FOURTH VISION: A BASKET OF SUMMER FRUIT

8 The Lord God showed me this: a basket of summer fruit. 2 He asked me, “What do you see, Amos?”e

I replied, “A basket of summer fruit.”E,f

The Lord said to me, “The end has come for my people Israel;g I will no longer spare them.h 3 In that day the templeF songsi will become wailing”j—this is the Lord God’s declaration. “Many dead bodies, thrown everywhere!k Silence!”l

4 Hear this, you who trample on the needym

and do away with the poor of the land,n

5 asking, “When will the New Moon be over

so we may sell grain,o

and the Sabbath,

so we may market wheat?p

We can reduce the measure

while increasing the priceA

and cheat with dishonest scales.q

6 We can buy the poor with silver

and the needy for a pair of sandalsr

and even sell the chaff!”

7 The Lord has sworns by the Pride of Jacob:B,t

I will never forget all their deeds.u

8 Because of this, won’t the land quakev

and all who dwell in it mourn?w

All of it will rise like the Nile;x

it will surge and then subside

like the Nile in Egypt.y

9 And in that day—

this is the declaration of the Lord God—

I will make the sun go down at noon;z

I will darken the land in the daytime.aa

10 I will turn your feasts into mourningab

and all your songs into lamentation;ac

I will cause everyoneC to wear sackclothad

and every head to be shaved.ae

I will make that grief

like mourning for an only sonaf

and its outcome like a bitter day.

11 Look, the days are coming—

this is the declaration of the Lord God—

when I will send a famine through the land:

not a famine of bread or a thirst for water,

but of hearing the words of the Lord.ag

12 People will stagger from sea to sea

and roam from north to east

seeking the word of the Lord,ah

but they will not find it.

13 In that day the beautiful young women,ai

the young men also, will faint from thirst.aj

14 Those who swear by the guilt of Samariaak

and say, “As your god lives, Dan,”al

or, “As the wayD,E of Beer-sheba lives”am—

they will fall, never to rise again.an

FIFTH VISION: THE LORD BESIDE THE ALTAR

9 I saw the Lord standing beside the altar,ao and he said:

Strike the capitals of the pillarsap

so that the thresholds shake;

knock them down on the heads of all the people.

Then I will kill the rest of them with the sword.aq

None of those who flee will get away;ar

none of the fugitives will escape.

2 If they dig down to Sheol,as

from there my hand will take them;

if they climb up to heaven,at

from there I will bring them down.

3 If they hide

on the top of Carmel,

from there I will track them downau

and seize them;

if they conceal themselves

from my sight on the sea floor,a

from there I will command

the sea serpent to bite them.b

4 And if they are driven

by their enemies into captivity,c

from there I will command

the sword to kill them.d

I will keep my eye on them

for harm and not for good.e

5 The Lord, the God of Armies—

he touches the earth;f

it melts, and all who dwell in it mourn;

all of it rises like the Nile

and subsides like the Nile of Egypt.g

6 He builds his upper chambers

in the heavensh

and lays the foundation of his vault

on the earth.i

He summons the water of the sea

and pours it out over the surface of the earth.j

The Lord is his name.k

ANNOUNCEMENT OF JUDGMENT

7 Israelites, are you not like the Cushites to me?l

This is the Lord’s declaration.

Didn’t I bring Israel from the land of Egypt,

the Philistines from Caphtor,A,m

and the Arameans from Kir?n

8 Look, the eyes of the Lord God

are on the sinful kingdom,o

and I will obliterate it

from the face of the earth.p

However, I will not totally destroy

the house of Jacobq—

this is the Lord’s declaration—

9 for I am about to give the command,

and I will shake the house of Israelr

among all the nations,

as one shakes a sieve,

but not a pebble will fall to the ground.

10 All the sinners among my peoples

who say, “Disaster will never overtakeB

or confront us,”t

will die by the sword.

ANNOUNCEMENT OF RESTORATION

11 In that day

I will restore the fallen shelteru of David:v

I will repair its gaps,

restore its ruins,w

and rebuild it as in the days of old,x

12 so that they may possess

the remnant of Edomy

and all the nations

that bear my name—* z

this is the declaration of the Lord;

he will do this.

13 Look, the days are coming—

this is the Lord’s declaration—

when the plowman will overtake the reaperaa

and the one who treads grapes,

the sower of seed.

The mountains will drip with sweet wine,

and all the hills will flow with it.ab

14 I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel.A,ac

They will rebuild and occupy ruined cities,ad

plant vineyards and drink their wine,

make gardens and eat their produce.ae

15 I will plant them on their land,

and they will never again be uprooted

from the land I have given them.af

The Lord your God has spoken.

OBADIAH

The vision of Obadiah.

EDOM’S CERTAIN JUDGMENT

This is what the Lord God has said about Edom:a

We have heard a message from the Lord;b

an envoy has been sentc among the nations:

“Rise up,d and let’s go to war against her.”A

2 Look, I will make you insignificante

among the nations;

you will be deeply despised.

