Study Desk

Give orders for a fast; call an assembly! Gather the leaders and all the people of Judah into the Temple of the Lord your God and cry out to him!

We look on helpless as our crops are destroyed. There is no joy in the Temple of our God.

Let your broken heart show your sorrow; tearing your clothes is not enough." Come back to the Lord your God. He is kind and full of mercy; he is patient and keeps his promise; he is always ready to forgive and not punish.

Perhaps the Lord your God will change his mind and bless you with abundant crops. Then you can offer him grain and wine.

The priests, serving the Lord between the altar and the entrance of the Temple, must weep and pray: "Have pity on your people, Lord . Do not let other nations despise us and mock us by saying, ‘Where is your God?'"

"Be glad, people of Zion, rejoice at what the Lord your God has done for you. He has given you the right amount of autumn rain; he has poured down the winter rain for you and the spring rain as before.

Now you will have plenty to eat, and be satisfied. You will praise the Lord your God, who has done wonderful things for you. My people will never be despised again.

Then, Israel, you will know that I am among you and that I, the Lord , am your God and there is no other. My people will never be despised again.

"Then, Israel, you will know that I am the Lord your God. I live on Zion, my sacred hill. Jerusalem will be a sacred city; foreigners will never conquer it again.

These are the words of Amos, a shepherd from the town of Tekoa. Two years before the earthquake, when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel, God revealed to Amos all these things about Israel.

At every place of worship people sleep on clothing that they have taken from the poor as security for debts. In the temple of their God they drink wine which they have taken from those who owe them money.

Go on and offer your bread in thanksgiving to God, and brag about the extra offerings you bring! This is the kind of thing you love to do.

God is the one who made the mountains and created the winds. He makes his thoughts known to people; he changes day into night. He walks on the heights of the earth. This is his name: the Lord God Almighty!

Make it your aim to do what is right, not what is evil, so that you may live. Then the Lord God Almighty really will be with you, as you claim he is.

But now, because you have worshiped images of Sakkuth, your king god, and of Kaiwan, your star god, you will have to carry those images

when I take you into exile in a land beyond Damascus," says the Lord , whose name is Almighty God.

The Lord God Almighty himself says, "People of Israel, I am going to send a foreign army to occupy your country. It will oppress you from Hamath Pass in the north to the Brook of the Arabah in the south."

The Lord , the God of Israel, has sworn, "I will never forget their evil deeds.

Those who swear by the idols of Samaria, who say, ‘By the god of Dan' or ‘By the god of Beersheba'—those people will fall and not rise again."

The sinners among my people will be killed in war—all those who say, ‘God will not let any harm come near us.'"