These are the words of Amos, who was among the shepherdsfrom Tekoa, based upon the prophecy which he envisioned concerning Israel, as well as other nations, in the days of Uziya king of Judah, and in the days of Yorovam son of Yo’ash, king of Israel, two years before the powerful earthquake that destroyed much of the populated area of Israel. Due to its force, this earthquake was etched in the national consciousness for many generations.

He said: The Lord will roar from Zion, and from Jerusalem He will project His voice, which will subsequently be heard around the world. And the pastures of the shepherds will shrivel, and the top of the Carmel will wither.

So said the Lord: For three transgressions of Damascus, the capital of the threatening northern kingdom of Aram, I will call it to account, but I will refrain from dispensing punishment. But for the fourth transgression, which is more severe than the others, I will not forgive it and relent; I will not withdraw My decree or My anger against it. Alternatively, this phrase means that God will not act like a judge who returns one who has been vindicated in judgment to his former status; rather, he will convict Aram and punish it: The prophet details the fourth transgression: For their threshing the Gilad with rods of iron. The last kings of Aram invaded and conquered Gilad, and subsequently terrorized and destroyed its population.

Therefore, I will send fire in the house of Hazael, the Aramean army general who later became king. The house of Hazael can be understood as a general name for the kingdom and leadership of Aram. And it will consume the palaces of Ben Hadad, the Aramean ruler before Hazael.

I will break the bar of the city gate of Damascus, to breach the entrance before its enemies; I will eliminate inhabitants from Bikat Aven, a level area near Damascus. This is probably not the actual name of the location, but rather a name coined by the prophet based on the name of the idol worshipped by its inhabitants. Evidently, not only will Damascus be destroyed, but so will all of its surrounding villages. And the holder of the scepter, the ruler, will be removed from Beit Eden, and the people of Aram will be exiled to the Assyrian city of Kir, said the Lord. The prophet is alluding to the future exile of Aram by the kingdom of Assyria.

Amos delivers a second prophecy in the same form. So said the Lord: For three transgressions of Gaza, the powerful Philistine city, I will call it to account, but I will refrain from punishing it; but for the more severe fourth transgression, I will not relent. The fourth transgression is the sin committed against the nation of Israel, for their exiling of an entire exile from Judah, to deliver them to Edom. The Philistines from Gaza joined forces with the kingdom of Edom, which for many years was under the rule of Judah, occasionally rebelling against it. The Philistines were insufficiently strong to attack Judah themselves, but when a war broke out they were happy to assist the enemy forces. When soldiers from Judah fled the battle, the Philistines handed them over to the Edomites, thereby ensuring that none could escape and their exile would be complete. They will not be forgiven for this sin.

I will send fire in the wall of Gaza and it will consume not only the walls of the city, but also its palaces [armenoteha], or its large houses, fortresses, or castles. The entire city will fall into enemy hands.

The city of Gaza will not be punished alone: I will also eliminate inhabitants from Ashdod, also a Philistine city, and cut off the holder of the scepter, the ruler, from Ashkelon, yet another Philistine city. I will turn My hand against the Philistine city of Ekron to punish it, and the remnant of the Philistines will perish, said the Lord God. King Uziya defeated the Philistine forces, perhaps shortly after this prophecy.

So said the Lord: For three transgressions of Tyre I will not dispense punishment, but for the fourth, I will not relent: For their delivering of an entire exile to Edom, not remembering the covenant of brothers. Although the kingdom of Tyre was not near Edom, the citizens of Tyre traded many items with foreign states, such as clothing, metals, and even human slaves. Israelite captives were sold as slaves and delivered via Tyre to other locations. Tyre and Jerusalem formerly maintained friendly relations, and a covenant had even been signed between them in the times of David and Solomon. There are no recorded disputes between the two nations over the generations. On the contrary, the kings of Israel established marital ties with the rulers of Tyre and Sidon. Since this once friendly nation turned against Israel and collaborated with its enemies, it will be punished.

I will send a fire in the wall of Tyre and it will consume its palaces. Unlike the Philistines, no mass destruction is prophesied with regard to Tyre, but its inhabitants will also be struck.

