The Worthless Treaty with Egypt

¹“Woe to the rebellious children,”declares the LORD,“to those who carry out a plan that is not Mine,who form an alliance, but against My will,heaping up sin upon sin.

²They set out to go down to Egyptwithout asking My advice,to seek shelter under Pharaoh’s protectionand take refuge in Egypt’s shade.

³But Pharaoh’s protection will become your shame,and the refuge of Egypt’s shade your disgrace.

⁴For though their princes are at Zoanand their envoys have arrived in Hanes,

⁵everyone will be put to shamebecause of a people useless to them.They bring neither help nor benefit,but only shame and disgrace.”

⁶This is the burden against the beasts of the Negev:Through a land of hardship and distress,of lioness and lion,of viper and flying serpent,they carry their wealth on the backs of donkeysand their treasures on the humps of camels,to a people of no profit to them.

⁷Egypt’s help is futile and empty;therefore I have called herRahab Who Sits Still.

⁸Go now, write it on a tablet in their presenceand inscribe it on a scroll;it will be for the days to come,a witness forever and ever.

⁹These are rebellious people, deceitful children,children unwilling to obey the LORD’s instruction.

¹⁰They say to the seers,“Stop seeing visions!”and to the prophets,“Do not prophesy to us the truth!Speak to us pleasant words;prophesy illusions.

¹¹Get out of the way; turn off the road.Rid us of the Holy One of Israel!”

¹²Therefore this is what the Holy One of Israel says:“Because you have rejected this message,trusting in oppression and relying on deceit,

¹³this iniquity of yours is like a breach about to fail,a bulge in a high wall,whose collapse will come suddenly—in an instant!

¹⁴It will break in pieces like a potter’s jar,shattered so that no fragment can be found.Not a shard will be found in the dustlarge enough to scoop the coals from a hearthor to skim the water from a cistern.”

¹⁵For the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, has said:“By repentance and restyou would be saved;your strength would lie in quiet confidence—but you were not willing.”

¹⁶“No,” you say, “we will flee on horses.”Therefore you will flee!“We will ride swift horses,”but your pursuers will be faster.

¹⁷A thousand will flee at the threat of one;at the threat of five you will all flee,until you are left alone like a pole on a mountaintop,like a banner on a hill.

God Will Be Gracious

¹⁸Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you;therefore He rises to show you compassion,for the LORD is a just God.Blessed are all who wait for Him.

¹⁹O people in Zion who dwell in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. He will surely be gracious when you cry for help; when He hears, He will answer you.

²⁰The Lord will give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, but your Teacher will no longer hide Himself—with your own eyes you will see Him.

²¹And whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear this command behind you: “This is the way. Walk in it.”

²²So you will desecrate your silver-plated idols and your gold-plated images. You will throw them away like menstrual cloths, saying to them, “Be gone!”

²³Then He will send rain for the seed that you have sown in the ground, and the food that comes from your land will be rich and plentiful. On that day your cattle will graze in open pastures.

²⁴The oxen and donkeys that work the ground will eat salted fodder, winnowed with shovel and pitchfork.

²⁵And from every high mountain and every raised hill, streams of water will flow in the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall.

²⁶The light of the moon will be as bright as the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter—like the light of seven days—on the day that the LORD binds up the brokenness of His people and heals the wounds He has inflicted.

²⁷Behold, the Name of the LORD comes from afar,with burning anger and dense smoke.His lips are full of fury,and His tongue is like a consuming fire.

²⁸His breath is like a rushing torrentthat rises to the neck.He comes to sift the nations in a sieve of destruction;He bridles the jaws of the peoples to lead them astray.

²⁹You will singas on the night of a holy festival,and your heart will rejoicelike one who walks to the music of a flute,going up to the mountain of the LORD,to the Rock of Israel.

³⁰And the LORD will cause His majestic voice to be heardand His mighty arm to be revealed,striking in angry wrath with a flame of consuming fire,and with cloudburst, storm, and hailstones.

³¹For Assyria will be shattered at the voice of the LORD;He will strike them with His scepter.

³²And with every stroke of the rod of punishmentthat the LORD brings down on them,the tambourines and lyres will soundas He battles with weapons brandished.

³³For Topheth has long been prepared;it has been made ready for the king.Its funeral pyre is deep and wide,with plenty of fire and wood.The breath of the LORD, like a torrent of burning sulfur,sets it ablaze.

The Locusts, Fire, and Plumb Line

¹This is what the Lord GOD showed me: He was preparing swarms of locusts just after the king’s harvest, as the late spring crop was coming up.

²And when the locusts had eaten every green plant in the land, I said, “Lord GOD, please forgive! How will Jacob survive, since he is so small?”

³So the LORD relented from this plan. “It will not happen,” He said.

⁴This is what the Lord GOD showed me: The Lord GOD was calling for judgment by fire. It consumed the great deep and devoured the land.

⁵Then I said, “Lord GOD, please stop! How will Jacob survive, since he is so small?”

⁶So the LORD relented from this plan. “It will not happen either,” said the Lord GOD.

⁷This is what He showed me: Behold, the Lord was standing by a wall true to plumb, with a plumb line in His hand.

⁸“Amos, what do you see?” asked the LORD.“A plumb line,” I replied.“Behold,” said the Lord, “I am setting a plumb line among My people Israel; I will no longer spare them:

⁹The high places of Isaac will be deserted,and the sanctuaries of Israel will be laid waste;and I will rise up against the house of Jeroboamwith My sword.”

Amaziah Accuses Amos

¹⁰Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent word to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words,

¹¹for this is what Amos has said:‘Jeroboam will die by the sword,and Israel will surely go into exile,away from their homeland.’”

