“Certainly when ¹  I punish Israel for their ²  covenant transgressions, ³  I will destroy ⁴  Bethel’s ⁵  altars. The horns ⁶  of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground.

I saw the sovereign One ¹  standing by the altar ²  and he said, “Strike the tops of the support pillars, ³  so the thresholds shake! Knock them down on the heads of all the people, ⁴  and I will kill the survivors ⁵  with the sword. No one will be able to run away; ⁶  no one will be able to escape. ⁷ 

Bravehearted ¹  warriors will run away naked in that day.” The Lord is speaking!

The Lord decided not to do this. ¹  “It will not happen,” the Lord said.

In that day,” says the sovereign Lord, “I will make the sun set at noon, and make the earth dark in the middle of the day. ¹ 

I will break the bar ¹  on the gate of Damascus. I will remove ²  the ruler ³  from Wicked Valley, ⁴  the one who holds the royal scepter from Beth Eden. ⁵  The people of Aram will be deported to Kir.” ⁶  The Lord has spoken!

The Lord decided not to do this. ¹  The sovereign Lord said, “This will not happen either.”

The sovereign Lord says this: “The city that marches out with a thousand soldiers ¹  will have only a hundred left; the town ²  that marches out with a hundred soldiers ³  will have only ten left for the family of Israel.” ⁴ 

Do not seek Bethel! ¹  Do not visit Gilgal! Do not journey down ²  to Beer Sheba! For the people of Gilgal ³  will certainly be carried into exile; ⁴  and Bethel will become a place where disaster abounds.” ⁵ 

“I have chosen ¹  you alone from all the clans of the earth. Therefore I will punish you for all your sins.”

Indeed, look! The Lord is giving the command. ¹  He will smash the large house to bits, and the small house into little pieces.

When their close relatives, the ones who will burn the corpses, ¹  pick up their bodies to remove the bones from the house, they will say to anyone who is in the inner rooms of the house, “Is anyone else with you?” He will respond, “Be quiet! Don’t invoke the Lord’s name!” ² 

Because of Israel’s sins ¹  this is what the Lord, the God who commands armies, the sovereign One, ²  says: “In all the squares there will be wailing, in all the streets they will mourn the dead. ³  They will tell the field workers ⁴  to lament and the professional mourners ⁵  to wail.

You say, “When will the new moon festival ¹  be over, ²  so we can sell grain? When will the Sabbath end, ³  so we can open up the grain bins? ⁴  We’re eager ⁵  to sell less for a higher price, ⁶  and to cheat the buyer with rigged scales! ⁷ 

Don’t you realize the Lord’s day of judgment will bring ¹  darkness, not light – gloomy blackness, not bright light?

You will pick up your images ¹  of Sikkuth, ²  your king, ³  and Kiyyun, ⁴  your star god, which you made for yourselves,

Therefore, because you make the poor pay taxes on their crops ¹  and exact a grain tax from them, you will not live in the houses you built with chiseled stone, nor will you drink the wine from the fine ²  vineyards you planted. ³ 

The sovereign Lord confirms this oath by his own holy character: ¹  “Certainly the time is approaching ²  when you will be carried away ³  in baskets, ⁴  every last one of you ⁵  in fishermen’s pots. ⁶ 

The Lord said to me, “What do you see, Amos?” I said, “Tin.” The sovereign One then said, “Look, I am about to place tin among my people Israel. I will no longer overlook their sin. ¹ 

Hate what is wrong, love what is right! Promote ¹  justice at the city gate! ²  Maybe the Lord, the God who commands armies, will have mercy on ³  those who are left from ⁴  Joseph. ⁵