So said the Lord: For three transgressions of Edom I will refrain from dispensing punishment, but for the fourth, I will not relent: For his, Edom’s, who is Esau, Jacob’s brother, pursuit of his brother with the sword; he annulled his own mercy. If Edom had any pity in his heart, it had no effect on his behavior. And his wrath mauled perpetually and his fury kept forever. Edom bore a grudge against Judah because he had been subject to Judah’s control for so long. Indeed, one of the occasions when Edom rebelled was shortly after this prophecy. The Kingdom of Judah was weakened somewhat, and the Edomites took advantage and fought against it.

The prophet declares that Edom will be defeated: I will send a fire in Teman, a region, city, or family in the land of Edom, and it will devour the palaces of Botzra, a prominent Edomite city.

So said the Lord: For three transgressions of the children of Amon I will refrain from dispensing punishment, but for the fourth, I will not relent: For their cleaving of the pregnant women of the Gilad, in order to broaden their border. The children of Amon attempted to conquer the adjacent region of Gilad numerous times over the generations. They finally succeeded in invading Gilad when the Kingdom of Israel weakened, and they cruelly slaughtered its pregnant women. The purpose of such killing of innocents was to oppress the population in order to prevent any future uprising.

I will ignite a fire in the wall of Raba, the capital of Amon, and it will consume its palaces with an alarm blast on the day of war, with a tempest of war on the day of the storm. This will not be merely a minor reversal on the battlefield, but a mortal blow that will decimate the nation.

Their king will go into exile, he and his princes together, said the Lord.

So said the Lord: For three transgressions of Moav I will not dispense punishment, but for the fourth, I will not relent: For his burning the bones of the king of Edom to such an extent that they turned into a substance similar to lime. This is likely referring to the war of Israel, Judah, and Edom against Moav. According to some commentaries, the king of Moav took the son of the king of Edom captive and slaughtered him on top of a wall. The king of Moav might have subsequently burnt his corpse, which would be the fourth severe sin, as the mistreatment of corpses is considered a terrible abomination.

I will send a fire in Moav and it will consume the palaces, the large cities, of Keriyot; and Moav will die in tumult, with alarm blasts and with the sound of the shofar, the noise of war. The nation of Moav will not be destroyed slowly; rather, it will collapse amid mayhem and confusion.

I will eliminate the judge, the leader of the nation, from its midst, and I will kill all its princes with him, said the Lord.

The prophet turns his attention to the children of Israel. So said the Lord: For three transgressions of Judah I will not dispense punishment, but for the fourth, I will not relent: For their despising the Torah of the Lord and not observing His statutes; their lies that their fathers followed misled them. Their most severe sin was that after initially accepting the Torah they subsequently abandoned it for various forms of idolatry.

I will send a fire in Judah and it will consume the palaces of Jerusalem.

Amos begins the primary portion of this prophecy, which deals with Samaria and the Kingdom of Israel. So said the Lord: For three transgressions of the Kingdom of Israel I will not dispense punishment, but for the fourth, I will not relent: For their sale of the righteous for silver and the indigent for a pair of shoes, an insignificant profit. They pervert justice and betray the innocent, vindicating the guilty in exchange for bribes. The latter phrase of the verse is also interpreted by the Sages as a reference to the sale of Joseph.

They tread on the dust of the earth; they trample and step on the head of the impoverished. The powerful members of society crush the lowly without concern, like dust. And they divert the way of the humble, as they force the poor and righteous to act improperly themselves, or to hide. A man and his father go to the same young woman for the purpose of licentiousness, in order to profane My holy name. This act jointly committed by father and son is indicative of the loss of shame on their part. This is not merely submission to one’s desires, but a demonstration of moral indifference, as if all boundaries of acceptable conduct can be breached with impunity. Such an act profanes the name of God.

They recline to eat on pawned garments, taken as security for a loan and not returned to their owners; beside every altar, and the wine of the penalized, they, the leaders, drink in the house of their gods. Such wine was purchased with money obtained from fines and other arbitrary charges. These are small-scale acts of theft, but they involve corruption, lowliness, evil character traits, and a desecration of God’s name.

