The Vision of a Fruit Basket

1This is what the Lord GOD showed me: Look! A basket of summer fruit! 2And he was asking, “What do you see, Amos?”

I answered, “A basket of summer fruit.”

Then the LORD told me,

“The enda approaches for my people Israel.

I will no longer spare them.b

3At that time,”

declares the Lord GOD,

“the temple songs will be wailing.

Many bodies will accumulate everywhere.

4“Hear this, you who are swallowing up the needy,

who intend to make the poor of the land fail,

5and who are saying,

‘When will the New Moon fade

so we may sell grain,

and the Sabbath concludec

so we may market winnowed wheat?—

shortchanging the measure,d

raising the price,

falsifying the scales by treachery,

6buying the poor for cash,e

and the needy for a pair of sandals,

selling chaff mixed in with the wheat.’

7“The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob:

I will never forget anything they have done.

8Surely the land will tremble because of this, won’t it?

And all who live in it will mourn, won’t they?

The entire land will swell up like a floodedf river.

It will be stirred up and then will sink

like the river of Egypt.

9It will come about at that time,” declares the Lord GOD,

“I will cause the sun to set at noon

and the earth to darken in the daylight.

10I will turn your festivals into mourning,

and all of your songs to dirges.

I will cause all of you to put on sackcloth

and to shave all of your heads.

I will make that time like mourning for an only son,

and its conclusion will be like the end ofg a bitter day.”

A Famine of the Word of God

11“Look! The days are coming,”

declares the Lord GOD,

“when I will send a famine throughout the land—

not a famine of food or a thirst for water—

but rather a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.

12Peopleh will stagger from sea to sea,

from north to east.

They will run back and forth,

searching for a message from the LORD,

but they won’t find it.

13At that time,

the beautiful virgins will faint,

as will the strong young men—from thirst.

14Those who have been swearing oaths by the sin of Samaria,

or who say, ‘As your god lives, Dan…’

or who say, ‘As the way of Beer-sheba lives…’—

will fall, and will never rise again.”