The Basket of Summer Fruit

¹This is what the Lord GOD showed me: I saw a basket of summer fruit.

²“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“In that day,” declares the Lord GOD, “the songsof the templewill turn to wailing. Many will be the corpses, strewn in silence everywhere!”

⁴Hear this, you who trample the needy,who do away with the poor of the land,

⁵asking, “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.

⁶Let us buy the poor with silverand the needy for a pair of sandals,selling even the chaff with the wheat!”

⁷The LORD has sworn by the Pride of Jacob:“I will never forget any of their deeds.

⁸Will not the land quake for this,and all its dwellers mourn?All of it will swell like the Nile;it will surge and then subsidelike the Nile in Egypt.

⁹And 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.

¹⁰I will turn your feasts into mourningand all your songs into lamentation.I will cause everyone to wear sackclothand 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.

¹¹Behold, 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.

¹²People will stagger from sea to seaand roam from north to east,seeking the word of the LORD,but they will not find it.

¹³In that day the lovely young women—the young men as well—will faint from thirst.

¹⁴Those who swear by the guilt of Samariaand say, ‘As surely as your god lives, O Dan,’or, ‘As surely as the wayof Beersheba lives’—they will fall, never to rise again.”

Elihu Rebukes Job’s Friends

¹So these three men stopped answering Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes.

²This kindled the anger of Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram. He burned with anger against Job for justifying himself rather than God,

³and he burned with anger against Job’s three friends because they had failed to refute Job, and yet had condemned him.

⁴Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job because the others were older than he.

⁵But when he saw that the three men had no further reply, his anger was kindled.

⁶So Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite declared:“I am young in years,while you are old;that is why I was timid and afraidto tell you what I know.

⁷I thought that age should speak,and many years should teach wisdom.

⁸But there is a spiritin a man,the breath of the Almighty,that gives him understanding.

⁹It is not only the oldwho are wise,or the elderly who understand justice.

¹⁰Therefore I say, ‘Listen to me;I too will declare what I know.’

¹¹Indeed, I waited while you spoke;I listened to your reasoning;as you searched for words,

¹²I paid you full attention.But no one proved Job wrong;not one of you rebutted his arguments.

¹³So do not claim, ‘We have found wisdom;let God, not man, refute him.’

¹⁴But Job has not directed his words against me,and I will not answer him with your arguments.

¹⁵Job’s friends are dismayed, with no more to say;words have escaped them.

¹⁶Must I wait, now that they are silent,now that they stand and no longer reply?

¹⁷I too will answer;yes, I will declare what I know.

¹⁸For I am full of words,and my spirit within me compels me.

¹⁹Behold, my belly is like unvented wine;it is about to burst like a new wineskin.

²⁰I must speak and find relief;I must open my lips and respond.

²¹I will be partial to no one,nor will I flatter any man.

²²For I do not know how to flatter,or my Maker would remove me in an instant.

Babylon Is Fallen

¹This is the burden against the Desert by the Sea:Like whirlwinds sweeping through the Negev,an invader comes from the desert,from a land of terror.

²A dire vision is declared to me:“The traitor still betrays,and the destroyer still destroys.Go up, O Elam! Lay siege, O Media!I will put an end to all her groaning.”

³Therefore my body is filled with anguish.Pain grips me, like the pains of a woman in labor.I am bewildered to hear,I am dismayed to see.

⁴My heart falters;fear makes me tremble.The twilight I desiredhas turned to horror.

⁵They prepare a table, they lay out a carpet,they eat, they drink!Rise up, O princes, oil the shields!

⁶For this is what the Lord says to me:“Go, post a lookoutand have him report what he sees.

⁷When he sees chariots with teams of horsemen,riders on donkeys, riders on camels,he must be alert, fully alert.”

⁸Then the lookoutshouted:“Day after day, my lord,I stand on the watchtower;night after nightI stay at my post.

⁹Look, here come the riders,horsemen in pairs.”And one answered, saying:“Fallen, fallen is Babylon!All the images of her godslie shattered on the ground!”

¹⁰O my people, crushed on the threshing floor,I tell you what I have heardfrom the LORD of Hosts,the God of Israel.

The Burden against Edom

¹¹This is the burden against Dumah:One calls to me from Seir,“Watchman, what is left of the night?Watchman, what is left of the night?”

¹²The watchman replies,“Morning has come, but also the night.If you would inquire, then inquire.Come back yet again.”

The Burden against Arabia

¹³This is the burden against Arabia:In the thickets of Arabia you must lodge,O caravans of Dedanites.

¹⁴Bring water for the thirsty,O dwellers of Tema;meet the refugees with food.

¹⁵For they flee from the sword—the sword that is drawn—from the bow that is bent,and from the stress of battle.

¹⁶For this is what the Lord says to me: “Within one year, as a hired worker would count it, all the glory of Kedar will be gone.

¹⁷The remaining archers, the warriors of Kedar, will be few.”For the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.

In the Day of Trouble I Sought the Lord

¹I cried out to God;I cried aloud to God to hear me.

²In the day of trouble I sought the Lord;through the night my outstretched hands did not grow weary;my soul refused to be comforted.

³I remembered You, O God, and I groaned;I mused and my spirit grew faint.Selah

⁴You have kept my eyes from closing;I am too troubled to speak.

⁵I considered the days of old,the years long in the past.

⁶At night I remembered my song;in my heart I mused, and my spirit pondered:

⁷“Will the Lord spurn us foreverand never show His favor again?

⁸Is His loving devotion gone forever?Has His promise failed for all time?

⁹Has God forgotten to be gracious?Has His anger shut off His compassion?”Selah

¹⁰So I said, “I am grievedthat the right hand of the Most High has changed.”

¹¹I will remember the works of the LORD;yes, I will remember Your wonders of old.

¹²I will reflect on all You have doneand ponder Your mighty deeds.

¹³Your way, O God, is holy.What god is so great as our God?

¹⁴You are the God who works wonders;You display Your strength among the peoples.

¹⁵With power You redeemed Your people,the sons of Jacob and Joseph.Selah

¹⁶The waters saw You, O God;the waters saw You and swirled;even the depths were shaken.

¹⁷The clouds poured down water;the skies resounded with thunder;Your arrows flashed back and forth.

¹⁸Your thunder resounded in the whirlwind;the lightning lit up the world;the earth trembled and quaked.

¹⁹Your path led through the sea,Your way through the mighty waters,but Your footprints were not to be found.

²⁰You led Your people like a flockby the hand of Moses and Aaron.