Study Desk

Hear this word that I take up against you in lament, house of Isra'el:

The virgin of Isra'el has fallen; she will not rise again. She lies abandoned on her own soil with no one to lift her up.

For thus says Adonai Elohim : "The city from which a thousand marched will be left with a hundred, and the one from which a hundred marched will be left with ten from the house of Isra'el."

For here is what Adonai says to the house of Isra'el: "If you seek me, you will survive;

but don't seek Beit-El, or enter Gilgal or pass on into Be'er-Sheva; for Gilgal will certainly go into exile, and Beit-El will come to nothing."

If you seek Adonai , you will survive. Otherwise, he will break out against the house of Yosef like fire, devouring Beit-El, with no one to quench the flames.

You who turn justice to bitter wormwood and throw righteousness to the ground!

He who made the Pleiades and Orion, who brings deathlike shadows over the morning, who darkens the day into night, who calls for the water in the sea and with it floods the earth — Adonai is his name —

he flashes destruction on the strong, so that destruction overcomes the fortress.

They hate anyone promoting justice at the city gate, they detest anyone who speaks the truth.

Therefore, because you trample on the poor and extort from them levies of grain; although you have built houses of cut stone, you will not live in them; and though you have planted pleasant vineyards, you will not drink their wine.

For I know how numerous are your crimes and how outrageous your sins — bullying the innocent, extorting ransoms pushing the poor aside at the gate.

At times like these a prudent person stays silent, for it is an evil time.

Seek good and not evil, so that you will survive. Then Adonai Elohei -Tzva'ot will be with you, as you say he is.

Hate evil, love good, and uphold justice at the gate. Maybe Adonai Elohei -Tzva'ot will take pity on the survivors of Yosef.

Therefore thus says Adonai Elohei -Tzva'ot, Adonai: "In all public squares there will be lamentation, in all the streets they will cry, ‘Oh, no!' They will summon farmers to mourn and professional mourners to wail.

There will be wailing in every vineyard, for I will pass through among you," says Adonai .

Woe to you who want the Day of Adonai ! Why do you want it, this Day of Adonai ? It is darkness, not light;

as if someone were to run from a lion, just to be met by a bear; as if he entered a house, put his hand on the wall, just to be bitten by a snake.

Won't the Day of Adonai be darkness, not light, completely dark, with no brightness at all?

"I hate, I utterly loathe your festivals; I take no pleasure in your solemn assemblies.

If you offer me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; nor will I consider the peace offerings of your stall-fed cattle.

Spare me the noise of your songs! I don't want to hear the strumming of your lutes!

Instead, let justice well up like water, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings in the desert forty years, house of Isra'el?

No, but now you will bear Sikkut as your king and Kiyun, your images, the star of your god, which you made for yourselves;

as I exile you beyond Dammesek," says Adonai Elohei -Tzva'ot — that is his name.

Woe to those living at ease in Tziyon and to those who feel complacent on the hills of Shomron, renowned men in this foremost of nations, to whom the rest of Isra'el come.

Travel to Kalneh and see; from there go on to Hamat the great; then go down to Gat of the P'lishtim. Are you better than these kingdoms? Is their territory larger than yours?

You put off all thought of the evil day but hasten the reign of violence.

You lie on beds of ivory and lounge sprawled out on your couches, dining on meat from lambs in the flock and from calves fattened in stalls.

You make up wild songs at your parties, playing the lute and inventing other instruments — [imagining that you're] like David!

You drink wine by the bowlful and anoint yourselves with the finest oils, but feel no grief at the ruin of Yosef.

Therefore now they will be the first to go into exile with those being exiled, and the revelry of those who lounged, sprawling, will pass away.

"Adonai Elohim swears by himself," says Adonai Elohei -Tzva'ot, "I detest that Ya‘akov is so proud, and I hate his palaces. I will hand over the city, along with everything in it."

When that day comes, if ten men remain in one house, they will die.

And if a [dead] man's uncle, coming to bring the corpse out of the house and burn it, finds a survivor hidden in the inmost recesses of the house and asks, "Is anyone else there with you?" — then, when he receives the answer, "No," he will say, "Don't say any more, because we mustn't mention the name of Adonai ."

For when Adonai gives the order, great houses will be shattered and small houses reduced to rubble.

Do horses run on rock? Does one plow there with oxen? Yet you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into bitter wormwood.

You take pleasure in worthless things. You think your power comes from your own strength.

"But I will raise up a nation against you, house of Isra'el," says Adonai Elohei -Tzva'ot, "and they will oppress you from the entrance of Hamat to the Vadi of the ‘Aravah."

Here is what Adonai Elohim showed me: he was forming a swarm of locusts as the late crop was starting to come up, the late crop after the hay had been cut to pay the king's tribute.

While they were finishing up eating all the vegetation in the land, I said, "Adonai Elohim , forgive — please! How will tiny Ya‘akov survive?"

So Adonai changed his mind about this. "It won't happen," Adonai said.

Next Adonai Elohim showed me this: Adonai Elohim was summoning a blazing fire to consume the great abyss, and it would have devoured the land too.

But I said, "Adonai Elohim , stop — please! How will tiny Ya‘akov survive?"

Adonai changed his mind about it. "This too won't happen," said Adonai Elohim .

Then he showed me this: A donai was standing by a wall made with a plumbline, and he had a plumbline in his hand.