When the Israelites entered the Land of Israel I destroyed the mighty Emorite kings from before them, whose height was like the height of cedars and who was strong as the oaks. The Emorites were renowned for their exceptional height and strength, and yet I destroyed his fruit from above and his roots from below, all for your sake.

I took you up from the land of Egypt and led you in the wilderness forty years under My protection, to take possession of the land of the Emorites.

Not only did I provide you with physical blessings, but I raised up prophets from your sons, by endowing certain individuals with the necessary skills to become prophets, or students of prophets, and I established Nazirites, spiritual guides and role models, from your young men. Is this not so; is that not the case, children of Israel? This is the utterance of the Lord.

But you were ungrateful for My gifts, and forcefully gave the Nazirites wine to drink, thereby causing them to violate their naziriteship; and you commanded the prophets, saying: Do not prophesy. Rather than considering prophecy a gift from God and accepting it with love and gratitude, you defiantly rejected the statements of the prophets.

Therefore, behold, I will overburden you in your place, as I will press My hand down upon you until you bend, like a cart that is full of sheaves is overburdened and bends from the weight of the load.

Flight will elude the swift, and they will be unable to flee; the strong will not exert his strength to defend himself, as the enemy will be too powerful, and the valiant will not save himself.

The archer will not stand. In addition to the small bows used by archers from within their chariots, other archers shot their weapons from a distance. At the time of their defeat, the archers will flee, but even the swift of foot will not escape, and the rider of the horse will not be able to save himself, despite the swiftness of his horse.

The courageous of heart among the valiant, who go out to battle with armor and heavy weaponry, will flee naked on that day; they will discard all items that might impair their movement and prevent them from fleeing as fast as possible. All will run for their lives; many will be killed. Israel will suffer this total and shameful defeat as punishment for their conduct, which involved injustice, licentiousness, and widespread idolatry. This is the utterance of the Lord.

Hear this word that the Lord has spoken concerning you, children of Israel. Although this prophecy is addressed primarily to the Kingdom of Israel and its capital, Samaria, it is also stated concerning the entire family that I took up from the land of Egypt, saying:

Only you have I known, I have established a close relationship with you alone, from all the families of the earth; therefore, I will reckon upon you all your iniquities.

The prophet illustrates this idea by means of a series of rhetorical questions, employing a variety of metaphors: Will two walk together, unless they were destined? Doesn’t the fact that two individuals can be seen walking together toward a specific destination indicate that their interaction is intentional?

Will a lion roar in the forest, and it has no prey? A lion always roars for some purpose, for instance to frighten animals when hunting, or to call other lions to join the chase. Will a young lion project its voice from its lair, unless it has captured prey? The young lion will cry out only after it has just trapped its prey, or is about to do so.

The following metaphors also involve two items that come together: Will a bird fall into a trap on the ground, and there is no snare for it? If there is no bait or trapping mechanism, the bird will continue to fly freely. Likewise, will a trap arise from the ground, and not capture? A trap will be activated only if a bird has perched inside.

Will the shofar be sounded in a city as a warning signal, and the people not tremble? The prophet explains the meaning of all of the metaphors in the last three verses: Will there be misfortune in a city, and the Lord did not do it? Do you think that calamity can strike a city unless God wishes it so?

For the Lord God will not do anything in the world, unless He first revealed His secret to His servants, the prophets, in order to warn the people. Therefore, the prophets are always informed of imminent events, which they reveal in their prophecies.

A lion roared; who will not fear? All tremble upon hearing a lion’s roar. So too, the Lord God spoke to a person; who will not prophesy? It is impossible for one who hears the word of God not to prophesy, even if the content of his prophecy is unpleasant for both the prophet and his audience and offers no consolation at all. Such is the case with regard to the next prophecy.

Come and proclaim it atop the palaces in Ashdod, in Philistine territory, and atop the more distant palaces in the land of Egypt, and say: Gather on the mountains of Samaria, the capital of the Kingdom of Israel, and see the many tumults in it and the exploited in its midst.

