Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)

1 The words of ‘Amos, one of the sheep owners in T’koa, which he saw concerning Isra’el in the days of ‘Uziyah king of Y’hudah and Yarov‘am the son of Yo’ash, king of Isra’el, two years before the earthquake;

2 he said:

Adonaiis roaring from Tziyon

thundering from Yerushalayim;

the shepherds’ pastures will mourn,

and Mount Karmel’s summit will wither.

3 Here is whatAdonaisays:

“For Dammesek’s three crimes,

no, four — I will not reverse it —

because they threshed Gil‘ad

with an iron-spiked threshing-sledge;

4 I will send fire to the house of Haza’el,

and it will consume the palaces of Ben-Hadad.

5 I will break the bars of Dammesek’s gates.

I will cut off the inhabitants from Bik‘at-Aven,

and him who holds the scepter from Beit-‘Eden.

Then the people of Aram will go into exile

in Kir,” saysAdonai.

6 Here is whatAdonaisays:

“For ‘Azah’s three crimes,

no, four — I will not reverse it —

because they exiled a whole population

and handed them over to Edom;

7 I will send fire to the wall of ‘Azah,

and it will consume its palaces.

8 I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod,

and him who holds the scepter from Ashkelon.

I will turn my hand against ‘Ekron,

and the rest of the P’lishtim will perish,”

saysAdonai, God.

9 Here is whatAdonaisays:

“For Tzor’s three crimes,

no, four — I will not reverse it —

because they exiled a whole population to Edom

and did not remember the covenant with kinsmen;

10 I will send fire to the wall of Tzor,

and it will consume its palaces.”

11 Here is whatAdonaisays:

“For Edom’s three crimes,

no, four — I will not reverse it —

because with sword he pursued his kinsman

and threw aside all pity,

constantly nursing his anger,

forever fomenting his fury;

12 I will send fire on Teman,

and it will consume the palaces of Botzrah.”

13 Here is whatAdonaisays:

“For the people of ‘Amon’s three crimes,

no, four — I will not reverse it —

because they ripped apart pregnant women

just to expand their territory,

14 I will set fire to the wall of Rabbah,

and it will consume its palaces

amid shouts on the day of battle,

amid a storm on the day of the whirlwind.

15 Their king will go into exile,

he and his princes together,” saysAdonai.

1 Here is whatAdonaisays:

“For Mo’av’s three crimes,

no, four — I will not reverse it —

because he burned the bones of the king of Edom,

turning them into lime;

2 I will send fire on Mo’av,

and it will consume the palaces of K’riot.

Mo’av will die with turmoil and shouting,

along with the sound of theshofar.

3 I will cut off the judge from among them

and kill all his princes with him,” saysAdonai.

4 Here is whatAdonaisays:

“For Y’hudah’s three crimes,

no, four — I will not reverse it —

because they rejectedAdonai’sTorah

and haven’t observed his laws,

and their lies caused them to fall into error

and live the way their ancestors did;

5 I will send fire on Y’hudah,

and it will consume the palaces of Yerushalayim.

6 Here is whatAdonaisays:

“For Isra’el’s three crimes,

no, four — I will not reverse it —

because they sell the upright for silver

and the poor for a pair of shoes,

7 grinding the heads of the poor in the dust

and pushing the lowly out of the way;

father and son sleep with the same girl,

profaning my holy name;

8 lying down beside any altar

on clothes taken in pledge;

drinking wine in the house of their God

bought with fines they imposed.

9 “I destroyed the Emori before them;

though tall as cedars and strong as oaks,

I destroyed their fruit above

and their root below.

10 More than that, I brought you up from Egypt,

led you forty years in the desert,

so that you could have the Emori’s land.

11 I raised up some of your sons to be prophets,

other young men of yours to ben’zirim.

People of Isra’el!

Isn’t that true?” asksAdonai.

12 But you gave then’zirimwine to drink

and ordered the prophets, ‘Don’t prophesy!’

13 “Enough! I will make all this crush you,

just as a cart overloaded with grain

crushes what’s under it.

14 Even the swift won’t be able to flee;

the strong won’t be able to use their strength,

the warriors won’t save themselves.

15 Archers won’t be able to stand,

the fastest runners won’t save themselves,

those on horses won’t save themselves.

16 On that day even the bravest warriors

will throw off their weapons and flee,” saysAdonai.

1 “Listen to this word whichAdonaihas spoken against you, people of Isra’el, against the entire family that I brought up from the land of Egypt:

2 “Of all the families on earth,

only you have I intimately known.