¹²And Amaziah said to Amos, “Go away, you seer! Flee to the land of Judah; earn your bread there and do your prophesying there.

¹³But never prophesy at Bethel again, because it is the sanctuary of the king and the temple of the kingdom.”

¹⁴“I was nota prophet,” Amos replied, “nor was I the sonof a prophet; rather, I was a herdsman and a tender of sycamore-fig trees.

¹⁵But the LORD took me from following the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to My people Israel.’

¹⁶Now, therefore, hear the word of the LORD. You say:‘Do not prophesy against Israel;do not preach against the house of Isaac.’

¹⁷Therefore this is what the LORD says:‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the city,and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword.Your land will be divided by a measuring line,and you yourself will die on pagansoil.And Israel will surely go into exile,away from their homeland.’”

The Defiling of Dinah

¹Now Dinah, the daughter Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the daughters of the land.

²When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the region, saw her, he took her and lay with her by force.

³And his soul was drawn to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob. He loved the young girl and spoke to her tenderly.

⁴So Shechem told his father Hamor, “Get me this girl as a wife.”

⁵Jacob heard that Shechem had defiled his daughter Dinah, but since his sons were with his livestock in the field, he remained silent about it until they returned.

⁶Meanwhile, Shechem’s father Hamor came to speak with Jacob.

⁷When Jacob’s sons heard what had happened, they returned from the field. They were filled with grief and fury, because Shechem had committed an outrage in Israelby lying with Jacob’s daughter—a thing that should not be done.

⁸But Hamor said to them, “My son Shechem longs for your daughter. Please give her to him as his wife.

⁹Intermarry with us; give us your daughters and take our daughters for yourselves.

¹⁰You may settle among us, and the land will be open to you. Live here, move about freely, and acquire your own property.”

¹¹Then Shechem said to Dinah’s father and brothers, “Grant me this favor, and I will give you whatever you ask.

¹²Demand a high dowry and an expensive gift, and I will give you whatever you ask. Only give me the girl as my wife!”

The Revenge of Dinah’s Brothers

¹³But because Shechem had defiled their sister Dinah, Jacob’s sons answered him and his father Hamor deceitfully.

¹⁴“We cannot do such a thing,” they said. “To give our sister to an uncircumcised man would be a disgrace to us.

¹⁵We will consent to this on one condition, that you become circumcised like us—every one of your males.

¹⁶Then we will give you our daughters and take your daughters for ourselves. We will dwell among you and become one people.

¹⁷But if you will not agree to be circumcised, then we will take our sister and go.”

¹⁸Their offer seemed good to Hamor and his son Shechem.

¹⁹The young man, who was the most respected of all his father’s household, did not hesitate to fulfill this request, because he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter.

²⁰So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of their city and addressed the men of their city:

²¹“These men are at peace with us. Let them live and trade in our land; indeed, it is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters in marriage and give our daughters to them.

²²But only on this condition will the men agree to dwell with us and be one people: if all our men are circumcised as they are.

²³Will not their livestock, their possessions, and all their animals become ours? Only let us consent to them, and they will dwell among us.”

²⁴All the men who went out of the city gate listened to Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male of the city was circumcised.

²⁵Three days later, while they were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons (Dinah’s brothers Simeon and Levi) took their swords, went into the unsuspecting city, and slaughtered every male.

²⁶They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with their swords, took Dinah out of Shechem’s house, and went away.

²⁷Jacob’s other sons came upon the slaughter and looted the city, because their sister had been defiled.

²⁸They took their flocks and herds and donkeys, and everything else in the city or in the field.

²⁹They carried off all their possessions and women and children, and they plundered everything in their houses.

³⁰Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble upon me by making me a stench to the Canaanites and Perizzites, the people of this land. We are few in number; if they unite against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed.”

³¹But they replied, “Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?”

The Mighty One Calls

¹The Mighty One, God the LORD,speaks and summons the earthfrom where the sun rises to where it sets.

²From Zion, perfect in beauty,God shines forth.

³Our God approaches and will not be silent!Consuming fire precedes Him,and a tempest rages around Him.

⁴He summons the heavens above,and the earth, that He may judge His people:

⁵“Gather to Me My saints,who made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.”

⁶And the heavens proclaim His righteousness,for God Himself is Judge.Selah

⁷“Hear, O My people, and I will speak,O Israel, and I will testify against you:I am God, your God.

⁸I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices,and your burnt offerings are ever before Me.

⁹I have no need for a bull from your stallor goats from your pens,

¹⁰for every beast of the forest is Mine—the cattle on a thousand hills.

¹¹I know every bird in the mountains,and the creatures of the field are Mine.

¹²If I were hungry, I would not tell you,for the world is Mine, and the fullness thereof.

¹³Do I eat the flesh of bulls,or drink the blood of goats?

¹⁴Sacrifice a thank offering to God,and fulfill your vows to the Most High.

¹⁵Call upon Me in the day of trouble;I will deliver you, and you will honor Me.”

¹⁶To the wicked, however, God says,“What right have you to recite My statutesand to bear My covenant on your lips?

¹⁷For you hate My instructionand cast My words behind you.

¹⁸When you see a thief, you befriend him,and throw in your lot with adulterers.

¹⁹You unleash your mouth for eviland harness your tongue to deceit.

²⁰You sit and malign your brother;you slander your own mother’s son.

²¹You have done these things, and I kept silent;you thought I wasjust like you.But now I rebuke youand accuse you to your face.

²²Now consider this, you who forget God,lest I tear you to pieces,with no one to rescue you:

²³He who sacrifices a thank offering honors Me,and to him who rightly orders his way,I will show the salvation of God.”