Amos 6

Woe to the Complacent

1 Woe to you who are complacent in Zion,

and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria,

you notable men of the foremost nation,

to whom the people of Israel come!

2 Go to Kalneh and look at it;

go from there to great Hamath,

and then go down to Gath in Philistia.

Are they better off than your two kingdoms?

Is their land larger than yours?

3 You put off the day of disaster

and bring near a reign of terror.

4 You lie on beds adorned with ivory

and lounge on your couches.

You dine on choice lambs

and fattened calves.

5 You strum away on your harps like David

and improvise on musical instruments.

6 You drink wine by the bowlful

and use the finest lotions,

but you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph.

7 Therefore you will be among the first to go into exile;

your feasting and lounging will end.

The Lord Abhors the Pride of Israel

8 The SovereignLordhas sworn by himself—theLordGod Almighty declares:

“I abhor the pride of Jacob

and detest his fortresses;

I will deliver up the city

and everything in it.”

9 If ten people are left in one house, they too will die.

10 And if the relative who comes to carry the bodies out of the house to burn themasks anyone who might be hiding there, “Is anyone else with you?” and he says, “No,” then he will go on to say, “Hush! We must not mention the name of theLord.”

11 For theLordhas given the command,

and he will smash the great house into pieces

and the small house into bits.

12 Do horses run on the rocky crags?

# Does one plow the seawith oxen?

But you have turned justice into poison

and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness—

13 you who rejoice in the conquest of Lo Debar

# and say, “Did we not take Karnaimby our own strength?”

14 For theLordGod Almighty declares,

“I will stir up a nation against you, Israel,

that will oppress you all the way

from Lebo Hamath to the valley of the Arabah.”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/AMO/6-e938610ed92a145921955cb3680b12c4.mp3?version_id=111—

Amos 8

A Basket of Ripe Fruit

1 This is what the SovereignLordshowed me: a basket of ripe fruit.

2 “What do you see, Amos?” he asked.

“A basket of ripe fruit,” I answered.

Then theLordsaid to me, “The time is ripe for my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.

3 “In that day,” declares the SovereignLord, “the songs in the temple will turn to wailing.Many, many bodies—flung everywhere! Silence!”

4 Hear this, you who trample the needy

and do away with the poor of the land,

5 saying,

“When will the New Moon be over

that we may sell grain,

and the Sabbath be ended

that we may market wheat?”—

skimping on the measure,

boosting the price

and cheating with dishonest scales,

6 buying the poor with silver

and the needy for a pair of sandals,

selling even the sweepings with the wheat.

7 TheLordhas sworn by himself, the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget anything they have done.

8 “Will not the land tremble for this,

and all who live in it mourn?

The whole land will rise like the Nile;

it will be stirred up and then sink

like the river of Egypt.

9 “In that day,” declares the SovereignLord,

“I will make the sun go down at noon

and darken the earth in broad daylight.

10 I will turn your religious festivals into mourning

and all your singing into weeping.

I will make all of you wear sackcloth

and shave your heads.

I will make that time like mourning for an only son

and the end of it like a bitter day.

11 “The days are coming,” declares the SovereignLord,

“when I will send a famine through the land—

not a famine of food or a thirst for water,

but a famine of hearing the words of theLord.

12 People will stagger from sea to sea

and wander from north to east,

searching for the word of theLord,

but they will not find it.

13 “In that day

“the lovely young women and strong young men

will faint because of thirst.

14 Those who swear by the sin of Samaria—

who say, ‘As surely as your god lives, Dan,’

# or, ‘As surely as the godof Beersheba lives’—

they will fall, never to rise again.”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/AMO/8-7795bcc492ecde927a754bc7c621b49b.mp3?version_id=111—

Amos 9

Israel to Be Destroyed

1 I saw the Lord standing by the altar, and he said:

“Strike the tops of the pillars

so that the thresholds shake.

Bring them down on the heads of all the people;

those who are left I will kill with the sword.

Not one will get away,

none will escape.

2 Though they dig down to the depths below,

from there my hand will take them.

Though they climb up to the heavens above,

from there I will bring them down.

3 Though they hide themselves on the top of Carmel,

there I will hunt them down and seize them.

Though they hide from my eyes at the bottom of the sea,

there I will command the serpent to bite them.

4 Though they are driven into exile by their enemies,

there I will command the sword to slay them.

“I will keep my eye on them

for harm and not for good.”