This is why I will punish you

for all your crimes.”

3 Do two people travel together

without having so agreed?

4 Does a lion roar in the forest

when it has no prey?

Does a young lion growl in his lair

if it has caught nothing?

5 Does a bird get caught in a trap on the ground

if it hasn’t been baited?

Does a trap spring up from the ground

when it has taken nothing?

6 When theshofaris blown in the city,

don’t the people tremble?

Can disaster befall a city

withoutAdonai’s having done it?

7 Adonai, God, does nothing without

revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.

8 The lion has roared. Who will not fear?

Adonai, God, has spoken. Who will not prophesy?

9 “Proclaim it on the palaces in Ashdod

and on the palaces in the land of Egypt; say:

‘Assemble yourselves on the hills of Shomron!

See what great tumult is seething within it,

how much oppression is being done there.’

10 For they don’t know how to do right,” saysAdonai.

“They store up violence and robbery in their palaces.”

11 Therefore, here is whatAdonaiElohimsays:

“An enemy will surround the land.

He will strip you of your strength,

and plunder your palaces.”

12 This is whatAdonaisays:

13 “As a shepherd rescues from the mouth of a lion

a couple of leg bones or a piece of an ear;

so the people of Isra’el in Shomron will be rescued,

huddled under cushions in the corners of their beds.

“Hear, and testify against the house of Ya‘akov,”

saysAdonaiElohimElohei-Tzva’ot.

14 “For when I punish Isra’el’s crimes,

I will also punish the altars of Beit-El.

The horns of the altar will be cut off,

and they will fall to the ground.

15 I will tear down winter houses

as well as summer houses;

houses adorned with ivory will be destroyed;

the mansions will be no more,” saysAdonai.

1 “Listen, you [lovely] cows of Bashan,

who live on Mount Shomron,

who oppress the poor and grind down the needy,

who say to their husbands, ‘Bring something to drink’:

2 AdonaiElohimhas sworn by his holiness

that your time is surely coming.

“You will be dragged away with hooks,

the last of you with fishhooks.

3 You will leave through breaks in the wall,

each woman right behind the next,

and be sent off to Harmonah,” saysAdonai.

4 “Come to Beit-El, and commit crimes;

to Gilgal, and commit more crimes!

Bring your sacrifices in the morning

and your tithes after three days;

5 burn leavened bread as a thank offering;

brag in public about your voluntary offerings;

because that’s what you love to do, Isra’el!”

saysAdonaiElohim.

6 “I made your teeth clean of food in all your cities,

left you nothing to eat in all your villages;

still you haven’t returned to me,” saysAdonai.

7 “I withheld the rain from you

three months before the harvest.

I made it rain on one city

and not on another —

one field had rain,

while another with no rain dried up;

8 from two or three cities they would stagger to one city

for water to drink, but there wasn’t enough;

still you haven’t returned to me,” saysAdonai.

9 “I struck your crops with hot winds and blight,

your many gardens and vineyards;

the cutter-worms devoured

your fig and olive trees;

still you haven’t returned to me,” saysAdonai.

10 “I sent a plague on you like that of Egypt,

put your young men to death with the sword;

let your horses be captured;

and filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps;

still you haven’t returned to me,” saysAdonai.

11 “I overthrew some of you,

as when God overthrew S’dom and ‘Amora;

you were like a burning stick snatched from the fire;

still you haven’t returned to me,” saysAdonai.

12 “This is why I will deal with you in this way, Isra’el;

and because I will deal with you in this way,

prepare to meet your God, Isra’el —

13 him who forms mountains and creates wind,

who declares to humankind his thoughts,

who turns the morning to darkness

and strides on the heights of the earth —

AdonaiElohei-Tzva’otis his name.”

1 Hear this word that I take up against you

in lament, house of Isra’el:

2 The virgin of Isra’el has fallen;

she will not rise again.

She lies abandoned on her own soil

with no one to lift her up.

3 For thus saysAdonaiElohim:

“The city from which a thousand marched

will be left with a hundred,

and the one from which a hundred marched

will be left with ten

from the house of Isra’el.”

4 For here is whatAdonaisays

to the house of Isra’el:

“If you seek me, you will survive;

5 but don’t seek Beit-El, or enter Gilgal

or pass on into Be’er-Sheva;

for Gilgal will certainly go into exile,

and Beit-El will come to nothing.”

