely I will never forget all their works.

9{8}Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein: and rise up altogether as a river, and be cast out, and run down as the river of Egypt?

10{9}And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that the sun shall go down at midday, and I will make the earth dark in the day of light:

11{10}And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation: and I will bring up sackcloth upon every back of yours, and baldness upon every head: and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the latter end thereof as a bitter day.

12{11}Behold the days come, saith the Lord, and I will send forth a famine into the land: not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, but of hearing the word of the Lord.

13{12}And they shall move from sea to sea, and from the north to the east: they shall go about seeking the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.

14{13}In that day the fair virgins, and the young men shall faint for thirst.