(Translated by Sir Lancelot C L Brenton, formatted by George ALEFantes)
CHAPTER 1
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The words of Amos which came to him in Accarim out of Thecue, which he saw concerning Jerusalem, in the days of Ozias king of Juda, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joas king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.
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And he said, The Lord has spoken out of Sion, and has uttered his voice out of Jerusalem; and the pastures of the shepherds have mourned, and the top of Carmel is dried up.
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And the Lord said, For three sins of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away from it; because they sawed with iron saws the women with child of the Galaadites.
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And I will send a fire on the house of Azael, and it shall devour the foundations of the son of Ader.
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And I will break to pieces the bars of Damascus, and will destroy the inhabitants out of the plain of On, and will cut in pieces a tribe out of the men of Charrhan: and the famous people of Syria shall be led captive, saith the Lord.
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Thus saith the Lord; For three sins of Gaza, and for four, I will not turn away from them; because they took prisoners the captivity of Solomon, to shut them up into Idumea.
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And I will send forth a fire on the walls of Gaza, and it shall devour its foundations.
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And I will destroy the inhabitants out of Azotus, and a tribe shall be cut off from Ascalon, and I will stretch out my hand upon Accaron: and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, saith the Lord.
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Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of Tyre, and for four, I will not turn away from it; because they shut up the prisoners of Solomon into Idumea, and remembered not the covenant of brethren.
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And I will send forth a fire on the walls of Tyre, and it shall devour the foundations of it.
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Thus saith the Lord; For three sins of Idumea, and for four, I will not turn away from them; because they pursued their brother with the sword, and destroyed the mother upon the earth, and summoned up his anger for a testimony, and kept up his fury to the end.
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And I will send forth a fire upon Thaman, and it shall devour the foundations of her walls.
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Thus saith the Lord; For three sins of the children of Ammon, and for four, I will not turn away from him; because they ripped up the women with child of the Galaadites, that they might widen their coasts.
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And I will kindle a fire on the walls of Rabbath, and it shall devour her foundations with shouting in the day of war, and she shall be shaken in the days of her destruction:
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and her kings shall go into captivity, their priests and their rulers together, saith the Lord.
CHAPTER 2
1
Thus saith the Lord; For three sins of Moab, and for four, I will not turn away from it; because they burnt the bones of the king of Idumea to lime.
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But I will send forth a fire on Moab, and it shall devour the foundations of its cities: and Moab shall perish in weakness, with a shout, and with the sound of a trumpet.
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And I will destroy the judge out of her, and slay all her princes with him, saith the Lord.
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Thus saith the Lord; For three sins of the children of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away from him; because they have rejected the law of the Lord, and have not kept his ordinances, and their vain idols which they made, which their fathers followed, caused them to err.
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And I will send a fire on Juda, and it shall devour the foundations of Jerusalem.
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Thus saith the Lord; for three sins of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away from him; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for sandals,
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wherewith to tread on the dust of the earth, and they have smitten upon the heads of the poor, and have perverted the way of the lowly: and a son and his father have gone into the same maid, that they might profane the name of their God.
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And binding their clothes with cords they have made them curtains near the altar, and they have drunk wine gained by extortion in the house of their God.
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Nevertheless I cut off the Amorite from before them, whose height was as the height of a cedar, and he was strong as an oak; and I dried up his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath.
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And I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and led you about in the desert forty years, that ye should inherit the land of the Amorites.
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And I took of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for consecration. Are not these things so, ye sons of Israel? saith the Lord.
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But ye gave the consecrated ones wine to drink; and ye commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not.
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Therefore, behold, I roll under you, as a waggon full of straw is rolled.
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And flight shall perish from the runner, and the strong shall not hold fast his strength, and the warrior shall not save his life:
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and the archer shall not withstand, and he that is swift of foot shall in no wise escape; and the horseman shall not save his life.
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And the strong shall find no confidence in power: the naked shall flee away in that day, saith the Lord.
CHAPTER 3
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Hear ye this word, O house of Israel, which the Lord has spoken concerning you, and against the whole family whom I brought up out of the land of Egypt, saying,
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You especially have I known out of all the families of the earth: therefore will I take vengeance upon you for all your sins.
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Shall two walk together at all, if they do not know one another?
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Will a lion roar out of his thicket if he has no prey? will a lion's whelp utter his voice at all out of his lair, if he have taken nothing?
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Will a bird fall on the earth without a fowler? will a snare be taken up from the earth without having taken anything?
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Shall the trumpet sound in the city, and the people not be alarmed? shall there be evil in a city which the Lord has not wrought?
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For the Lord God will do nothing, without revealing instruction to his servants the prophets.
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A lion shall roar, and who will not be alarmed? the Lord God has spoken, and who will not prophesy?
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Proclaim it to the regions among the Assyrians, and to the regions of Egypt, and say, Gather yourselves to the mountain of Samaria, and behold many wonderful things in the midst of it, and the oppression that is in it.