They, its inhabitants, do not know how to do right – the utterance of the Lord – as they are people who store up ill-gotten gains, property appropriated through extortion, and plunder, items taken forcefully, in their palaces.

Therefore, so said the Lord God: An enemy will come, surrounding the land, and he will take down your might from you, and your palaces in Samaria will be looted.

So said the Lord: As the shepherd rescues two legs or a remnant of an ear from the mouth of the lion. If the shepherd is particularly brave, or if he waits long enough, he might be able to save the remains of the carcass from the mouth of the lion. This would be little consolation to the owner of the animal, but the shepherd makes the effort mainly to demonstrate that he did not steal the animal himself. The prophet explains the comparison: So a small remnant of the children of Israel who live in Samaria will be rescued with the corner of a bed. They will be found in undignified places. Alternatively, only the weak and ill will be saved, as they will be unable to flee from the enemy and will move to the edge of the bed so that they will not be seen. Or the few who escape will be like the edge [demesek] of a couch. Some destitute individuals will remain in desolate corners of the land, but most of the people will perish. Alternatively, the word demesek is referring to the city of Damascus, as the few survivors will be dispersed to a location in the region of that city.

Hear and testify in the house of Jacob – the utterance of the Lord God, God of hosts.

For on the day of My reckoning of the transgressions of Israel upon it, I will make a reckoning upon the magnificent altars of Beit El, the center of worship in the Kingdom of Israel, and the horns of the altar will be cut down and fall to the ground.

I will strike the winter house of the kings of Samaria in Yizre’el, which has a relatively warm climate, with the summer house in the mountainous region of Samaria, which is more pleasant during the summer, and the ivory houses,decorated with elegant ivory from the teeth of an elephant, will be demolished, and many houses will be destroyed; this is the utterance of the Lord.

Hear this matter, cows of Bashan, who are on the highlands of Samaria. The cows of the Bashan were larger and heavier than those of other regions. Here they symbolize wealthy women of Samaria and the surrounding areas, who exploit the poor, who break the indigent, who say to their masters, their husbands: Bring us beverages, and we will drink. By demanding that their requests be fulfilled immediately, they cause the poor and destitute to be trampled.

The Lord God took an oath by His holiness that behold, days are coming upon you, and you will be carried off by your captors in small boats, and your end will be with fishing boats.

Each woman will exit through breaches opposite her. Each woman will escape through the closest breach made by the enemy. Since all protective areas will be ruptured, any sense of security will disappear and everyone will flee in different directions. And they will be cast into the harem; this is the utterance of the Lord. All the women will be cast into the harems of powerful individuals, or into prison, or will be taken to transit camps where they will be assembled to be sold eventually as maidservants.

Come to Beit El, the center of worship in the Kingdom of Israel, where Yorovam placed one of his two golden calves, and transgress. Come to Gilgal, which also served as a religious center, where the people renewed the original covenant, and further transgress. The prophet is mocking the people’s assumption that their offerings will appease God for all the sins they have committed. Each day in the morning, bring your animals for slaughtering for idolatry; after three days you may eat them, as they will be your animal tithes. Some offerings, such as the animal tithe, may be eaten for up to two days after their sacrifice, whereas here the people kept them until the third day. The prophet is saying to the people that even if they do not worship actual idolatry, nevertheless they violate the laws of offerings.

Burn a thanks offering of leavened bread upon the altar. The Torah does not command the burning of the leaven loaves of the thanks offering; it is prohibited to sacrifice any leaven upon the altar; and call for the community to come and offer pledges, and proclaim this, for so you loved to do, children of Israel; this is the utterance of the Lord God. The ceremonies you perform in your religious center are based upon the laws of the Torah, but you disparage and alter the details of the rites.

I also have given you, as punishment, cleanness of teeth, a severe shortage of food, in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places. The disgrace of suffering from famine should have aroused you to repent, but you did not return to Me; this is the utterance of the Lord.