Adonai asked me, "‘Amos, what do you see?" I answered, "A plumbline." Then Adonai said, "I am going to put a plumbline in among my people Isra'el; I will never again overlook their offenses.

The high places of Yitz'chak will be desolate, Isra'el's sanctuaries will be destroyed, and I will attack the house of Yarov‘am with the sword."

Then Amatzyah the priest of Beit-El sent this message to Yarov‘am king of Isra'el, "‘Amos is conspiring against you there among the people of Isra'el, and the land can't bear all that he's saying.

For ‘Amos says: ‘Yarov‘am will die by the sword, and Isra'el will be led away from their land into exile.'"

Amatzyah also said to ‘Amos, "Go away, seer! Go back to the land of Y'hudah! Earn your living there; and prophesy there;

but don't prophesy any more at Beit-El; for this is the king's sanctuary, a royal temple."

‘Amos gave this answer to Amatzyah: "I am not trained as a prophet, and I'm not one of the guild prophets — I own sheep and grow figs.

But Adonai took me away from following the flock, and Adonai said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Isra'el.'

So now, hear what Adonai says: ‘You say, "Don't prophesy against Isra'el, don't lecture the people of Yitz'chak."'

Therefore Adonai says this: ‘Your wife will become a whore in the city, your sons and daughters will die by the sword, your land will be parcelled out with a measuring line, you yourself will die in an unclean land, and Isra'el will certainly be exiled from their land.'"

Here is what Adonai Elohim showed me: there in front of me was a basket of summer fruit.

He asked, "‘Amos, what do you see?" I answered, "A basket of summer ^[a] fruit." Then Adonai said to me, "The end ^[b] has come for my people, I will never again overlook their offenses.

When that time comes, the songs in the temple will be wailings," says Adonai Elohim . "There will be many dead bodies; everywhere silence will reign."

Listen, you who swallow the needy and destroy the poor of the land!

You say, "When will Rosh-Hodesh be over, so we can market our grain? and Shabbat, so we can sell wheat?" You measure the grain in a small eifah, but the silver in heavy shekels, fixing the scales, so that you can cheat,

buying the needy for money and the poor for a pair of shoes, and sweeping up the refuse of the wheat to sell!"

Adonai swears by Ya‘akov's pride, "I will forget none of their deeds, ever.

Won't the land tremble for this, and everyone mourn, who lives in the land? It will all rise, just like the Nile, be in turmoil and subside, like the Nile in Egypt.

"When that time comes," says Adonai Elohim , "I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight.

I will turn your festivals into mourning and all your songs into wailing; I will make you all put sackcloth around your waists and shave your heads bald in grief. I will make it like mourning for an only son and its end like a bitter day.

"The time is coming," says Adonai Elohim , "when I will send famine over the land, not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of Adonai .

People will stagger from sea to sea and from north to east, running back and forth, seeking the word of Adonai ; but they will not find it.

When that time comes, young women and men will faint from thirst.

Those who swear by the sin of Shomron, who say, ‘As your god, Dan, lives,' and, ‘As the way of Be'er-Sheva lives' — they will fall and never get up again."

I saw Adonai standing beside the altar, and he said, "Strike the tops of the columns until the thresholds shake! Smash them to pieces on the heads of all the people! Those who remain I will kill with the sword; not one of them will succeed in fleeing, not one of them will escape.

If they dig down to Sh'ol, my hand will haul them out; if they climb up to heaven, I will bring them down.

If they hide themselves on the top of the Karmel, I will search them out and capture them there; If they hide from me at the bottom of the sea, I will order the serpent to bite them there.

If their enemies herd them into exile, I will order the sword to kill them there. I will fix my gaze on them for harm and not for good."

For Adonai Elohim -Tzva'ot is the one who can melt the earth with his touch, and make all who live on it mourn. It will all rise, just like the Nile, and then subside, like the Nile in Egypt.

He builds his upper rooms in heaven and establishes his sky-vault over the earth. He summons the waters of the sea and pours them out over the earth. Adonai is his name.

"People of Isra'el, are you any different from the Ethiopians to me?" asks Adonai . "True, I brought Isra'el up from Egypt, but I also brought the P'lishtim from Kaftor, and Aram from Kir.

Look, the eyes of Adonai Elohim are on the sinful kingdom. I will wipe it off the face of the earth, yet I will not completely destroy the house of Ya‘akov," says Adonai .

"For when I give the order, I will shake the house of Isra'el, there among all the Goyim, as one shakes with a sieve, letting no grain fall to the ground.

All the sinners among my people who say, ‘Disaster will never overtake us or confront us,' will die by the sword.

"When that day comes, I will raise up the fallen sukkah of David. I will close up its gaps, raise up its ruins and rebuild it as it used to be,

so that Isra'el can possess what is left of Edom and of all the nations bearing my name," says Adonai , who is doing this.

"The days will come," says Adonai , "when the plowman will overtake the reaper and the one treading grapes the one sowing seed. Sweet wine will drip down the mountains, and all the hills will flow with it.

I will restore the fortunes of my people Isra'el; they will rebuild and inhabit the ruined cities; they will plant vineyards and drink their wine, cultivate gardens and eat their fruit.

I will plant them on their own soil, no more to be uprooted from their land, which I gave them," says Adonai your God.