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

“I absolutely despise ¹  your festivals! I get no pleasure ²  from your religious assemblies!

People from ¹  two or three cities staggered into one city to get ²  water, but remained thirsty. ³  Still you did not come back to me.” The Lord is speaking!

“They do not know how to do what is right.” (The Lord is speaking.) “They store up ¹  the spoils of destructive violence ²  in their fortresses.

They drink wine from sacrificial bowls, ¹  and pour the very best oils on themselves. ²  Yet they are not concerned over ³  the ruin ⁴  of Joseph.

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 

“But surely I gave ¹  you no food to eat in any of your cities; you lacked food everywhere you live. ²  Still you did not come back to me.” The Lord is speaking!

“I destroyed your crops ¹  with blight and disease. Locusts kept ²  devouring your orchards, ³  vineyards, fig trees, and olive trees. Still you did not come back to me.” The Lord is speaking!

“I overthrew some of you the way God ¹  overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. ²  You were like a burning stick ³  snatched from the flames. Still you did not come back to me.” The Lord is speaking!

Woe ¹  to those who wish for the day of the Lord! Why do you want the Lord’s day of judgment to come? It will bring darkness, not light.

Amos replied ¹  to Amaziah, “I was not a prophet by profession. ²  No, ³  I was a herdsman who also took care of ⁴  sycamore fig trees. ⁵ 

So now listen to the Lord’s message! You say, ‘Don’t prophesy against Israel! Don’t preach ¹  against the family of Isaac!’

People ¹  will stagger from sea to sea, ²  and from the north around to the east. They will wander about looking for a revelation from ³  the Lord, but they will not find any. ⁴ 

These are the ones who now take oaths ¹  in the name of the sinful idol goddess ²  of Samaria. They vow, ³  ‘As surely as your god ⁴  lives, O Dan,’ or ‘As surely as your beloved one ⁵  lives, O Beer Sheba!’ But they will fall down and not get up again.”

Even when their enemies drive them into captivity, ¹  from there ²  I will command the sword to kill them. I will not let them out of my sight; they will experience disaster, not prosperity.” ³ 

“For look, I am giving a command and I will shake the family of Israel together with all the nations. It will resemble a sieve being shaken, when not even a pebble falls to the ground. ¹ 

I will plant them on their land and they will never again be uprooted from the ¹  land I have given them,” says the Lord your God.

This is what the Lord says: “Because Tyre has committed three crimes ¹  – make that four! ²  – I will not revoke my decree of judgment. ³  They sold ⁴  a whole community ⁵  to Edom; they failed to observe ⁶  a treaty of brotherhood. ⁷ 

“I sent against you a plague like one of the Egyptian plagues. ¹  I killed your young men with the sword, along with the horses you had captured. I made the stench from the corpses ²  rise up into your nostrils. Still you did not come back to me.” The Lord is speaking!

Be certain of this, ¹  the time is ²  coming,” says the sovereign Lord, “when I will send a famine through the land – not a shortage of food or water but an end to divine revelation! ³