I also withheld the rain from you with still three months remaining to the harvest. Barley is generally harvested in the month of Nisan, and wheat in Sivan. The height of the rainy season occurs three months before the harvest, but it had not yet rained at that point. Moreover, even when rain did fall, I would bring rain upon one city, and upon another city I would not bring rain; on one section there would be rain, and the section upon which it would not rain would wither. This uneven drought caused uncertainty and confusion.

Since rain fell sporadically and only in specific locations, two or three cities moved to one city to drink water. The residents of the cities suffering from drought would go to the city that had experienced rainfall, in order to drink water, but they would not be satisfied. The residents of that city did not allow others to drink from their water, as there was not enough for all three cities. Yet despite the punishments, you did not return to Me; this is the utterance of the Lord.

I smote you with blight, so that your produce withered, and with mildew; the multitudes of your gardens, your vineyards, your fig trees and your olive trees, the caterpillar has devoured, and yet you did not return to Me; this is the utterance of the Lord.

I sent pestilence against you on the way of your exit to Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword, with your horses captured. Battalions of soldiers were captured, with the riders killed and the horses taken as spoils. I raised the stench of your camp in your nostrils, yet you did not return to Me; this is the utterance of the Lord.

I caused upheaval among you, like God overturned Sodom and Gomorrah. Your world has been overturned, and troubles have fallen on you from above. You were like a firebrand rescued from a conflagration, like a partially burnt piece of wood; yet you did not return to Me; this is the utterance of the Lord.

Since all of the above punishments have been ineffective, therefore, so I will do to you, Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, Israel. This revelation of God will be far more frightening than all the preceding events. When God Himself appears, unlike the drought and the other aforementioned calamities, which are His messengers, you will be unable to remain indifferent and carefree. Those who were unmoved by the calamities and the prophet’s rebuke, and heedlessly continued in their previous ways, will ultimately change when the great day of God arrives.

For behold, He is the Former of mountains and Creator of wind, large things that affect the entire world; and yet at the same time He is aware of the smallest details, and it is He who tells man what his conversation is, what he said to another. He renders dawn darkness and tramples upon the heights of the earth; the Lord, God of hosts, is His name.

Hear this word that I recite as a lamentation for you, house of Israel:

Fallen, the virgin of Israel will rise no longer; she is abandoned upon her land, with no one to lift her.

For so said the Lord God: The city from which one thousand go out, which has one thousand residents, will leave one hundred, meaning that only one hundred will remain; and that from which one hundred people go out will leave only ten of the house of Israel.

For so said the Lord to the house of Israel: You have only one recourse to save yourselves. Seek Me, and then you will be allowed to live;

do not seek Beit El, do not come to Gilgal, also a place of worship, and do not pass to Beersheba, where apparently idols were also worshipped, as Gilgal will be exiled and Beit El will become nothingness [aven]. The prophets frequently referred to Beit El as Beit Aven, since aven means sin and Beit El was a center of idolatry. In addition, aven can mean naught, an allusion to the destruction and desolation Beit El will ultimately suffer as a punishment for the sins of its inhabitants.

Seek the Lord and live, lest He burn the house of Joseph with fire; it shall consume, with none to extinguish it for Beit El.

These catastrophes will befall a people who turn justice into wormwood, a bitter plant, and lay righteousness on the ground. These people are indifferent to righteousness.

He made the constellations of Pleiades and Orion, transforms the shadow of death into morning, and darkens the day into night. He is also the One who calls the waters of the sea and pours them upon the face of the earth, the Lord is His name;

who empowers the lowly, weak, and plundered to triumph over the mighty, and the plundered will come against the fortress. God can overturn the normal course of nature.

Retribution will befall those who will be punished because they hated the admonisher at the gate, the prophet or the elders who sit at the entrance to the city, and they would spurn a speaker of uprightness.

Therefore you will be punished because of your incitement against the impoverished, and because of the portions of grain for which he toiled that you would take from him, you built beautiful houses of hewn stone with the profits of your corrupt actions but you will not merit to live in them; you planted delightful vineyards, but you will not drink their wine.

