Amos 8:1-6

More Visions and Messages of Judgment

8:1 The sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw ¹  a basket of summer fruit. ² 

8:2 He said, “What do you see, Amos?” I replied, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me, “The end ³  has come for my people Israel! I will no longer overlook their sins. ⁴ 

8:3 The women singing in the temple ⁵  will wail in that day.”

The sovereign Lord is speaking.

“There will be many corpses littered everywhere! ⁶  Be quiet!”

8:4 Listen to this, you who trample ⁷  the needy,

and do away with ⁸  the destitute in the land.

8:5 You say,

“When will the new moon festival ⁹  be over, ¹⁰  so we can sell grain?

When will the Sabbath end, ¹¹  so we can open up the grain bins? ¹² 

We’re eager ¹³  to sell less for a higher price, ¹⁴ 

and to cheat the buyer with rigged scales! ¹⁵ 

8:6 We’re eager to trade silver for the poor, ¹⁶ 

a pair of sandals ¹⁷  for the needy!

We want to mix in some chaff with the grain!” ¹⁸ 

[8:1]  ¹ tn Heb “behold” or “look.”

[8:1]  ² sn The basket of summer fruit (also in the following verse) probably refers to figs from the summer crop, which ripens in August-September. See O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 115.

[8:2]  ³ tn There is a wordplay here. The Hebrew word קֵץ (qets, “end”) sounds like קָיִץ (qayits, “summer fruit”). The summer fruit arrived toward the end of Israel’s agricultural year; Israel’s national existence was similarly at an end.

[8:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “I will no longer pass over him.”

[8:3]  ⁵ tn Or “palace” (NASB, NCV, TEV).

[8:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “Many corpses in every place he will throw out.” The subject of the verb is probably impersonal, though many emend the active (Hiphil) form to a passive (Hophal): “Many corpses in every place will be thrown out.”

[8:4]  ⁷ tn See the note on the word “trample” in 2:7.

[8:4]  ⁸ tn Or “put an end to”; or “exterminate.”

[8:5]  ⁹ sn Apparently work was prohibited during the new moon festival, just as it was on the Sabbath.

[8:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “pass by.”

[8:5]  ¹¹ tn The verb, though omitted in the Hebrew text, is supplied in the translation from the parallel line.

[8:5]  ¹² tn Heb “sell grain.” Here “grain” could stand by metonymy for the bins where it was stored.

[8:5]  ¹³ tn Here and in v. 6 the words “we’re eager” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[8:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “to make small the ephah and to make great the shekel.” The “ephah” was a unit of dry measure used to determine the quantity purchased, while the “shekel” was a standard weight used to determine the purchase price. By using a smaller than standard ephah and a heavier than standard shekel, these merchants were able to increase their profit (“sell less for a higher price”) by cheating the buyer.

[8:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and to cheat with deceptive scales”; NASB, NIV “dishonest scales”; NRSV “false balances.”

[8:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “to buy the poor for silver.”

[8:6]  ¹² tn See the note on the word “sandals” in 2:6.

[8:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “The chaff of the grain we will sell.”