6 If you seekAdonai, you will survive.

Otherwise, he will break out against

the house of Yosef like fire,

devouring Beit-El,

with no one to quench the flames.

7 You who turn justice to bitter wormwood

and throw righteousness to the ground!

8 He who made the Pleiades and Orion,

who brings deathlike shadows over the morning,

who darkens the day into night,

who calls for the water in the sea

and with it floods the earth —

Adonaiis his name —

9 he flashes destruction on the strong,

so that destruction overcomes the fortress.

10 They hate anyone promoting justice

at the city gate,

they detest anyone who speaks the truth.

11 Therefore, because you trample on the poor

and extort from them levies of grain;

although you have built houses of cut stone,

you will not live in them;

and though you have planted pleasant vineyards,

you will not drink their wine.

12 For I know how numerous are your crimes

and how outrageous your sins —

bullying the innocent, extorting ransoms

pushing the poor aside at the gate.

13 At times like these a prudent person stays silent,

for it is an evil time.

14 Seek good and not evil, so that you will survive.

ThenAdonaiElohei-Tzva’otwill be with you,

as you say he is.

15 Hate evil, love good, and uphold justice at the gate.

MaybeAdonaiElohei-Tzva’ot

will take pity on the survivors of Yosef.

16 Therefore thus saysAdonaiElohei-Tzva’ot,Adonai:

“In all public squares there will be lamentation,

in all the streets they will cry, ‘Oh, no!’

They will summon farmers to mourn

and professional mourners to wail.

17 There will be wailing in every vineyard,

for I will pass through among you,” saysAdonai.

18 Woe to you who want the Day ofAdonai!

Why do you want it, this Day ofAdonai?

It is darkness, not light;

19 as if someone were to run from a lion,

just to be met by a bear;

as if he entered a house, put his hand on the wall,

just to be bitten by a snake.

20 Won’t the Day ofAdonaibe darkness, not light,

completely dark, with no brightness at all?

21 “I hate, I utterly loathe your festivals;

I take no pleasure in your solemn assemblies.

22 If you offer me burnt offerings and grain offerings,

I will not accept them;

nor will I consider the peace offerings

of your stall-fed cattle.

23 Spare me the noise of your songs!

I don’t want to hear the strumming of your lutes!

24 Instead, let justice well up like water,

and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

25 Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings

in the desert forty years, house of Isra’el?

26 No, but now you will bear Sikkut as your king

and Kiyun, your images,

the star of your god, which you made for yourselves;

27 as I exile you beyond Dammesek,”

saysAdonaiElohei-Tzva’ot —

that is his name.

1 Woe to those living at ease in Tziyon

and to those who feel complacent on the hills of Shomron,

renowned men in this foremost of nations,

to whom the rest of Isra’el come.

2 Travel to Kalneh and see;

from there go on to Hamat the great;

then go down to Gat of the P’lishtim.

Are you better than these kingdoms?

Is their territory larger than yours?

3 You put off all thought of the evil day

but hasten the reign of violence.

4 You lie on beds of ivory

and lounge sprawled out on your couches,

dining on meat from lambs in the flock

and from calves fattened in stalls.

5 You make up wild songs at your parties,

playing the lute and inventing other instruments —

[imagining that you’re] like David!

6 You drink wine by the bowlful

and anoint yourselves with the finest oils,

but feel no grief at the ruin of Yosef.

7 Therefore now they will be the first

to go into exile with those being exiled,

and the revelry of those who lounged,

sprawling, will pass away.

8 “AdonaiElohimswears by himself,”

saysAdonaiElohei-Tzva’ot,

“I detest that Ya‘akov is so proud,

and I hate his palaces.

I will hand over the city,

along with everything in it.”

9 When that day comes, if ten men remain in one house, they will die.

10 And if a [dead] man’s uncle, coming to bring the corpse out of the house and burn it, finds a survivor hidden in the inmost recesses of the house and asks, “Is anyone else there with you?” — then, when he receives the answer, “No,” he will say, “Don’t say any more, because we mustn’t mention the name ofAdonai.”

11 For whenAdonaigives the order,

great houses will be shattered

and small houses reduced to rubble.

12 Do horses run on rock?

Does one plow there with oxen?

Yet you have turned justice into poison

and the fruit of righteousness into bitter wormwood.

13 You take pleasure in worthless things.

You think your power comes from your own strength.

14 “But I will raise up a nation against you, house of Isra’el,” saysAdonaiElohei-Tzva’ot, “and they will oppress you from the entrance of Hamat to theVadiof the ‘Aravah.”