3 Your arrogant heart has deceived you,f

you who live in clefts of the rockB,C,g

in your home on the heights,

who say to yourself,

“Who can bring me down to the ground?”h

4 Though you seem to soarD like an eagleF

and make your nest among the stars,j

even from there I will bring you down.

This is the Lord’s declaration.

5 If thieves came to you,k

if marauders by night—

how ravaged you would be!—

wouldn’t they steal only what they wanted?

If grape harvesters came to you,

wouldn’t they leave a few grapes?l

6 How Esau will be pillaged,m

his hidden treasures searched out!n

7 Everyone who has a treaty with youo

will drive you to the border;

everyone at peace with you

will deceive and conquer you.

Those who eat your breadp

will setE a trap for you.

He will be unaware of it.q

8 In that day—

this is the Lord’s declaration—

will I not eliminate the wise ones of Edomr

and those who understand

from the hill country of Esau?

9 Teman,F,s your warriorst will be terrified

so that everyone from the hill country of Esau

will be destroyed by slaughter.u

EDOM’S SINS AGAINST JUDAH

10 You will be covered with shame

and destroyed forever

because of violence done to your brother Jacob.v

11 On the day you stood aloof,w

on the day strangers captured his wealth,G

while foreigners entered his city gate

and cast lots for Jerusalem,x

you were just like one of them.y

12 Do not* gloat over your brotherz

in the day of his calamity;

do not rejoice over the people of Judahaa

in the day of their destruction;

do not boastfully mockB,ab

in the day of distress.ac

13 Do not enter my people’s city gate

in the day of their disaster.ad

Yes, you—do not gloat over their misery

in the day of their disaster,

and do not appropriate their possessionsae

in the day of their disaster.

14 Do not stand at the crossroadsC,af

to cut off their fugitives,

and do not hand over their survivors

in the day of distress.

JUDGMENT OF THE NATIONS

15 For the day of the Lordag is near,

against all the nations.ah

As you have done,ai it will be done to you;

what you deserve will return on your own head.aj

16 As you have drunk on my holy mountain,ak

so all the nations will drink continually.a

They will drink and gulp down

and be as though they had never been.

17 But there will be a deliverance on Mount Zion,b

and it will be holy;c

the house of Jacob will dispossessd

those who dispossessed them.D,E

18 Then the house of Jacob will be a blazing fire,f

and the house of Joseph, a burning flame,

but the house of Esau will be stubble;

JacobE will set them on fire and consume Edom.F

Therefore no survivor will remaing

of the house of Esau,

for the Lord has spoken.

FUTURE BLESSING FOR ISRAEL

19 People from the Negev will possessh

the hill country of Esau;i

those from the Judean foothills will possess

the land of the Philistines.j

TheyG will possess

the territories of Ephraim and Samaria,k

while Benjamin will possess Gilead.

20 The exiles of the Israelites who are in HalahH

and who are among the Canaanites as far as Zarephathl

as well as the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad

will possess the cities of the Negev.m

21 SaviorsI will ascend Mount Zionn

to rule over the hill country of Esau,

and the kingdom will be the Lord’s.o

JONAH

JONAH’S FLIGHT

1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai:a 2 “Get up!b Go to the great cityc of Ninevehd and preach against ite because their evilf has come up before me.”g 3 Jonah got up to flee to Tarshishh from the Lord’s presence.i He went downj to Joppak and found a ship going to Tarshish. He paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the Lord’s presence.

4 But the Lord threwl a great wind onto the sea,m and such a great storm arose on the sea that the ship threatened to break apart. 5 The sailors were afraid, and each cried out to his god.n They threw the ship’s cargo into the sea to lighten the load.o Meanwhile, Jonah had gone down to the lowest part of the vessel and had stretched out and fallen into a deep sleep.p

6 The captain approached him and said, “What are you doing sound asleep? Get up! Call to your god.A,q Maybe this god will consider us,r and we won’t perish.”

7 “Come on!” the sailors said to each other. “Let’s cast lots.s Then we’ll know who is to blame for this trouble we’re in.” So they cast lots, and the lot singled out Jonah.t 8 Then they said to him, “Tell us who is to blame for this trouble we’re in.u What is your business,v and where are you from? What is your country, and what people are you from?”

9 He answered them, “I’m a Hebrew.w I worshipB the Lord,x the God of the heavens,y who made the seaz and the dry land.”

10 Then the men were seized by a great fear and said to him, “What have you done?” The men knew he was fleeing from the Lord’s presenceaa because he had told them. 11 So they said to him, “What should we do to you so that the sea will calm down for us?” For the sea was getting worse and worse.

12 He answered them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea so that it will calm down for you, for I know that I’m to blameab for this great storm that is against you.” 13 Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they couldn’t because the sea was raging against them more and more.

14 So they called out to the Lord,ac “Please, Lord, don’t let us perish because of this man’s life, and don’t charge us with innocent blood! For you, Lord, have done just as you pleased.”ad 15 Then they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging.ae 16 The men were seized by great fear of the Lord,af and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.ag

17 The Lord appointed a great fishah to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.ai