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And she knew not what things would come against her, saith the Lord, even those that store up wrong and misery in their countries.
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Therefore thus saith the Lord God; O Tyre, thy land shall be made desolate round about thee; and he shall bring down thy strength out of thee, and thy countries shall be spoiled.
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Thus saith the Lord; As when a shepherd rescues from the mouth of a lion two legs or a piece of an ear, so shall be drawn forth the children of Israel who dwell in Samaria in the presence of a foreign tribe, and in Damascus.
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Hear, O ye priests, and testify to the house of Jacob, saith the Lord God Almighty.
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For in the day wherein I shall take vengeance of the sins of Israel upon him, I will also take vengeance on the altars of Bethel: and the horns of the altar shall be broken down, and they shall fall upon the ground.
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I will crush and smite the turreted-house upon the summer-house; and the ivory-houses shall be destroyed, and many other houses also, saith the Lord.
CHAPTER 4
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Hear ye this word, ye heifers of the land of Basan that are in the mountain of Samaria, that oppress the poor, and trample on the needy, which say to their masters, Give us that we may drink.
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The Lord swears by his holiness, that, behold, the days come upon you, when they shall take you with weapons, and fiery destroyers shall cast those with you into boiling caldrons.
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And ye shall be brought forth naked in the presence of each other; and ye shall be cast forth on the mountain Romman, saith the Lord.
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Ye went into Bethel, and sinned, and ye multiplied sin at Galgala; and ye brought your meat-offerings in the morning, and your tithes every third day.
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And they read the law without, and called for public professions: proclaim aloud that the children of Israel have loved these things, saith the Lord.
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And I will give you dulness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet ye returned not to me, saith the Lord.
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Also I withheld from you the rain three months before the harvest: and I will rain upon one city, and on another city I will not rain: one part shall be rained upon, and the part on which I shall not rain shall be dried up.
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And the inhabitants of two or three cities shall be gathered to one city to drink water, and they shall not be satisfied: yet ye have not returned to me, saith the Lord.
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I smote you with parching, and with blight: ye multiplied your gardens, your vineyards, and your fig-grounds, and the cankerworm devoured your olive-yards: yet not even thus did ye return to me, saith the Lord.
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I sent pestilence among you by the way of Egypt, and slew your young men with the sword, together with thy horses that were taken captive; and in my wrath against you I set fire to your camps: yet not even thus did ye return to me, saith the Lord.
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I overthrew you, as God overthrew Sodoma and Gomorrha, and ye became as a brand plucked out of the fire: yet not even thus did ye return to me, saith the Lord.
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Therefore thus will I do to thee, O Israel: nay because I will do thus to thee, prepare to call on thy God, O Israel.
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For, behold, I am he that strengthens the thunder, and creates the wind, and proclaims to men his Christ, forming the morning and the darkness, and mounting on the high places of the earth, The Lord God Almighty is his name.
CHAPTER 5
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Hear ye this word of the Lord, even a lamentation, which I take up against you. The house of Israel is fallen; it shall no more rise.
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The virgin of Israel has fallen upon his land; there is none that shall raise her up.
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Therefore thus saith the Lord God; The city out of which there went forth a thousand, in it there shall be left a hundred, and in that out of which there went forth a hundred, there shall be left ten to the house of Israel.
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Wherefore thus saith the Lord to the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live.
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But seek not Bethel, and go not into Galgala, and cross not over to the Well of the Oath: for Galgala shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall be as that which is not.
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Seek ye the Lord, and ye shall live; lest the house of Joseph blaze as fire, and it devour him, and there shall be none to quench it for the house of Israel.
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It is he that executes judgment in the height above, and he has established justice on the earth:
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who makes all things, and changes them, and turns darkness into the morning, and darkens the day into night: who calls for the water of the sea, and pours it out on the face of the earth: the Lord is his name:
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who dispenses ruin to strength, and brings distress upon the fortress.
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They hated him that reproved in the gates, and abhorred holy speech.
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Therefore because they have smitten the poor with their fists, and ye have received of them choice gifts; ye have built polished houses, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted desirable vineyards, but ye shall not drink the wine of them.
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For I know your many transgressions, and your sins are great, trampling on the just, taking bribes, and turning aside the judgment of the poor in the gates.
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Therefore the prudent shall be silent at that time; for it is a time of evils.
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Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the Lord God Almighty shall be with you, as ye have said,
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We have hated evil, and loved good: and restore ye judgment in the gates; that the Lord God Almighty may have mercy on the remnant of Joseph.
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Therefore thus saith the Lord God Almighty; In all the streets shall be lamentations; and in all the ways shall it be said, Woe, woe! the husbandman shall be called to mourning and lamentation, and to them that are skilled in complaining.
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And there shall be lamentation in all the ways; because I will pass through the midst of thee, saith the Lord.
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Woe to you that desire the day of the Lord! what is this day of the Lord to you? whereas it is darkness, and not light.