Chapter 8

1 Thus hath the Lord Jehovah showed me,— Even lo, a basket of summer-fruit;

2 And he said, “What seest thou, Amos?” And I said, “A basket of summer-fruit.” Then Jehovah said to me,— “Come has the end of my people Israel, I will no more pass by them.”

3 And howlings shall be the songs of the temple In that day, saith the Lord Jehovah; Many a dead body, in every place, Shall be cast down in silence. (362)

4 Hear this, ye who swallow up the poor, And exterminate the needy of the land, saying,—

5 “When will pass the new moon, that we may sell corn? And the Sabbath, that we may bring out wheat, And lesson the ephah, and increase the shekel, And turn one side the deceitful balances?

6 That we may buy with silver the poor, And the needy for shoes, And sell the refuse of corn.”

7 Sworn hath Jehovah by the excellency of Jacob, “I shall not forget any of their works.”

8 Shall not the land be for this in a tumult, And every one who dwells in it mourn? Yea, heave up as a river shall the whole of it, (371) And it shall be driven and sunk as by the river of Egypt.

9 And it shall be in that day, saith the Lord Jehovah, That I will cause the sun to set at noon, And will darken the land in a clear day;

10 I will also turn your festal-days to mourning, And all your songs to lamentation; And to come up on all loins will I make sackcloth, And upon every head, baldness; And I will set her as in mourning for an only son, And her posterity as in the day of bitterness. (375)

11 Behold, the days are coming, saith Jehovah, When I shall send a famine on the land, Not the famine of bread, nor thirst for waters, But for hearing the words of Jehovah;

12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, And from the south to the east shall they run, To seek the word of Jehovah, and shall not find it:

13 And in that day shall faint, The fair virgins and young men, for thirst;

14 Who swear by the sin of Samaria, and who say,— “Live does thy God, O Dan, And live does the way of Beersheba;” And they shall fall and rise again no more.