5 The Lord, theLordAlmighty—

he touches the earth and it melts,

and all who live in it mourn;

the whole land rises like the Nile,

then sinks like the river of Egypt;

6 he builds his lofty palacein the heavens

# and sets its foundationon the earth;

he calls for the waters of the sea

and pours them out over the face of the land—

theLordis his name.

7 “Are not you Israelites

# the same to me as the Cushites?”

declares theLord.

“Did I not bring Israel up from Egypt,

# the Philistines from Caphtor

and the Arameans from Kir?

8 “Surely the eyes of the SovereignLord

are on the sinful kingdom.

I will destroy it

from the face of the earth.

Yet I will not totally destroy

the descendants of Jacob,”

declares theLord.

9 “For I will give the command,

and I will shake the people of Israel

among all the nations

as grain is shaken in a sieve,

and not a pebble will reach the ground.

10 All the sinners among my people

will die by the sword,

all those who say,

‘Disaster will not overtake or meet us.’

Israel’s Restoration

11 “In that day

“I will restore David’s fallen shelter—

I will repair its broken walls

and restore its ruins—

and will rebuild it as it used to be,

12 so that they may possess the remnant of Edom

# and all the nations that bear my name,”

declares theLord, who will do these things.

13 “The days are coming,” declares theLord,

“when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman

and the planter by the one treading grapes.

New wine will drip from the mountains

and flow from all the hills,

14 and I will bring my people Israel back from exile.

“They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them.

They will plant vineyards and drink their wine;

they will make gardens and eat their fruit.

15 I will plant Israel in their own land,

never again to be uprooted

from the land I have given them,”

says theLordyour God.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/AMO/9-827a1801ab35be07a6043bc93b3d2d83.mp3?version_id=111—

Joel 1

1 The word of theLordthat came to Joel son of Pethuel.

An Invasion of Locusts

2 Hear this, you elders;

listen, all who live in the land.

Has anything like this ever happened in your days

or in the days of your ancestors?

3 Tell it to your children,

and let your children tell it to their children,

and their children to the next generation.

4 What the locust swarm has left

the great locusts have eaten;

what the great locusts have left

the young locusts have eaten;

what the young locusts have left

# other locustshave eaten.

5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep!

Wail, all you drinkers of wine;

wail because of the new wine,

for it has been snatched from your lips.

6 A nation has invaded my land,

a mighty army without number;

it has the teeth of a lion,

the fangs of a lioness.

7 It has laid waste my vines

and ruined my fig trees.

It has stripped off their bark

and thrown it away,

leaving their branches white.

8 Mourn like a virgin in sackcloth

grieving for the betrothed of her youth.

9 Grain offerings and drink offerings

are cut off from the house of theLord.

The priests are in mourning,

those who minister before theLord.

10 The fields are ruined,

the ground is dried up;

the grain is destroyed,

the new wine is dried up,

the olive oil fails.

11 Despair, you farmers,

wail, you vine growers;

grieve for the wheat and the barley,

because the harvest of the field is destroyed.

12 The vine is dried up

and the fig tree is withered;

# the pomegranate, the palm and the appletree—

all the trees of the field—are dried up.

Surely the people’s joy

is withered away.

A Call to Lamentation

13 Put on sackcloth, you priests, and mourn;

wail, you who minister before the altar.

Come, spend the night in sackcloth,

you who minister before my God;

for the grain offerings and drink offerings

are withheld from the house of your God.

14 Declare a holy fast;

call a sacred assembly.

Summon the elders

and all who live in the land

to the house of theLordyour God,

and cry out to theLord.

15 Alas for that day!

For the day of theLordis near;

# it will come like destruction from the Almighty.

16 Has not the food been cut off

before our very eyes—

joy and gladness

from the house of our God?

17 The seeds are shriveled

# beneath the clods.

The storehouses are in ruins,

the granaries have been broken down,

for the grain has dried up.

18 How the cattle moan!

The herds mill about

because they have no pasture;

even the flocks of sheep are suffering.

19 To you,Lord, I call,

for fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness

and flames have burned up all the trees of the field.

20 Even the wild animals pant for you;

the streams of water have dried up

and fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/JOL/1-ca20e202e32194400b1159e569f887e6.mp3?version_id=111—

Joel 2

An Army of Locusts

1 Blow the trumpet in Zion;

sound the alarm on my holy hill.

Let all who live in the land tremble,

for the day of theLordis coming.

It is close at hand—

2 a day of darkness and gloom,

a day of clouds and blackness.

