Call to repentance. 1 At their presence peoples JOEL, 2. the land is as the garden of Eden 4 The appearance of them is as 5 Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array. 6 Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness. 2 7 They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks: 8 Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one they burst in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be through the 4 whether he will not 5 meal old men, wounded. 3 9 They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. 10 The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining: 11 And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army; for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it? 12¶ Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: 13 And rend your heart, and not 14 Who knoweth if he will re- 15 ¶ Blow the trumpet in Zion, 6 16 Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. 17 Let the priests, the ministers 7 Promise of mercy. of the LORD, weep between the 8 9 7 use a byword against them: 8 peoples, and say unto his people, Behold, I 20 But I will remove far off from 21 Fear not, O land; be glad field: for the pastures of the wil- Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your wheat, and the "fats shall overflow 11 vats 25 And I will restore to you the 26 And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed. 27 And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed. 28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: 29 And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. Judgment on her foes. 1 those that escape, 2 among the remnant those whom the LORD doth call. Philistia? 30 And I will shew wonders in the mighty men, let all the men of the heavens and in the earth, blood, war draw near; let them come and fire, and pillars of smoke. 31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come. up: 10 Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. 32 And it shall come to pass, CHAPTER 3. 1 God's judgments against the enemies of his ment. 18 His blessing upon the church. FOR 2 I will also gather all nations, 3 And they have cast lots for my people; and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink. 3 4 Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and 3 regions of all the coasts of Palestine? will ye render me a recompence! and if ye recompense me, swiftly and speedily will I return your recompence upon your own head; 4 nations; 5 Because ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things: 6 The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye might remove them far from their border. 7 Behold, I will raise them out of the place whither ye have sold them, and will return your recompence upon your own head: 8 And I will sell your sons and shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a 9 Proclaim ye this among the 12 Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of * Je hoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. 13 Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wicked-5 vats ness is great. 5 14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision. 15 The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. 16 The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD will be the hope of his people, and 6 refuge the strength of the children of strong Israel. 17 So shall ye know that I am the LORD your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more. hold 18 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the LORD, and shall water the valley of Shittim. acacias. 8 19 Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wil derness, for the violence against the have shed innocent blood in their children of Judah, because they land. 20 But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from genera tion to generation. 21 For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for the LORD dwelleth in Zion. * That is, The LORD judgeth. God's judgments on AMOS, 1, 2. neighbouring nations. pastures 2 an entire people, & Tyre, 4 an entire people CHAPTER 1. AMOS 1. Amos sheweth God's judgment upon Syria, 6 upon the Philistines, 9 upon Tyrus, 11 upon Edom, 13 upon Ammon, THE HE words of Amos, who was among the herdmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. 2 And he said, The LORD will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the 'habitations of the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither. 3 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron : 4 But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, which shall de vour the palaces of Ben-hadad. 5 I will break also the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven, and him that holdeth the sceptre from the house of Eden: and the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir, saith the LORD. 6 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they carried away captive the whole captivity, to deliver them up to Edom: 7 But I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, which shall devour the palaces thereof: punishment thereof; because he did pursue his brother with the sword, and did cast off all pity, and his anger did tear perpetually, and he kept his wrath for ever: 12 But I will send a fire upon Teman, which shall devour the palaces of Bozrah. 13 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of the child ren of Ammon, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have ripped up the women with child of Gilead, that they might enlarge their border: 14 But I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it shall deyour the palaces thereof, with shouting in the day of battle, with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind: 15 And their king shall go into captivity, he and his princes together, saith the LORD. God's wrath against Moab, 4 upon Judah, 6 and upon Israel. 9 God complaineth of their unthankfulness. THUS saith the LORD: For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime : 2 But I will send a fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the palaces of Kirioth and Moab shall die, with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet: 3 And I will cut off the judge 8 And I will cut off the inhabi- from the midst thereof, and will tant from Ashdod, and him that slay all the princes thereof with holdeth the sceptre from Ash-him, saith the LORD. kelon, and I will turn mine hand against Ekron: and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, saith the Lord GOD. 9 Thus saith the LORD: For three transgressions of Tyrus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they delivered up the whole captivity to Edom, and remembered not the brotherly covenant: 10 But I will send a fire on the wall of Tyrus, which shall devour the palaces thereof. 11 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not turn away the three transgressions of Judah, and 4 Thus saith the LORD; For for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have despised the law of the LORD, and have not kept his commandments, and their lies caused them to err, after the which their fathers have walked : 5 But I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem. 6 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes; Judgment on Judah and Israel. 1 such as have been fined 2 I will press you in your place, as a cart presseth 3 have AMOS, 3, 4. 7 That pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and his father will go in unto the same maid, to profane my holy name: 8 And they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god. 9¶Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath. 10 Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you forty years through the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite. Il And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites. Is it not even thus, O ye children of Israel? saith the LORD. 12 But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not. 13 Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves. 2 Oppression and idolatry. 12 Thus saith the LORD; As the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear; so shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria in the corner of a and in Damascus in a couch. 8 bed. 14 Therefore the flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not strengthen his 13 Hear ye, and testify in the force, neither shall the mighty house of Jacob, saith the Lord GOD, deliver himself: 15 Neither shall he stand that handleth the bow; and he that is swift of foot shall not deliver himself: neither shall he that rideth the horse deliver himself. 16 And he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, saith the LORD. CHAPTER 3. 1 The necessity of God's judgment against Israel. 9 The publication of it, with the causes thereof. HEAR this word that the LORD hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, 2 You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. 3 Can two walk together, except they be agreed? 4 Will a lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey? will a young lion cry out of his den, if he have taken nothing? the God of hosts, visit the transgressions of Israel 14 That in the day that I shall upon him I will also visit the altars of Beth-el: and the horns of the altar shall be cut off, and fall to the ground. 15 And I will smite the winter house with the summer house; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end, saith the LORD. CHAPTER 4. 1 Ie reproveth Israel for oppression, 4 for idolatry, 6 and for their incorrigibleness, rescueth rescued sit couch, 10 on the silken sons of a bed. 5 Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin is for him? is before her; and ye shall cast shall one take up a snare from the 15them into the palace, saith the earth, and have taken nothing at all? LORD. 18 residue 14 one straight 15 away the things of the palace, Former chastisements ineffectual. 1 every three days: 2 stench AMOS, 5. 4 Come to Beth-el, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes 1after three years: 5 And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, and proclaim and publish the free offerings: for this liketh you, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord GOD. 6 And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD. 7 And also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered. 8 So two or three cities wandered unto one city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD. 2 The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is for- cast down saken upon her land; there is none to raise her up. 3 For thus saith the Lord GOD; The city that went out by a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel. 5 4 For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live: 5 But seek not Beth-el, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beerinto captivity, and Beth-el shall sheba: for Gilgal shall surely go come to nought. 6 Seek the LORD, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Beth-el. 7 Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth, 8 Seek him that maketh the seven 10 I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses; and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nos trils: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD. 11 I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD. 12 Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. 13 For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The LORD, The God of hosts, is his name. 9 That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress. have an hundred left, bringeth sudden destruction tion cometh in the gate, and they abhor him upon 11 Forasmuch therefore as your them. |