Vision of the Ripe Fruit
Study note
God shows Amos a basket of ripe summer fruit. Just as the fruit is ripe and ready to be picked, Israel is ripe for judgment. The end has come for God's people, and He will no longer hold back. On that day, the joyful songs of the temple will turn into cries of grief, and dead bodies will be everywhere, thrown aside in silence.
1 The Lord GOD showed me a vision: a basket full of summer fruit, ripe and ready. Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me: and behold a basket of summer fruit.
2 "What do you see, Amos?" he asked. "A basket of ripe fruit," I answered. Then the LORD said, "My people Israel are ripe for judgment. I will not overlook their sin any longer." And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the LORD unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.
3 "On that day," the Lord GOD says, "the cheerful songs in the temple will turn into screaming and sobbing. Dead bodies will be scattered everywhere, tossed aside in silence." And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord GOD: there shall be many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them forth with silence.
Greedy Merchants Who Cheat the Poor
Study note
Amos condemns the dishonest merchants who can barely wait for the Sabbath and religious holidays to end so they can go back to making money. They cheat by making the measuring baskets small and the prices high. They use rigged scales to steal from their customers. They even buy the poor as slaves for the price of a pair of sandals and sell the leftover chaff mixed in with the grain. God swears He will never forget these crimes, and the whole land will tremble because of them.
4 Listen carefully, you people who crush those who have nothing and try to eliminate the poor from the land. Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail,
5 You grumble, "When will this religious holiday be over so we can get back to selling grain? When will the Sabbath end so we can open shop again?" Then you use undersized measuring cups, jack up the prices, and cheat people with rigged scales. Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?
6 You buy the poor for a handful of silver and the desperate for the price of a pair of sandals. You even mix the sweepings from the floor in with the wheat and sell it. That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat?
7 The LORD has sworn by everything Israel holds dear: "I will never forget a single thing they have done." The LORD hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works.
8 Will the land not shake because of this? Will everyone living in it not mourn? The whole country will rise and fall like the flooding Nile — surging up and then dropping back down. Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein? and it shall rise up wholly as a flood; and it shall be cast out and drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.
Darkness and Mourning
Study note
God describes the coming day of judgment using terrifying images. The sun will go down at noon and the earth will grow dark in broad daylight. All celebrations will turn to mourning and all songs will become funeral cries. Everyone will wear sackcloth and shave their heads in grief. The sorrow will be as deep as mourning for an only son.
9 "On that day," the Lord GOD says, "I will make the sun go down at noon. I will cover the earth in darkness in the middle of the afternoon." And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord GOD, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day:
10 "I will turn your parties into funerals and your celebration songs into funeral dirges. Everyone will wear sackcloth and shave their heads. I will make your grief as intense as mourning for an only child, and the end of that day will be as bitter as it gets." And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day.
A Famine of God's Word
Study note
One of the most striking prophecies in Amos: God will send a famine unlike any other. It will not be a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD. People will wander from one end of the land to the other, desperately searching for a message from God, but they will not find it. Even the strongest young people will collapse from this spiritual thirst. Those who worship false gods will fall and never rise again.
11 "Listen closely — a time is approaching," the Lord GOD says, "when I will send a famine across the land. It will not be a shortage of food or water. People will be starving to hear a word from the LORD." Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:
12 People will stagger from coast to coast and wander from north to east, desperately searching for a message from the LORD. But they will come up empty. And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.
13 On that day, even the healthiest young women and strongest young men will collapse from thirst. In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.
14 Those who swear by Samaria's idol and say, "As your god lives, O Dan!" and "By the god of Beersheba!" — they will go down and never get back up. They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beer-sheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.