Like dawn spreading across the mountains

a large and mighty army comes,

such as never was in ancient times

nor ever will be in ages to come.

3 Before them fire devours,

behind them a flame blazes.

Before them the land is like the garden of Eden,

behind them, a desert waste—

nothing escapes them.

4 They have the appearance of horses;

they gallop along like cavalry.

5 With a noise like that of chariots

they leap over the mountaintops,

like a crackling fire consuming stubble,

like a mighty army drawn up for battle.

6 At the sight of them, nations are in anguish;

every face turns pale.

7 They charge like warriors;

they scale walls like soldiers.

They all march in line,

not swerving from their course.

8 They do not jostle each other;

each marches straight ahead.

They plunge through defenses

without breaking ranks.

9 They rush upon the city;

they run along the wall.

They climb into the houses;

like thieves they enter through the windows.

10 Before them the earth shakes,

the heavens tremble,

the sun and moon are darkened,

and the stars no longer shine.

11 TheLordthunders

at the head of his army;

his forces are beyond number,

and mighty is the army that obeys his command.

The day of theLordis great;

it is dreadful.

Who can endure it?

Rend Your Heart

12 “Even now,” declares theLord,

“return to me with all your heart,

with fasting and weeping and mourning.”

13 Rend your heart

and not your garments.

Return to theLordyour God,

for he is gracious and compassionate,

slow to anger and abounding in love,

and he relents from sending calamity.

14 Who knows? He may turn and relent

and leave behind a blessing—

grain offerings and drink offerings

for theLordyour God.

15 Blow the trumpet in Zion,

declare a holy fast,

call a sacred assembly.

16 Gather the people,

consecrate the assembly;

bring together the elders,

gather the children,

those nursing at the breast.

Let the bridegroom leave his room

and the bride her chamber.

17 Let the priests, who minister before theLord,

weep between the portico and the altar.

Let them say, “Spare your people,Lord.

Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn,

a byword among the nations.

Why should they say among the peoples,

‘Where is their God?’ ”

The Lord’s Answer

18 Then theLordwas jealous for his land

and took pity on his people.

19 TheLordrepliedto them:

“I am sending you grain, new wine and olive oil,

enough to satisfy you fully;

never again will I make you

an object of scorn to the nations.

20 “I will drive the northern horde far from you,

pushing it into a parched and barren land;

its eastern ranks will drown in the Dead Sea

and its western ranks in the Mediterranean Sea.

And its stench will go up;

its smell will rise.”

Surely he has done great things!

21 Do not be afraid, land of Judah;

be glad and rejoice.

Surely theLordhas done great things!

22 Do not be afraid, you wild animals,

for the pastures in the wilderness are becoming green.

The trees are bearing their fruit;

the fig tree and the vine yield their riches.

23 Be glad, people of Zion,

rejoice in theLordyour God,

for he has given you the autumn rains

because he is faithful.

He sends you abundant showers,

both autumn and spring rains, as before.

24 The threshing floors will be filled with grain;

the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.

25 “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten—

the great locust and the young locust,

# the other locusts and the locust swarm—

my great army that I sent among you.

26 You will have plenty to eat, until you are full,

and you will praise the name of theLordyour God,

who has worked wonders for you;

never again will my people be shamed.

27 Then you will know that I am in Israel,

that I am theLordyour God,

and that there is no other;

never again will my people be shamed.

The Day of the Lord

28 “And afterward,

I will pour out my Spirit on all people.

Your sons and daughters will prophesy,

your old men will dream dreams,

your young men will see visions.

29 Even on my servants, both men and women,

I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

30 I will show wonders in the heavens

and on the earth,

blood and fire and billows of smoke.

31 The sun will be turned to darkness

and the moon to blood

before the coming of the great and dreadful day of theLord.

32 And everyone who calls

on the name of theLordwill be saved;

for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem

there will be deliverance,

as theLordhas said,

even among the survivors

# whom theLordcalls.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/JOL/2-6a5551a688342a3758afe255a62c2664.mp3?version_id=111—

Joel 3

The Nations Judged

#

1 “In those days and at that time,

when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,

2 I will gather all nations

# and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat.

There I will put them on trial

for what they did to my inheritance, my people Israel,

because they scattered my people among the nations

and divided up my land.

3 They cast lots for my people

and traded boys for prostitutes;

they sold girls for wine to drink.

