<p class="poetry">&#8220;At that time Michael,p> <p class="poetry">the great prince who watches over your people,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">will arise.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">There will be a time of distressp> <p class="poetry">unlike any other from the nation&#8217;s beginning<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">up to that time.p> <p class="poetry">But at that time your own people,p> <p class="poetry">all those whose names are<n id="4" /> found written in the book,p> <p class="poetry">will escape.p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> said to me, &#8220;Go, show love to<n id="1" /> your wife<n id="2" /> again, even though she loves<n id="3" /> another man<n id="4" /> and continually commits adultery.<n id="5" /> Likewise, the <sc>Lordsc> loves<n id="6" /> the Israelites<n id="7" /> although they turn to other gods and love to offer raisin cakes to idols.&#8221;<n id="8" />

<t /><p class="poetry">Hear the word of the <sc>Lordsc>, you Israelites!<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">For the <sc>Lordsc> has a covenant lawsuit<n id="2" /> against the people of Israel.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">For there is neither faithfulness nor loyalty in the land,p> <p class="poetry">nor do they acknowledge God.<n id="4" />p>

<t /><p class="poetry"><v id="(3:1)" /><n id="1" /> After all of this<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">I will pour out my Spirit<n id="3" /> on all kinds of people.<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">Your sons and daughters will prophesy.p> <p class="poetry">Your elderly will have revelatory dreams;<n id="5" />p> <p class="poetry">your young men will see prophetic visions.p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">The following is a record of what Amos prophesied.<n id="1" /> He<n id="2" /> was one of the herdsmen from Tekoa. These prophecies about Israel were revealed to him<n id="3" /> during the time of<n id="4" /> King Uzziah of Judah and<n id="5" /> King Jeroboam son of Joash of Israel, two years before the earthquake.<n id="6" />p>

<p class="poetry">This is what the <sc>Lordsc> says:p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Because the Ammonites have committed three crimes<n id="1" /> &#8211;p> <p class="poetry">make that four!<n id="2" /> &#8211; I will not revoke my decree of judgment.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">They ripped open Gilead&#8217;s pregnant women<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">so they could expand their territory.p>

<p class="poetry">This is what the <sc>Lordsc> says:p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Just as a shepherd salvages from the lion&#8217;s mouth a couple of leg bones or a piece of an ear,p> <p class="poetry">so the Israelites who live in Samaria will be salvaged.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">They will be left with just a corner of a bed,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">and a part<n id="3" /> of a couch.&#8221;p>

<p class="poetry">&#8220;Therefore this is what the <sc>Lordsc> says:p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;Your wife will become a prostitute in the streets<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">and your sons and daughters will die violently.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Your land will be given to others<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">and you will die in a foreign<n id="4" /> land.p> <p class="poetry">Israel will certainly be carried into exile<n id="5" /> away from its land.&#8217;&#8221;p>

<p class="poetry">Those survivors from<n id="1" /> Jacob will live<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">in the midst of many nations.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">They will be like the dew the <sc>Lordsc> sends,p> <p class="poetry">like the rain on the grass,p> <p class="poetry">that does not hope for men to comep> <p class="poetry">or wait around for humans to arrive.<n id="4" />p>

<p class="poetry">My people, recall how King Balak of Moab planned to harm you,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">how Balaam son of Beor responded to him.p> <p class="poetry">Recall how you journeyed from Shittim to Gilgal,p> <p class="poetry">so you might acknowledge that the <sc>Lordsc> has treated you fairly.&#8221;<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">Therefore, as surely as I live,&#8221; says the <sc>Lordsc> who commands armies, the God of Israel,p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;be certain that Moab will become like Sodomp> <p class="poetry">and the Ammonites like Gomorrah.p> <p class="poetry">They will be overrun by weeds,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">filled with salt pits,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">and permanently desolate.p> <p class="poetry">Those of my people who are left<n id="3" /> will plunder their belongings;<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">those who are left in Judah<n id="5" /> will take possession of their land.&#8221;p>

Even so, take heart, Zerubbabel,&#8217; says the <sc>Lordsc>. &#8216;Take heart, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and<n id="1" /> all you citizens of the land,&#8217;<n id="2" /> says the <sc>Lordsc>, &#8216;and begin to work. For I am with you,&#8217; says the <sc>Lordsc> who rules over all.

On that day,&#8217;<n id="1" /> says the <sc>Lordsc> who rules over all, &#8216;I will take you, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, my servant,&#8217;<n id="2" /> says the <sc>Lordsc>, &#8216;and I will make you like a signet ring,<n id="3" /> for I have chosen you,&#8217; says the <sc>Lordsc> who rules over all.&#8221;<n id="4" />p>

&#8220;Choose some people<n id="1" /> from among the exiles, namely, Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah, all of whom have come from Babylon, and when you have done so go to the house of Josiah son of Zephaniah.<n id="2" />

<p class="poetry">Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion!p> <p class="poetry">Shout, daughter of Jerusalem!p> <p class="poetry">Look! Your king is coming to you:p> <p class="poetry">he is legitimate<n id="1" /> and victorious,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">humble and riding on a donkey<n id="3" /> &#8211;p> <p class="poetry">on a young donkey, the foal of a female donkey.p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">&#8220;A son naturally honors his father and a slave respects<n id="1" /> his master. If I am your<n id="2" /> father, where is my honor? If I am your master, where is my respect? The <sc>Lordsc> who rules over all asks you this, you priests who make light of my name! But you reply, &#8216;How have we made light of your name?&#8217;

&#8220;They will belong to me,&#8221; says the <sc>Lordsc> who rules over all, &#8220;in the day when I prepare my own special property.<n id="1" /> I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him.

Aaron is to lay his two hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities of the Israelites and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins,<n id="1" /> and thus he is to put them<n id="2" /> on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man standing ready.<n id="3" />

You<n id="1" /> stood before the <sc>Lordsc> your God at Horeb and he<n id="2" /> said to me, &#8220;Assemble the people before me so that I can tell them my commands.<n id="3" /> Then they will learn to revere me all the days they live in the land, and they will instruct their children.&#8221;

Indeed, for forty years the Israelites traveled through the desert until all the men old enough to fight when they left Egypt, the ones who had disobeyed the <sc>Lordsc>, died off.<n id="1" /> For the <sc>Lordsc> had sworn a solemn oath to them that he would not let them see the land he had sworn on oath to give them,<n id="2" /> a land rich in<n id="3" /> milk and honey.