Amos

Amos. Sheep farmer from Tekoa. This is what I saw about Israel, when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel. Two years before the earthquake.

The LORD roars from Zion. The shepherds' pastures dry up and the top of Carmel withers.

For three sins of Damascus, even four, the LORD won't hold back. Same for Gaza. Tyre. Edom. Ammon. Moab. For what they did in war to the people around them. And for three sins of Judah, even four. They've thrown away the LORD's law.

Replying to @amos.tekoa

And for three sins of Israel, even four. They sell honest people for silver and the poor for a pair of sandals. They walk on the heads of the poor like they're dirt and shove the needy out of the way.

Replying to @amos.tekoa

Lying down by the altar on coats they took off the poor as security. Drinking wine in God's house that they collected in fines.

Do two people walk together without agreeing where they're going? Does a lion roar in the forest with nothing to hunt? The lion has roared. Who isn't afraid? The Lord GOD has spoken. Who can keep quiet?

Replying to @samaria.terrace

Listen, you cows of Bashan up on the hill of Samaria. You crush the poor, you trample the needy, and you tell your husbands to bring you more drinks. The Lord GOD has sworn by his holiness: the days are coming when you'll be dragged off with hooks.

What the LORD has been saying, over and over: I left your towns with nothing to eat. And still you didn't come back to me. I held back the rain three months before harvest. And still you didn't come back to me. Blight and mildew, and locusts ate your figs and olives. And still you didn't come back to me. So get ready to meet your God, Israel.

Seek me and live, the LORD says. Not Bethel. Not Gilgal.

You're all longing for the day of the LORD. Why? It'll be darkness, not light. Like a man running from a lion who runs straight into a bear. Gets home, leans his hand on the wall, and a snake bites him.

The LORD says he hates your feasts. Can't stand your gatherings. Keep your offerings. Take the noise of your songs away from him; he won't listen to your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, and doing right like a stream that never runs dry.

Someone at Bethel@bethel.pilgrimBrilliant feast at Bethel this week. Offerings, music, harps, everyone singing.

Lying on ivory beds. Lounging on your couches, eating lamb and veal, making up songs on the harp like you're David. Wine by the bowlful, the finest oils. And not one of you grieving over the ruin of your own people.

The Lord GOD showed me locusts, ready to eat every green thing just as the late crop came up. I said, Lord GOD, please forgive. How can Jacob survive? He's so small. And the LORD changed his mind. It won't happen, he said.

Replying to @amos.tekoa

Then fire, eating up the deep and the land. I said it again. Please stop. He's so small. And again he said it won't happen.

Third vision. The Lord standing by a wall that was built true, with a plumb line in his hand. He asked what I could see. A plumb line, I said. He's setting a plumb line among his people Israel, he said. He won't pass them by any more.

Replying to @priest.of.bethel

I wasn't a prophet. My dad wasn't a prophet. I'm a herdsman and I look after fig trees. The LORD took me from following the flock and told me to go and prophesy to his people Israel.

He showed me a basket of summer fruit. Asked me what I saw. A basket of summer fruit. Then he said, the end has come for my people Israel.

Replying to @grain.samaria

And we know what happens after. Smaller measures, higher prices, crooked scales. Buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals. Selling the sweepings along with the wheat. The LORD has sworn he'll never forget any of it.

The days are coming, the Lord GOD says, when I'll send a famine on the land. Not a famine of bread or a thirst for water. A famine of hearing the words of the LORD. People will stagger from sea to sea looking for it and not find it.

But one day the LORD will raise up David's fallen tent. Patch the holes, rebuild it like it used to be.

Replying to @amos.tekoa

The ploughman will catch up with the reaper, the harvest will be so big. The mountains dripping with new wine. His people back in their land, rebuilding their towns, planting vineyards and drinking the wine. Planted in their own land, never uprooted again.