Study Desk

A Basket of Ripe Fruit

This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me:^(a) a basket of ripe fruit.

"What do you see,^(b) Amos?^(c)" he asked. "A basket^(d) of ripe fruit," I answered. Then the Lord said to me, "The time is ripe for my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.^(e)

"In that day," declares the Sovereign Lord , "the songs in the temple will turn to wailing.^[a](f) Many, many bodies—flung everywhere! Silence!^(g)"

Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor^(h) of the land,⁽ⁱ⁾

saying, "When will the New Moon^(j) be over that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended that we may market^(k) wheat?"^(l)— skimping on the measure, boosting the price and cheating^(m) with dishonest scales,⁽ⁿ⁾

buying the poor^(o) with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the sweepings with the wheat.^(p)

The Lord has sworn by himself, the Pride of Jacob:^(q) "I will never forget^(r) anything they have done.^(s)

"Will not the land tremble^(t) for this, and all who live in it mourn? The whole land will rise like the Nile; it will be stirred up and then sink like the river of Egypt.^(u)

"In that day," declares the Sovereign Lord , "I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight.^(v)

I will turn your religious festivals^(w) into mourning and all your singing into weeping.^(x) I will make all of you wear sackcloth^(y) and shave^(z) your heads. I will make that time like mourning for an only son^(aa) and the end of it like a bitter day.^(ab)

"The days are coming,"^(ac) declares the Sovereign Lord , "when I will send a famine through the land— not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine^(ad) of hearing the words of the Lord .^(ae)

People will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the Lord , but they will not find it.^(af)

"In that day "the lovely young women and strong young men^(ag) will faint because of thirst.^(ah)

Those who swear by the sin of Samaria^(ai)— who say, ‘As surely as your god lives, Dan,'^(aj) or, ‘As surely as the god^[b] of Beersheba^(ak) lives'— they will fall,^(al) never to rise again.^(am)"