Basket of Fruit and Israel’s Captivity

1Thus the Lord GOD showed me [a vision], and behold, there was a basket of [overripe] summer fruit. 2And He said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the LORD said to me, “The end has come for My people Israel. I will spare them no longer [for the nation is ripe for judgment]. 3In that day, the songs of the palace shall turn to wailing,” says the Lord GOD. “There will be many dead bodies; in [sacred] silence they will throw them everywhere.”

4Hear this, you who trample down the needy, and do away with the poor of the land, 5saying,

“When will the New Moon [festival] be over

So that we may sell grain,

And the Sabbath ended so that we may open the wheat market,

Making the ephah [measure] smaller and the shekel bigger [that is, selling less for a higher price]

And to cheat by falsifying the scales,

6So that we may buy the poor [as slaves] for silver [since they are unable to support themselves]

And the [a]needy for a pair of sandals,

And that we may sell the leftovers of the wheat [as if it were a good grade of grain]?”

7The LORD has sworn [an oath] by the pride of Jacob,

“Surely I shall never forget [nor leave unpunished] any of their [rebellious] acts.

8“Because of this [coming judgment] will the land not quake

And everyone mourn who dwells in it?

Indeed, all of it shall rise up like the Nile,

And it will be tossed around [from the impact of judgment]

And [afterward] subside again like the Nile of Egypt.

9“It shall come about in that day,” says the Lord GOD,

“That I shall cause the sun to go down at noon,

And I shall darken the earth in broad daylight.

10“And I shall turn your festivals and feasts into mourning

And all your songs into dirges (funeral poems to be sung);

And I shall cause sackcloth to be put on everyone’s [b]loins

And baldness on every head [shaved for mourning].

And I shall make that time like a time of mourning for an only son [who has died],

And the end of it shall be like a bitter day.

11“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord GOD,

“When I will send hunger over the land,

Not hunger for bread or a thirst for water,

But rather [a hunger] for hearing the words of the LORD.

12“People shall stagger from sea to sea [to the very ends of the earth]

And from the north even to the east;

They will roam here and there to seek the word of the LORD [longing for it as essential for life],

But they will not find it.

13“In that day the beautiful virgins

And [even the vigorous] young men shall faint from thirst.

14“Those who swear [their oaths] by the sin (guilt) of Samaria or Ashimah (a pagan goddess),

Who say, ‘By the life of your god [the golden calf], O Dan!’

And [swear], ‘By the life of the way of [idolatrous] Beersheba,’

They shall fall and not rise again.”