Study Desk

What sorrow awaits you who say, "If only the day of the Lord were here!" You have no idea what you are wishing for. That day will bring darkness, not light.

No, you served your pagan gods—Sakkuth your king god and Kaiwan your star god—the images you made for yourselves.

What sorrow awaits you who lounge in luxury in Jerusalem, and you who feel secure in Samaria! You are famous and popular in Israel, and people go to you for help.

How terrible for you who sprawl on ivory beds and lounge on your couches, eating the meat of tender lambs from the flock and of choice calves fattened in the stall.

In my vision the locusts ate every green plant in sight. Then I said, "O Sovereign Lord , please forgive us or we will not survive, for Israel is so small."

Then I said, "O Sovereign Lord , please stop or we will not survive, for Israel is so small."

"What do you see, Amos?" he asked. I replied, "A basket full of ripe fruit." Then the Lord said, "Like this fruit, Israel is ripe for punishment! I will not delay their punishment again.

You can't wait for the Sabbath day to be over and the religious festivals to end so you can get back to cheating the helpless. You measure out grain with dishonest measures and cheat the buyer with dishonest scales.

And you mix the grain you sell with chaff swept from the floor. Then you enslave poor people for one piece of silver or a pair of sandals.

The earth will tremble for your deeds, and everyone will mourn. The ground will rise like the Nile River at floodtime; it will heave up, then sink again.

People will stagger from sea to sea and wander from border to border searching for the word of the Lord , but they will not find it.

Beautiful girls and strong young men will grow faint in that day, thirsting for the Lord 's word.

"For I will give the command and will shake Israel along with the other nations as grain is shaken in a sieve, yet not one true kernel will be lost.

"If thieves came at night and robbed you (what a disaster awaits you!), they would not take everything. Those who harvest grapes always leave a few for the poor. But your enemies will wipe you out completely!

"All your allies will turn against you. They will help to chase you from your land. They will promise you peace while plotting to deceive and destroy you. Your trusted friends will set traps for you, and you won't even know about it.

At that time not a single wise person will be left in the whole land of Edom," says the Lord . "For on the mountains of Edom I will destroy everyone who has understanding.

"But Jerusalem will become a refuge for those who escape; it will be a holy place. And the people of Israel will come back to reclaim their inheritance.

But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord . He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing to Tarshish.

Fearing for their lives, the desperate sailors shouted to their gods for help and threw the cargo overboard to lighten the ship. But all this time Jonah was sound asleep down in the hold.

The sailors were terrified when they heard this, for he had already told them he was running away from the Lord . "Oh, why did you do it?" they groaned.