4 “Now what have you against me, Tyre and Sidon and all you regions of Philistia? Are you repaying me for something I have done? If you are paying me back, I will swiftly and speedily return on your own heads what you have done.

5 For you took my silver and my gold and carried off my finest treasures to your temples.

6 You sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks, that you might send them far from their homeland.

7 “See, I am going to rouse them out of the places to which you sold them, and I will return on your own heads what you have done.

8 I will sell your sons and daughters to the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, a nation far away.” TheLordhas spoken.

9 Proclaim this among the nations:

Prepare for war!

Rouse the warriors!

Let all the fighting men draw near and attack.

10 Beat your plowshares into swords

and your pruning hooks into spears.

Let the weakling say,

“I am strong!”

11 Come quickly, all you nations from every side,

and assemble there.

Bring down your warriors,Lord!

12 “Let the nations be roused;

let them advance into the Valley of Jehoshaphat,

for there I will sit

to judge all the nations on every side.

13 Swing the sickle,

for the harvest is ripe.

Come, trample the grapes,

for the winepress is full

and the vats overflow—

so great is their wickedness!”

14 Multitudes, multitudes

in the valley of decision!

For the day of theLordis near

in the valley of decision.

15 The sun and moon will be darkened,

and the stars no longer shine.

16 TheLordwill roar from Zion

and thunder from Jerusalem;

the earth and the heavens will tremble.

But theLordwill be a refuge for his people,

a stronghold for the people of Israel.

Blessings for God’s People

17 “Then you will know that I, theLordyour God,

dwell in Zion, my holy hill.

Jerusalem will be holy;

never again will foreigners invade her.

18 “In that day the mountains will drip new wine,

and the hills will flow with milk;

all the ravines of Judah will run with water.

A fountain will flow out of theLord’s house

# and will water the valley of acacias.

19 But Egypt will be desolate,

Edom a desert waste,

because of violence done to the people of Judah,

in whose land they shed innocent blood.

20 Judah will be inhabited forever

and Jerusalem through all generations.

21 Shall I leave their innocent blood unavenged?

No, I will not.”

TheLorddwells in Zion!

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/JOL/3-92be5323f2ec3a19d204a59e4b37282b.mp3?version_id=111—

Hosea 1

1 The word of theLordthat came to Hosea son of Beeri during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the reign of Jeroboam son of Jehoashking of Israel:

Hosea’s Wife and Children

2 When theLordbegan to speak through Hosea, theLordsaid to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to theLord.”

3 So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

4 Then theLordsaid to Hosea, “Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel.

5 In that day I will break Israel’s bow in the Valley of Jezreel.”

6 Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then theLordsaid to Hosea, “Call her Lo-Ruhamah (which means “not loved”), for I will no longer show love to Israel, that I should at all forgive them.

7 Yet I will show love to Judah; and I will save them—not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but I, theLordtheir God, will save them.”

8 After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son.

9 Then theLordsaid, “Call him Lo-Ammi (which means “not my people”), for you are not my people, and I am not your God.

10 “Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘children of the living God.’

11 The people of Judah and the people of Israel will come together; they will appoint one leader and will come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/HOS/1-d4d3ca0f02343fe29fe767494ef0704d.mp3?version_id=111—

Hosea 2

#

1 “Say of your brothers, ‘My people,’ and of your sisters, ‘My loved one.’

Israel Punished and Restored

2 “Rebuke your mother, rebuke her,

for she is not my wife,

and I am not her husband.

Let her remove the adulterous look from her face

and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.

3 Otherwise I will strip her naked

and make her as bare as on the day she was born;

I will make her like a desert,

turn her into a parched land,

and slay her with thirst.

4 I will not show my love to her children,

because they are the children of adultery.

5 Their mother has been unfaithful

and has conceived them in disgrace.

She said, ‘I will go after my lovers,

who give me my food and my water,

my wool and my linen, my olive oil and my drink.’

6 Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes;

I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way.

7 She will chase after her lovers but not catch them;

she will look for them but not find them.

Then she will say,

‘I will go back to my husband as at first,

for then I was better off than now.’

8 She has not acknowledged that I was the one

who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil,

who lavished on her the silver and gold—

which they used for Baal.

9 “Therefore I will take away my grain when it ripens,

and my new wine when it is ready.

I will take back my wool and my linen,

intended to cover her naked body.

10 So now I will expose her lewdness

before the eyes of her lovers;

no one will take her out of my hands.

11 I will stop all her celebrations:

her yearly festivals, her New Moons,

her Sabbath days—all her appointed festivals.