For I know your transgressions are many and your sins are enormous; you are afflicters of the righteous, you are takers of bribes instead of judging evildoers properly, and you cheated the indigent at the gate, the location of the courts. Your judges are entirely corrupt.

Therefore, the prudent, who are aware of this corruption and might have rebuked others in a different era, at that time shall be silent to protect themselves, as it is an evil time.

Seek good and not evil, so that you will live, and the Lord, God of hosts, will indeed be with you, as you said. You claim to believe in God and wish to be loyal to Him. After all, your rulers are from the family of Yehu, who eradicated idolatry from the land, and even those of you who worship the golden calves maintain that they follow God. If so, do what God commands:

Hate evil, love good, and display justice at the gate; perhaps then the Lord, God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

Therefore, so said the Lord, God of hosts, the Lord: Lamentation will be in all the squares and in all the streets. They will say: Woe, woe, and likewise in the fields as well, they will call the farmer to mourning, and the skilled at wailing to lamentation.

Even in all vineyards, which are generally joyous places, due to their association with wine, there will be lamentation, as I will pass in your midst to punish you, said the Lord.

In the Kingdom of Israel, some long for the day of the Lord, when the world will be redeemed. The prophet addresses those individuals: Woe! Those who crave the day of the Lord: Why is this for you the day of the Lord? It will come, but it is darkness and not light. It will be a terrifying time of judgment, at least at first.

Your situation will be as when a man flees from before the lion and a bear encounters him, or he has fled and comes home exhausted, and leans his hand on the wall, and then a serpent hiding in the wall of the house bites him;

isn’t the day of the Lord darkness and not light, blackness, and no glimmer in it? This will mainly be a day of painful judgment. Do not expect any salvation or consolation on that day.

I hate, I despise your festivals, and I will not appreciate the aroma of the sacrifices that you offer at your assemblies.

For if you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your meal offerings, I will not be propitiated, and the peace offering [shelem] of your fatlings that you bring I will not regard. Alternatively, the final clause means: I will not regard your payments [tashlumim] for your fat beasts.

Remove from Me the sound of, or the multitude of, your holy songs, and I will not heed the melody of your lyres. I am uninterested in any songs you might sing to Me.

Rather, let justice instead be revealed like water. Justice will be as clear as spreading water, and righteousness will flow on the ground like a constant stream, whose waters run unceasingly.

Did you present Me sacrifices and meal offerings in the wilderness for forty years, house of Israel? During Israel’s long years in the wilderness, few offerings were brought in the Tabernacle, and God’s relationship with the people did not depend upon them. Consequently, says God, on what do you base your assumption that your offerings rectify and atone for all your sins? The idols you have worshipped will not help you either, as they will suffer the same fate as you.

But you would carry Sikut, your king, and Kiyun,your image, and also Kokhav is your god; these are names of gods that you made for yourselves.

Therefore I will exile you together with your idols to the north, beyond Damascus, said the Lord, God of hosts is His name.

Woe! The tranquil in Zion and the secure on Mount Samaria. These feelings of security stemmed from their political and military power, as well as their economic success. They are those who name themselves the foremost of the nations, and come to them as the house of Israel. These people call themselves the primary and elect people among all the nations, and identify themselves as the house of Israel.

Cross to Kalne, a small, nearby country, and see, and go from there to Greater Hamat, a large city in Syria, and go down to Gat, one of the five cities of the Philistines. Are they better than these kingdoms of Zion and Samaria? Is their border wider than your border? Why, then, do you turn away from Me to false gods?

Those who deny the evil day of inevitable retribution and remove it from their consciousness, and advance the regime of villainy by supporting acts of oppression;

who lie on beds of ivory and lounge on their couches, not engaging in any productive activities, eating the large, fattened sheep from the flock and the calves from inside the stall, where they are fattened.

These are the wealthy individuals who strum on the face of the lyre; they consider themselves like David with musical instruments. They equate their music with that of King David, the composer of Psalms. This is a satirical description of idle, gluttonous individuals who portray themselves as artisans.

It is these same individuals who drink with wine bowls and anoint themselves indulgently with fragrant virgin oils, but they are not distressed over the destruction of Joseph, the Kingdom of Israel.

