do 1 Or, will ye repay a deed of mine, or will ye aught unto me? swiftly &c. 2 Or, deed 3 Heb. sanctify. 4 yourselves and parted my land. And they have cast 3 lots for my people: and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink. Yea, and what are ye to me, 4 O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the regions of Philistia? 1will ye render me a recompence? and if ye recompense me, swiftly and speedily will I return your 'recompence upon your own head. Forasmuch as ye have taken my silver 5 and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things; the children also of 6 Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the sons of the Grecians, that ye might remove them far from their border: behold, I will stir them up out of the place 7 whither ye have sold them, and will return your recompence upon your own head; and I will 8 sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the men of Sheba, to a nation far off: for the LORD hath spoken it. Proclaim ye this among the nations; pre- 9 pare war stir up the mighty men; let all the men of war draw near, let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your 10 pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I ▲ Or, Assemble am strong. 'Haste ye, and come, all ye nations 11 round about, and gather yourselves together: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O LORD. Let the nations bestir themselves, 12 and come up to the valley of 'Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the nations round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the "harvest 13 is ripe come, 'tread ye; for the winepress is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley 14 of decision! for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the 15 That is, The LORD judgeth. Or, vintage 7 Or, get you down moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw 16 their shining. And the LORD shall roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake. but the LORD will be a refuge unto his people, and a 17 strong hold to the children of Israel. So shall ye know that I am the LORD your God, dwelling in Zion my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers 18 pass through her any more. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the brooks of Judah shall flow with waters; and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the LORD, and shall water 'the 1That is, the 19 valley of Shittim. Egypt shall be a desola- valley of tion, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence done to the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their 20 land. But Judah shall abide for ever, and Or, be 21 Jerusalem from generation to generation. And 2 acacias. inhabited 3 innocent I will 'cleanse their blood that I have not Or, hold as cleansed for the LORD dwelleth in Zion. AMOS. 1 See Zech. xiv. 5. 2 Or, habitations 3 Or, revoke 4 Heb. it Or, him that sitteth on the 7 Or, Heb. an en tire captivity THE words of Amos, who was among the 1 herdmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the 'earthquake. And he said, The LORD shall roar from Zion, 2 and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the 'pastures of the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither. Thus saith the LORD: For three transgres- 3 sions of Damascus, yea, for four, I will not turn away 'the punishment thereof; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron: but I will send a fire into the 4 house of Hazael, and it shall devour the palaces of Ben-hadad. And I will break the bar of 5 Damascus, and cut off 'the inhabitant from the valley of Aven, and him that holdeth the sceptre from the house of Eden: and the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir, saith the LORD. 6 Thus saith the LORD: For three transgres- 6 sions of Gaza, yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they carried away captive "the whole people, to deliver them up to Edom: but I will send a fire 7 on the wall of Gaza, and it shall devour the 8 palaces thereof: and I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod, and him that holdeth the sceptre from Ashkelon; and I will turn mine. hand against Ekron, and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, saith the Lord GOD. 9 Thus saith the LORD: For three transgressions of Tyre, yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they delivered up the whole people to Edom, and remem10 bered not the brotherly covenant: but I will send a fire on the wall of Tyre, and it shall devour the palaces thereof. 1 Heb. an entire captivity. covenant of 2 Heb. the brethren. 3 Thus saith the LORD: For three transgres- 1, ix. 11-14 sions of Edom, yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he did pursue his brother with the sword, and 'did cast off all pity, and his anger did tear perpetually, 12 and he kept his wrath for ever: but I will send a fire upon Teman, and it shall devour the palaces of Bozrah. 13 Thus saith the LORD: For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have ripped up the women with child of Gilead, that they might enlarge 14 their border: but I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it shall devour the palaces thereof, with shouting in the day of battle, with 15 a tempest in the day of the whirlwind: and their king shall go into captivity, he and his princes together, saith the LORD. 2 T Thus saith the LORD: For three transgressions of Moab, yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he burned 2 the bones of the king of Edom into lime: but I will send a fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the palaces of Kerioth; and Moab shall die with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound Heb. corcompassions. rupted his 1 Or, young woman 26. of the trumpet: and I will cut off the judge 3 from the midst thereof, and will slay all the princes thereof with him, saith the LORD. Thus saith the LORD: For three transgres- 4 sions of Judah, yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have rejected the law of the LORD, and have not kept his statutes, and their lies have caused them to err, after the which their fathers did walk: but I will send a fire upon Judah, and it 5 shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem. Thus saith the LORD: For three transgres- 6 sions of Israel, yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have sold the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes: that pant after the dust of the 7 earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and his father will go unto the same 'maid, to profane my holy name: and they lay themselves down beside 8 See Ex. xxii. every altar upon clothes taken in pledge, and in the house of their God they drink the wine of such as have been fined. Yet destroyed I 9 the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath. Also I 10 brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and led you forty years in the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite. And I raised up 11 of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazirites. Is it not even thus, O ye children of Israel? saith the LORD. But ye 12 gave the Nazirites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not. Behold, I will press you in your place, as a 13 cart presseth that is full of sheaves. And 'flight 14 shall perish from the swift, and the strong 3 Or, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves 4 Or, refuge shall fail the swift |