it will have many blooms. It will show its happiness, as if it were shouting with joy. It will be beautiful like the forest of Lebanon, as beautiful as the hill of Carmel and the Plain of Sharon. Everyone will see the glory of the Lord and the splendor of our God.
You have sent your messengers to insult the Lord. You have said, “With my many chariots I have gone to the tops of the mountains, to the highest mountains of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars and its best pine trees. I have gone to its greatest heights and its best forests.
Then the Plain of Sharon will be a field for flocks, and the Valley of Achor will be a place for herds to rest. They will be for the people who want to follow me.
But I will bring the people of Israel back to their own pasture. They will eat on Mount Carmel and in Bashan. They will eat and be full on the hills of Ephraim and Gilead.”
Amos said, “The Lord will roar from Jerusalem; he will send his voice from Jerusalem. The pastures of the shepherds will become dry, and even the top of Mount Carmel will dry up.”
So shepherd your people with your stick; tend the flock of people who belong to you. That flock now lives alone in the forest in the middle of a garden land. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead as in days long ago.