Therefore, now they, those complacent, spoiled individuals, will be exiled at the head of the exiles, and the revelry of the people who liked to be lounging on their beds will be removed.

The Lord God has taken an oath by Himself – this is the utterance of the Lord, God of hosts – I spurn the pride of Jacob, possibly a reference to the Temple, as God’s dwelling among the people heightens their feelings of pride. And I hate his palaces, due to the revelry that takes place inside them; and therefore I will deliver the city and all its contents to the enemy.

It shall be that if ten men remain in one house, they will die.

Due to the multitude of corpses, when one’s uncle, his father’s brother, or his mother’s brother [mesarefo], who assists his father’s brother, or one who burns [soref] corpses to reduce the smell, arrive, they will carry him, the deceased, to take his bones from the house, and one of them standing at the entrance to the house he will say to the other one, who is in the rear of the house: Are there any more corpses with you? He will say: None. And he will say: Be silent so as not to mention the name of the Lord. Since the house is a place of death and impurity, do not mention the name of God in response to the calamity.

For, behold, the Lord commands, and He will strike the great house and break it into splinters, and the small house will be smashed into chips.

Do horses run on rock, on rocky terrain? Can it be plowed with oxen? At best, only the corners of such areas can be plowed with a hoe. You are comparable to a rocky field that cannot be improved; nothing will sprout in your territory, for you have transformed justice into hemlock, a bitter and poisonous plant, and your hands have turned the fruit of righteousness into wormwood;

it is you who rejoice over nothing, insignificant matters, who say: Haven’t we taken honors for ourselves with our own power, and achieved glory?

For, behold, I am raising against you a nation that will conquer your land, house of Israel – this is the utterance of the Lord, God of hosts – and they will press you from Levo Hamat to the ravine of the Arava. These were the borders of the Kingdom of Israel during the reign of Yorovam son of Yo’ash, roughly a contemporary of Amos.

So the Lord God has shown me; behold, He forms locusts, which He brought at the initial sprouting of spring growth [lekesh], which is associated with malkosh, the final rains of the winter, and behold, spring growth is after the king’s shearings of the sheep.

It was when it, the plague of locusts, completed devouring the vegetation of the land, that I said: Lord God, please forgive. How will Jacob arise, as he is small? Will Jacob be capable of recovering from this disaster? He is weak and cannot withstand such a heavy blow.

The Lord reconsidered concerning this, and declared: It, the plague, shall not be, said the Lord.

So again, the Lord God has shown me a vision: Behold, the Lord God called to contend by fire; and it, the fire that He brought, consumed with tremendous intensity the Great Deep and consumed the section, tracts of land.

I said again: Lord God, please cease this calamity. How will Jacob arise, as he is small?

Once more, the Lord reconsidered concerning this: This too shall not be, said the Lord God.

So He showed me another prophetic vision, and behold: The Lord stood beside a level wall that was tall and straight, with a plumb line, a tool consisting of a weight suspended from a long string, which is used to determine verticality, in His hand, to ensure that the wall was perfectly straight.

The Lord said to me: What do you see, Amos? I said: A plumb line. The Lord said: Behold, I am placing a plumb line in the midst of My people Israel, and I will evaluate their actions with precision. I will not continue to tolerate them any longer.

The shrines of the descendants of Isaac will become desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel will be destroyed; I will rise against the house of Yorovam with the sword. Although the house of Yehu, which included Yorovam, the subject of this verse, had survived for longer than any other dynasty in the Kingdom of Israel, it too will ultimately be destroyed, and Yorovam’s son King Zekharyahu will die by the sword.

Amatzya, priest of the idol in Beit El, sent a message to Yorovam king of Israel, saying: Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel, as he is publicly inciting rebellion; the land, the kingdom, cannot contain all his words.

For so said Amos: Yorovam will die by the sword, and Israel will be exiled from its land. In truth, Amos had referred only to the house of Yorovam, not to the king himself, but Amatzya exaggerated so that the king would take measures against the prophet.

