Amos 6

⁹Stand up, you complacent women; listen to me. Give ear to my word, you overconfident daughters.

¹⁰In a little more than a year you will tremble, O secure ones. For the grape harvest will fail and the fruit harvest will not arrive.

⁵You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter.

¹⁷So he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, since I have nowhere to store my crops?’

¹⁸Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and will build bigger ones, and there I will store up all my grain and my goods.

¹Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy, who say to your husbands, “Bring us more to drink.”

¹²And at that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish the men settled in complacency, who say to themselves, ‘The Lord will do nothing, either good or bad.’

⁷So the five men departed and came to Laish, where they saw that the people were living securely, like the Sidonians, quiet and unsuspecting. There was nothing lacking in the land and no oppressive ruler. And they were far away from the Sidonians and had no alliance with anyone.

⁸Are you better than Thebes, stationed by the Nile with water around her, whose rampart was the sea, whose wall was the water?

¹⁰His kingdom began in Babylon, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.

³⁴Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand?

⁶Uzziah went out to wage war against the Philistines, and he tore down the walls of Gath, Jabneh, and Ashdod. Then he built cities near Ashdod and among the Philistines.

⁹“Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus?

¹⁰As my hand seized the idolatrous kingdoms whose images surpassed those of Jerusalem and Samaria,

⁴Then a champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out from the Philistine camp. He was six cubits and a span in height,

¹⁰All the sinners among My people will die by the sword—all those who say, ‘Disaster will never draw near or confront us.’”

¹²“Come, let me get the wine, let us imbibe the strong drink, and tomorrow will be like today, only far better!”

²⁷“Son of man, take note that the house of Israel is saying, ‘The vision that he sees is for many years from now; he prophesies about the distant future.’

³While people are saying, “Peace and security,” destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

¹⁰“For they know not how to do right,” declares the Lord. “They store up violence and destruction in their citadels.”

⁴⁸But suppose that servant is wicked and says in his heart, ‘My master will be away a long time.’

¹²This is what the Lord says: “As the shepherd snatches from the mouth of the lion two legs or a piece of an ear, so the Israelites dwelling in Samaria will be rescued having just the corner of a bed or the cushion of a couch.

⁵You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter.

³⁶When Abigail returned to Nabal, there he was in the house, holding a feast fit for a king, in high spirits and very drunk. So she told him nothing until morning light.

³⁷In the morning when Nabal was sober, his wife told him about these events, and his heart failed within him, and he became like a stone.

²“Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and tell them that this is what the Lord God says: ‘Woe to the shepherds of Israel, who only feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed their flock?

³You eat the fat, wear the wool, and butcher the fattened sheep, but you do not feed the flock.

¹¹Woe to those who rise early in the morning in pursuit of strong drink, who linger into the evening, to be inflamed by wine.

¹²At their feasts are the lyre and harp, tambourines and flutes and wine. They disregard the actions of the Lord and fail to see the work of His hands.

¹⁹Then I will say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take it easy. Eat, drink, and be merry!”’

²⁰But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be required of you. Then who will own what you have accumulated?’

¹²At their feasts are the lyre and harp, tambourines and flutes and wine. They disregard the actions of the Lord and fail to see the work of His hands.

²³Take away from Me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.

³“In that day,” declares the Lord God, “the songs of the temple will turn to wailing. Many will be the corpses, strewn in silence everywhere!”

²⁷Why did you run away secretly and deceive me, without even telling me? I would have sent you away with joy and singing, with tambourines and harps.

⁸and I accumulated for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I gathered to myself male and female singers, and the delights of the sons of men—many concubines.

²²And the sound of harpists and musicians, of flute players and trumpeters, will never ring out in you again. Nor will any craftsmen of any trade be found in you again, nor the sound of a millstone be heard in you again.

²²Joseph is a fruitful vine—a fruitful vine by a spring, whose branches scale the wall.

²⁶If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

²³Stop drinking only water and use a little wine instead, because of your stomach and your frequent ailments.

³Shalmaneser king of Assyria attacked him, and Hoshea became his vassal and paid him tribute.

⁴But the king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea had conspired to send envoys to King So of Egypt, and that he had not paid tribute to the king of Assyria as in previous years. Therefore the king of Assyria arrested Hoshea and put him in prison.

⁷How awful that day will be! None will be like it! It is the time of Jacob’s distress, but he will be saved out of it.

²⁹In the days of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came and captured Ijon, Abel-beth-maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, and Galilee, including all the land of Naphtali, and he took the people as captives to Assyria.

¹¹for this is what Amos has said: ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will surely go into exile, away from their homeland.’”

⁵Do not seek Bethel or go to Gilgal; do not journey to Beersheba, for Gilgal will surely go into exile, and Bethel will come to nothing.

¹⁶They marched out at noon while Ben-hadad and the 32 kings allied with him were in their tents getting drunk.

¹⁷And the young officers of the district governors marched out first. Now Ben-hadad had sent out scouts, who reported to him, “Men are marching out of Samaria.”

⁴As they drank the wine, they praised their gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone.

⁵At that moment the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. As the king watched the hand that was writing,

¹⁰For they will be entangled as with thorns and consumed like the drink of a drunkard—like stubble that is fully dry.

¹⁷Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword. Your land will be divided by a measuring line, and you yourself will die on pagan soil. And Israel will surely go into exile, away from their homeland.’”

¹⁴The Lord of Hosts has sworn by Himself: “Surely I will fill you up with men as with locusts, and they will shout in triumph over you.”

