The Basket of Summer Fruit 1 UST Yahweh, my Lord, showed me a vision. I looked, and in the vision I saw a basket of ripe fruit. BSB BSB: This is what the Lord GOD showed me: I saw a basket of summer fruit.
2 UST He said to me,“Amos, what do you see?” I replied,“I see a basket of ripe fruit.” Then Yahweh said to me,“It is time for me to put an end to my people, the Israelites! I will no longer hold back from punishing them{ for their sin}. BSB BSB: “Amos, what do you see?” He asked. “A basket of summer fruit,” I replied. So the LORD said to me, “The end has come for My people Israel; I will no longer spare them.”
3 UST At that time, the people who sing songs in the temple will wail loudly instead of singing. There will be so many corpses that people will throw them everywhere.{ Everyone,} be silent!” This is what Yahweh, my Lord, declares. BSB BSB: “In that day,” declares the Lord GOD, “the songs of the temple will turn to wailing. Many will be the corpses, strewn in silence everywhere!”
4 UST Listen to this, you people who oppress needy people and get rid of the poor people in the land! BSB BSB: Hear this, you who trample the needy, who do away with the poor of the land,
5 UST You say to yourselves,“We wish the new moon festival would be over, so that we could start selling our grain again! We wish the Sabbath day would be over, so that we could start selling our wheat again! Then we can cheat people by making the baskets that we measure our grain in smaller than standard, and by making the weights for measuring the buyer’s silver heavier than standard, and we can also make our scales weigh dishonestly. BSB BSB: asking, “When will the New Moon be over, that we may sell grain? When will the Sabbath end, that we may market wheat? Let us reduce the ephah and increase the shekel; let us cheat with dishonest scales.
6 UST Then we can use our silver to buy poor people{ to be our slaves}. We can buy needy people for{ only} a pair of sandals. We can even sell the worthless chaff mixed in with the wheat!” BSB BSB: Let us buy the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the chaff with the wheat!”
7 UST Yahweh has solemnly sworn by the very land that he gave to you descendants of Jacob,“I will certainly never forget any of the{ evil} things that you have done. BSB BSB: The LORD has sworn by the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget any of their deeds.
8 UST Because of the evil things that you have done,{ it will be as though} the land itself will writhe, and everyone who lives in the land will mourn.{ It will be as though} the whole land will heave up and down, just as the Nile River in Egypt floods and then sinks back down again.” BSB BSB: Will not the land quake for this, and all its dwellers mourn? All of it will swell like the Nile; it will surge and then subside like the Nile in Egypt.
9 UST Yahweh, my Lord, declares this,“At that time,{ when I punish you,} I will make the sun go down at noon. Yes, I will make the earth become dark during the daytime. BSB BSB: And in that day, declares the Lord GOD, I will make the sun go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the daytime.
10 UST Because of what I will do, your{ religious} festivals will become times when you mourn, and instead of singing joyful songs you will wail funeral dirges. All of you will wear rough sackcloth and shave your heads{ to show that you are grieving}. Because of what I will do, you will be as sorrowful as when parents grieve for their only son who has died. By the time I stop punishing you, you will be grieving bitterly.” BSB BSB: I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation. I will cause everyone to wear sackcloth and every head to be shaved. I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son, and its outcome like a bitter day.
11 UST Yahweh, my Lord, declares this,“Listen! There will soon be a time when I will cause something to become very scarce in the land. It will not be a time when people lack food or thirst for water. Instead, it will be a time when people will not be able to hear any message from me, Yahweh. BSB BSB: Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord GOD, when I will send a famine on the land—not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.
12 UST People will wander everywhere, staggering from one coastline to another and from the north to the east. They will roam around, searching for a message from me, Yahweh, but they will not get one. BSB BSB: People will stagger from sea to sea and roam from north to east, seeking the word of the LORD, but they will not find it.
13 UST At that time, even the beautiful young women and the strong young men will faint because they are so thirsty. BSB BSB: In that day the lovely young women—the young men as well—will faint from thirst.
14 UST These are the people who make solemn promises using the name of the shameful idol in Samaria. Some of them make promises using the name of the god that people worship in Dan, and others make promises using the name of the god that people travel to worship in Beersheba. All of those people will fall down and die, and they will never get up again.” BSB BSB: Those who swear by the guilt of Samaria and say, ‘As surely as your god lives, O Dan,’ or, ‘As surely as the way of Beersheba lives’—they will fall, never to rise again.”