12 I will ruin her vines and her fig trees,

which she said were her pay from her lovers;

I will make them a thicket,

and wild animals will devour them.

13 I will punish her for the days

she burned incense to the Baals;

she decked herself with rings and jewelry,

and went after her lovers,

but me she forgot,”

declares theLord.

14 “Therefore I am now going to allure her;

I will lead her into the wilderness

and speak tenderly to her.

15 There I will give her back her vineyards,

# and will make the Valley of Achora door of hope.

# There she will respondas in the days of her youth,

as in the day she came up out of Egypt.

16 “In that day,” declares theLord,

“you will call me ‘my husband’;

# you will no longer call me ‘my master.’

17 I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips;

no longer will their names be invoked.

18 In that day I will make a covenant for them

with the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky

and the creatures that move along the ground.

Bow and sword and battle

I will abolish from the land,

so that all may lie down in safety.

19 I will betroth you to me forever;

# I will betroth you inrighteousness and justice,

# inlove and compassion.

20 I will betroth you in faithfulness,

and you will acknowledge theLord.

21 “In that day I will respond,”

declares theLord—

“I will respond to the skies,

and they will respond to the earth;

22 and the earth will respond to the grain,

the new wine and the olive oil,

# and they will respond to Jezreel.

23 I will plant her for myself in the land;

# I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’

# I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’;

and they will say, ‘You are my God.’ ”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/HOS/2-7c533da35fd007d084aa7a58bb608a41.mp3?version_id=111—

Hosea 3

Hosea’s Reconciliation With His Wife

1 TheLordsaid to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as theLordloves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.”

2 So I bought her for fifteen shekelsof silver and about a homer and a lethekof barley.

3 Then I told her, “You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will behave the same way toward you.”

4 For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or household gods.

5 Afterward the Israelites will return and seek theLordtheir God and David their king. They will come trembling to theLordand to his blessings in the last days.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/HOS/3-25d00244f6b4555bccd9f4a60ecc092f.mp3?version_id=111—

Hosea 4

The Charge Against Israel

1 Hear the word of theLord, you Israelites,

because theLordhas a charge to bring

against you who live in the land:

“There is no faithfulness, no love,

no acknowledgment of God in the land.

2 There is only cursing,lying and murder,

stealing and adultery;

they break all bounds,

and bloodshed follows bloodshed.

3 Because of this the land dries up,

and all who live in it waste away;

the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky

and the fish in the sea are swept away.

4 “But let no one bring a charge,

let no one accuse another,

for your people are like those

who bring charges against a priest.

5 You stumble day and night,

and the prophets stumble with you.

So I will destroy your mother—

6 my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.

“Because you have rejected knowledge,

I also reject you as my priests;

because you have ignored the law of your God,

I also will ignore your children.

7 The more priests there were,

the more they sinned against me;

# they exchanged their glorious Godfor something disgraceful.

8 They feed on the sins of my people

and relish their wickedness.

9 And it will be: Like people, like priests.

I will punish both of them for their ways

and repay them for their deeds.

10 “They will eat but not have enough;

they will engage in prostitution but not flourish,

because they have deserted theLord

to give themselves

11 to prostitution;

old wine and new wine

take away their understanding.

12 My people consult a wooden idol,

and a diviner’s rod speaks to them.

A spirit of prostitution leads them astray;

they are unfaithful to their God.

13 They sacrifice on the mountaintops

and burn offerings on the hills,

under oak, poplar and terebinth,

where the shade is pleasant.

Therefore your daughters turn to prostitution

and your daughters-in-law to adultery.

14 “I will not punish your daughters

when they turn to prostitution,

nor your daughters-in-law

when they commit adultery,

because the men themselves consort with harlots

and sacrifice with shrine prostitutes—

a people without understanding will come to ruin!

15 “Though you, Israel, commit adultery,

do not let Judah become guilty.

“Do not go to Gilgal;

# do not go up to Beth Aven.

And do not swear, ‘As surely as theLordlives!’

16 The Israelites are stubborn,

like a stubborn heifer.

How then can theLordpasture them

like lambs in a meadow?

17 Ephraim is joined to idols;

leave him alone!

18 Even when their drinks are gone,

they continue their prostitution;

their rulers dearly love shameful ways.

19 A whirlwind will sweep them away,

and their sacrifices will bring them shame.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/HOS/4-80aafe511532443f4641af9bf83a32da.mp3?version_id=111—