Amos 8 - Easy To Read Version

¹ The Lord showed me this: \{I\} saw a basket of summer fruit.

² The Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?”

³ The temple {\cf2\super [99]} songs will become sad funeral songs. The Lord my Master said those things. There will be dead bodies everywhere. In silence, people will take out the dead bodies and throw them \{onto the pile\}.” {\cf2\super [100]}

⁴ Listen to me!\par You people walk on helpless people.\par You are trying to destroy the poor people of this country.\par

⁵ You businessmen say,\par “When will the New Moon {\cf2\super [101]} be over\par so we can sell grain?\par When will the Sabbath be over\par so we can bring our wheat \{to sell\}?\par We can raise the price\par and make the measure smaller. {\cf2\super [102]} \par We can adjust the scales\par and cheat the people. {\cf2\super [103]} \par

⁶ \{The poor people can’t pay their loans,\}\par so we will buy them as slaves.\par We will buy those helpless people\par for the price of a pair of shoes.\par Oh, and we can sell the wheat\par that was spilled on the floor.”\par

⁷ The Lord made a promise. He used his name, Pride of Jacob, and made this promise:

⁸ The whole land will shake\par because of those things.\par Every person that lives in the land\par will cry for people that died.\par The whole land will rise and fall\par like the Nile River in Egypt.\par The land will be tossed around.”\par

⁹ The Lord also said these things:\par “At that time I will cause the sun\par to go down at noon.\par I will make the earth dark on a clear day.\par

¹⁰ I will change your holidays\par into days of crying for the dead.\par All your songs will be songs of sadness\par for dead people.\par I will put clothes of sadness on everyone.\par I will make every head bald. {\cf2\super [104]} \par I will make it like heavy crying\par for an only son that has died.\par It will be a very bitter end.”\par

¹¹ The Lord says:

¹² The people will wander around the country,\par from the Dead Sea\par to the Mediterranean Sea,\par and from the north part of the country,\par to the east.\par The people will go back and forth\par looking for a message from the Lord.\par But they will not find it.\par

¹³ At that time,\par the beautiful young men and women\par will become weak from thirst.\par Those people made promises\par by the sin of Samaria, {\cf2\super [105]} \par They said,\par ‘Dan, {\cf2\super [106]} as surely as your god lives,\par \{we promise\} …’\par And they said,\par ‘As surely as the god of Beersheba {\cf2\super [107]} lives,\par \{we promise\} …’\par But those people will fall,\par and they will never get up again.”\par