1 Here is whatAdonaiElohimshowed me: he was forming a swarm of locusts as the late crop was starting to come up, the late crop after the hay had been cut to pay the king’s tribute.

2 While they were finishing up eating all the vegetation in the land, I said,

“AdonaiElohim, forgive — please!

How will tiny Ya‘akov survive?”

3 SoAdonaichanged his mind about this. “It won’t happen,”Adonaisaid.

4 NextAdonaiElohimshowed me this:AdonaiElohimwas summoning a blazing fire to consume the great abyss, and it would have devoured the land too.

5 But I said,

“AdonaiElohim, stop — please!

How will tiny Ya‘akov survive?”

6 Adonaichanged his mind about it. “This too won’t happen,” saidAdonaiElohim.

7 Then he showed me this:adonaiwas standing by a wall made with a plumbline, and he had a plumbline in his hand.

8 Adonaiasked me, “‘Amos, what do you see?” I answered, “A plumbline.” ThenAdonaisaid,

“I am going to put a plumbline in

among my people Isra’el;

I will never again overlook their offenses.

9 The high places of Yitz’chak will be desolate,

Isra’el’s sanctuaries will be destroyed,

and I will attack the house

of Yarov‘am with the sword.”

10 Then Amatzyah the priest of Beit-El sent this message to Yarov‘am king of Isra’el, “‘Amos is conspiring against you there among the people of Isra’el, and the land can’t bear all that he’s saying.

11 For ‘Amos says: ‘Yarov‘am will die by the sword, and Isra’el will be led away from their land into exile.’”

12 Amatzyah also said to ‘Amos, “Go away, seer! Go back to the land of Y’hudah! Earn your living there; and prophesy there;

13 but don’t prophesy any more at Beit-El; for this is the king’s sanctuary, a royal temple.”

14 ‘Amos gave this answer to Amatzyah: “I am not trained as a prophet, and I’m not one of the guild prophets — I own sheep and grow figs.

15 ButAdonaitook me away from following the flock, andAdonaisaid to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Isra’el.’

16 So now, hear whatAdonaisays: ‘You say, “Don’t prophesy against Isra’el, don’t lecture the people of Yitz’chak.”’

17 ThereforeAdonaisays this:

‘Your wife will become a whore in the city,

your sons and daughters will die by the sword,

your land will be parcelled out with a measuring line,

you yourself will die in an unclean land,

and Isra’el will certainly be exiled from their land.’”

1 Here is whatAdonaiElohimshowed me: there in front of me was a basket of summer fruit.

2 He asked, “‘Amos, what do you see?” I answered, “A basket of summer fruit.” ThenAdonaisaid to me,

“The end has come for my people,

I will never again overlook their offenses.

3 When that time comes, the songs in the temple

will be wailings,” saysAdonaiElohim.

“There will be many dead bodies;

everywhere silence will reign.”

4 Listen, you who swallow the needy

and destroy the poor of the land!

5 You say, “When willRosh-Hodeshbe over,

so we can market our grain?

andShabbat, so we can sell wheat?”

You measure the grain in a smalleifah,

but the silver in heavyshekels,

fixing the scales, so that you can cheat,

6 buying the needy for money

and the poor for a pair of shoes,

and sweeping up the refuse of the wheat to sell!”

7 Adonaiswears by Ya‘akov’s pride,

“I will forget none of their deeds, ever.

8 Won’t the land tremble for this,

and everyone mourn, who lives in the land?

It will all rise, just like the Nile,

be in turmoil and subside, like the Nile in Egypt.

9 “When that time comes,” saysAdonaiElohim,

“I will make the sun go down at noon

and darken the earth in broad daylight.

10 I will turn your festivals into mourning

and all your songs into wailing;

I will make you all put sackcloth around your waists

and shave your heads bald in grief.

I will make it like mourning for an only son

and its end like a bitter day.

11 “The time is coming,” saysAdonaiElohim,

“when I will send famine over the land,

not a famine of bread or a thirst for water,

but of hearing the words ofAdonai.

12 People will stagger from sea to sea

and from north to east, running back and forth,

seeking the word ofAdonai;

but they will not find it.

13 When that time comes, young women and men

will faint from thirst.

14 Those who swear by the sin of Shomron,

who say, ‘As your god, Dan, lives,’

and, ‘As the way of Be’er-Sheva lives’ —

they will fall and never get up again.”