²The Lord God has sworn by His holiness: “Behold, the days are coming when you will be taken away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks.

⁵But if you do not obey these words, then I swear by Myself, declares the Lord, that this house will become a pile of rubble.’”

⁴He chooses our inheritance for us, the pride of Jacob, whom He loves. Selah

⁷The Lord has sworn by the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget any of their deeds.

¹¹Therefore this is what the Lord God says: “An enemy will surround the land; he will pull down your strongholds and plunder your citadels.”

³This is what the Lord God says: “The city that marches out a thousand strong will have but a hundred left, and the one that marches out a hundred strong will have but ten left in the house of Israel.”

²He had seven sons and three daughters,

¹¹Haman recounted to them his glorious wealth, his many sons, and all the ways the king had honored and promoted him over the other officials and servants.

¹³May his descendants be cut off; may their name be blotted out from the next generation.

³³And every one of you that I do not cut off from My altar, I will cause your eyes to fail and your heart to grieve. All your descendants will die by the sword of men.

²⁸The possessions of his house will be removed, flowing away on the day of God’s wrath.

³“In that day,” declares the Lord God, “the songs of the temple will turn to wailing. Many will be the corpses, strewn in silence everywhere!”

¹²all their men of valor set out, journeyed all night, and retrieved the bodies of Saul and his sons from the wall of Beth-shan. When they arrived at Jabesh, they burned the bodies there.

³⁹And as for you, O house of Israel, this is what the Lord God says: Go and serve your idols, every one of you. But afterward, you will surely listen to Me, and you will no longer defile My holy name with your gifts and idols.

¹³Therefore, the prudent keep silent in such times, for the days are evil.

¹²Then the Israelites declared to Moses, “Look, we are perishing! We are lost; we are all lost!

⁶“Both great and small will die in this land. They will not be buried or mourned, nor will anyone cut himself or shave his head for them.

¹⁵I will tear down the winter house along with the summer house; the houses of ivory will also perish, and the great houses will come to an end,” declares the Lord.

¹¹so My word that proceeds from My mouth will not return to Me empty, but it will accomplish what I please, and it will prosper where I send it.

⁹He burned down the house of the Lord, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem—every significant building.

⁸The Lord God has sworn by Himself—the Lord, the God of Hosts, has declared: “I abhor Jacob’s pride and detest his citadels, so I will deliver up the city and everything in it.”

⁴⁴They will level you to the ground—you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.”

⁹“For surely I will give the command, and I will shake the house of Israel among all the nations as grain is sifted in a sieve; but not a pebble will reach the ground.

⁷There are those who turn justice into wormwood and cast righteousness to the ground.

⁴They speak mere words; with false oaths they make covenants. So judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of a field.

¹¹Therefore, because you trample on the poor and exact from him a tax of grain, you will never live in the stone houses you have built; you will never drink the wine from the lush vineyards you have planted.

¹²For I know that your transgressions are many and your sins are numerous. You oppress the righteous by taking bribes; you deprive the poor of justice in the gate.

¹³rebelling and denying the Lord, turning away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering lies from the heart.

¹⁴So justice is turned away, and righteousness stands at a distance. For truth has stumbled in the public square, and honesty cannot enter.

⁷But his wife Jezebel said to him, “Do you not reign over Israel? Get up, eat some food, and be cheerful, for I will get you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.”

⁸Then Jezebel wrote letters in Ahab’s name, sealed them with his seal, and sent them to the elders and nobles who lived with Naboth in his city.

⁴For I knew that you are stubborn; your neck is iron and your forehead is bronze.

¹⁹Then I will say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take it easy. Eat, drink, and be merry!”’

²⁰But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be required of you. Then who will own what you have accumulated?’

¹⁴Therefore hear the word of the Lord, O scoffers who rule this people in Jerusalem.

¹⁵For you said, “We have made a covenant with death; we have fashioned an agreement with Sheol. When the overwhelming scourge passes through it will not touch us, because we have made lies our refuge and falsehood our hiding place.”

¹⁶As it is, you boast in your proud intentions. All such boasting is evil.

²⁵This Jeroboam restored the boundary of Israel from Lebo-hamath to the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word that the Lord, the God of Israel, had spoken through His servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath-hepher.

²⁹If I have rejoiced in my enemy’s ruin, or exulted when evil befell him—

⁵When the ark of the covenant of the Lord entered the camp, all the Israelites raised such a great shout that the ground shook.

²⁵This Jeroboam restored the boundary of Israel from Lebo-hamath to the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word that the Lord, the God of Israel, had spoken through His servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath-hepher.

⁶⁵So at that time Solomon and all Israel with him—a great assembly of people from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt—kept the feast before the Lord our God for seven days and seven more days—fourteen days in all.

¹⁵Behold, I am bringing a distant nation against you, O house of Israel,” declares the Lord. “It is an established nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know and whose speech you do not understand.

¹⁶Their quivers are like open graves; they are all mighty men.

⁷Your northern border will run from the Great Sea directly to Mount Hor,

⁸and from Mount Hor to Lebo-hamath, then extend to Zedad,

⁶In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried away the Israelites to Assyria, where he settled them in Halah, in Gozan by the Habor River, and in the cities of the Medes.

⁵The people of Samaria will fear for the calf of Beth-aven. Indeed, its people will mourn over it with its idolatrous priests—those who rejoiced in its glory—for it has been taken from them into exile.