Study Desk

Ephraim, what more have I to do with idols? It is I who answer and look after you. I am like a luxuriant juniper; From Me comes your fruit.

"Yet even now," declares the LORD, "Return to Me with all your heart, And with fasting, weeping, and mourning;

"Moreover, what are you to Me, Tyre, Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you repaying Me with retribution? But if you are showing Me retribution, swiftly and speedily I will return your retribution on your head!

"But I gave you also cleanness of teeth in all your cities, And lack of bread in all your places; Yet you have not returned to Me," declares the LORD.

"So the people of two or three cities would stagger to another city to drink water, But would not be satisfied; Yet you have not returned to Me," declares the LORD.

"I struck you with scorching wind and mildew; The caterpillar was devouring Your many gardens and vineyards, fig trees and olive trees; Yet you have not returned to Me," declares the LORD.

"I sent a plague among you as in Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword, along with your captured horses, And I made the stench of your camp rise up in your nostrils; Yet you have not returned to Me," declares the LORD.

"I overthrew you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, And you were like a log snatched from a fire; Yet you have not returned to Me," declares the LORD.

For this is what the LORD says to the house of Israel: "Seek Me so that you may live.

"Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; And I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fattened oxen.

"Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps.

"Did you present Me with sacrifices and grain offerings in the wilderness for forty years, house of Israel?

This is what the Lord GOD showed me, and behold, He was forming a swarm of locusts when the spring crop began to sprout. And behold, the spring crop was after the king's mowing.

So the Lord GOD showed me, and behold, the Lord GOD was calling to contend with them by fire, and it consumed the great deep and began to consume the farmland.

So He showed me, and behold, the Lord was standing by a vertical wall with a plumb line in His hand.

And the LORD said to me, "What do you see, Amos?" And I said, "A plumb line." Then the Lord said, "Behold I am about to put a plumb line In the midst of My people Israel. I will not spare them any longer.

"But the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, 'Go prophesy to My people Israel.'

This is what the Lord GOD showed me, and behold, there was a basket of summer fruit.

And He said, "What do you see, Amos?" And I said, "A basket of summer fruit." Then the LORD said to me, "The end has come for My people Israel. I will not spare them any longer.

"Are you not as the sons of Ethiopia to Me, You sons of Israel?" declares the LORD. "Have I not brought up Israel from the land of Egypt, And the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir?