AMOS 8 [†] a This is what the Lord GOD showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit. 2And he said,  b “Amos, what do you see?” And I said,  c “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the LORD said to me,

 d “The end [1] has come upon my people Israel;

I will never again pass by them.

3[†]  e The songs of the temple [2]  f shall become wailings [3] in that day,”

declares the Lord GOD.

 g “So many dead bodies!”

“They are thrown everywhere!”

 h “Silence!”

4[†] Hear this,  i you who trample on the needy

and bring the poor of the land to an end,

5[†] saying, “When will  j the new moon be over,

that we may sell grain?

And  k the Sabbath,

that we may offer wheat for sale,

that we may make  l the ephah small and the shekel [4] great

and deal deceitfully with false balances,

6[†] that we may buy the poor for  m silver

and the needy for a pair of sandals

and sell the chaff of the wheat?”

7[†] The LORD has sworn by  n the pride of Jacob:

“Surely  o I will never forget any of their deeds.

8[†]  p Shall not the land tremble on this account,

and everyone mourn who dwells in it,

 q and all of it rise like the Nile,

and be tossed about  r and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?”

9[^][†] “And on that day,” declares the Lord GOD,

 s “I will make the sun go down at noon

and darken the earth in broad daylight.

10  t I will turn your feasts into mourning

and all your songs into lamentation;

 u I will bring sackcloth on every waist

 u and baldness on every head;

 v I will make it like the mourning for an only son

and the end of it like a bitter day.

11[†] “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord GOD,

“when  w I will send a famine on the land—

not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,

 x but of hearing the words of the LORD.

12  x They shall wander from sea to sea,

and from north to east;

they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the LORD,

 y but they shall not find it.

13[†]  z “In that day the lovely virgins and the young men

shall  a faint for thirst.

14 Those who swear by  b the Guilt of Samaria,

and say, ‘As your god lives, O Dan,’

and, ‘As  c the Way of  d Beersheba lives,’

they shall fall, and never rise again.”