Amos - The Old Testament

¹ Listen to this saying, you cows of Bashan living on the hill of Samaria, exploiting the weak and ill-treating the poor, saying to your husbands, 'Bring us something to drink!'

² The Lord God has sworn by his holiness: Look, the days will soon be on you when he will use hooks to drag you away and fish-hooks for the very last of you;

³ through the breaches in the wall you will leave, each one straight ahead, and be herded away towards Hermon -declares Yahweh.

⁴ Go to Bethel, and sin, to Gilgal, and sin even harder! Bring your sacrifices each morning, your tithes every third day,

⁵ burn your thank-offering of leaven and widely publicise your free-will offerings, for this, children of Israel, is what makes you happy -declares the Lord Yahweh.

⁶ I even gave you clean teeth in all your towns and a shortage of food in all your villages and still you would not come back to me -declares Yahweh.

⁷ I even withheld the rain from you full three months before harvest-time; I caused rain to fall in one town and caused no rain to fall in another; one field was rained on and the next for want of rain dried up;

⁸ two towns, three towns went tottering to one town for water to drink but went unsatisfied, and still you would not come back to me -declares Yahweh.

⁹ I struck you with blight and mildew, I dried up your gardens and vineyards; the locust devoured your fig trees and olive trees and still you would not come back to me -declares Yahweh.

¹⁰ I sent plague on you like Egypt's plague, I slaughtered your young men with the sword and at the same time your horses were captured; I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps and still you would not come back to me -declares Yahweh.

¹¹ I overturned you as God overturned Sodom and Gomorrah; you were like a brand snatched from the blaze and still you would not come back to me -declares Yahweh.

¹² So this, Israel, is what I plan to do to you. Because I am going to do this to you, Israel, prepare to meet your God!

¹³ For look, he it is who forges the mountains, creates the wind, who reveals his mind to humankind, changes the dawn into darkness and strides on the heights of the world: Yahweh, God Sabaoth, is his name.