Amos Accused

10 Then Amaziah jthe priest of Bethel sent to kJeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has lconspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. 11 For thus Amos has said,

“ ‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword,

and mIsrael must go into exile

away from his land.’ ”

12 And Amaziah said to Amos, n“O seer, go, flee away oto the land of Judah, and peat bread there, and prophesy there, 13 but qnever again prophesy at Bethel, for rit is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.”

14 Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, s“I was1 no prophet, nor a prophet’s son, but tI was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. 15 uBut the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ 16 vNow therefore hear the word of the Lord.

“You say, n‘Do not prophesy against Israel,

and wdo not preach against the house of xIsaac.’

17 yTherefore thus says the Lord:

“ ‘Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city,

and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword,

and your land zshall be divided up with a measuring line;

you yourself shall die in an unclean land,

and mIsrael shall surely go into exile away from its land.’ ”

The Coming Day of Bitter Mourning

8 aThis is what the Lord God showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit. 2 And he said, b“Amos, what do you see?” And I said, c“A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me,

d“The end1 has come upon my people Israel;

I will never again pass by them.

3  eThe songs of the temple2 fshall become wailings3 in that day,”

declares the Lord God.

g“So many dead bodies!”

“They are thrown everywhere!”

h“Silence!”

4  Hear this, iyou who trample on the needy

and bring the poor of the land to an end,

5  saying, “When will jthe new moon be over,

that we may sell grain?

And kthe Sabbath,

that we may offer wheat for sale,

that we may make lthe ephah small and the shekel4 great

and deal deceitfully with false balances,

6  that we may buy the poor for msilver

and the needy for a pair of sandals

and sell the chaff of the wheat?”

7  The Lord has sworn by nthe pride of Jacob:

“Surely oI will never forget any of their deeds.

8  pShall not the land tremble on this account,

and everyone mourn who dwells in it,

qand all of it rise like the Nile,

and be tossed about rand sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?”

9  “And on that day,” declares the Lord God,

s“I will make the sun go down at noon

and darken the earth in broad daylight.