Amatzya said to Amos himself: Seer, go, flee to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, as they will sustain you there, and you may prophesy there as you wish. Indeed, Amos originally came from Judah, even though he addressed his prophecies primarily to the Kingdom of Israel.

But do not continue to prophesy in Beit El any longer, as it is the sanctuary of the king, and it is the seat of a kingdom. In comparison to the large Kingdom of Israel, Judah was small and destitute. Amatzya considers Amos a simpleton and a nuisance. The prophet had come from a small village to Beit El, which was not only the center of idolatrous worship but also the residence of the king and the center of his power.

Amos answered and said to Amatzya: I am not a prophet of my own free will, and I am not the son of a prophet, one for whom prophecy is a livelihood, for I am a cattle herder and a tender of sycamores.

The Lord took me from looking after the flock, and the Lord said to me: Go prophesy to My people Israel. I had not intended to receive prophecy, nor undergone any preparations, and yet God took me from my agrarian pursuits and charged me with this task.

Now hear the word of the Lord: You, Amatzya, say to me: Do not prophesy concerning Israel, and do not preach concerning the house of Isaac, as this is not your local region.

Therefore, so said the Lord: Your wife will engage in licentiousness in the city of her own volition, due to her base character; alternatively, this means that she will be raped by enemies. Your sons and daughters will fall by the sword, and your land will be plundered and divided with a measuring line. Enemies will measure the land with rope in order to split it equally among them. You will not remain in the Land of Israel, but will die on impure land, in exile, as all countries outside Israel are termed impure. And Israel will be exiled from its soil, as I prophesied. The prophecy will come to pass, and you yourself will suffer from the catastrophic events.

So the Lord God has shown me: Behold, there was a large basket of figs.

He said: What do you see, Amos? I said: A basket of figs [kayitz]. The Lord said to me: This vision signifies that the end [ketz] has come upon My people Israel; I will not continue to tolerate them any longer.

The royal hymns and songs of the palace will be transformed into wails on that day – the utterance of the Lord God – many are the corpses, in every place a deathly silence is cast.

Hear this, those who tread on or swallow up the indigent and destroy the poor of the land,

saying: When will the New Moon pass and we will sell grain and engage in business dealings? It was customary not to engage in commerce on the New Moon. When will the Sabbath pass, and we will open the storehouses of grain? They were keen to exploit the poor through corrupt business tactics. Examples of such deceitful practices were to reduce the ephah, the measure used to weigh the produce they sold, to increase the weight of the shekel, by which they were paid, and to distort the deceitful scales;

to buy the poor for silver, as slaves, and the impoverished for shoes, a measly sum, and sell off the refuse of the grain.

The Lord took an oath by the pride [ge’on] of Jacob: I will never forget all their actions. The word ge’on can mean the greatness of Jacob, or it might be referring to the Temple. Although the people apparently observed the commandments and refrained from commercial dealings on the holy days, all the while their minds were occupied with schemes for exploiting the poor.

Will the land not quake for this conduct, and all who dwell in it mourn; and all of the water in it rise like the Nile so that it be flooded, and be displaced and submerged in water, like the Nile of Egypt? The land will be entirely destroyed, although this verse does not necessarily mean that it will be destroyed by water.

It shall be on that day – the utterance of the Lord God – that I will cause the sun to set early at noon, and I will darken the earth on a day of light.

I will transform your festivals into mourning, and all your songs into lament; I will put sackcloth, the customary garb for those in mourning, on all waists, and baldness on every head, as detaching hairs from one’s head was also an act of mourning; I will make it, the experience of the people of Israel, like that of mourning for an only son, and its end like a bitter day, the day of death itself.

After the previous harsh prophecy, the prophet offers some words of consolation: Behold, days are coming – the utterance of the Lord God – and I will send famine in the land; but it will not be a famine for bread, and not a thirst for water, but a thirst to hear the words of the Lord. A time will yet arrive when people will yearn to hear the word of God.

They will wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they will roam to seek the word of the Lord, and they will not find it.

On that day, the fair virgins and the young men will faint from thirst. In a period of water shortage, delicate young women are generally given to drink first, but the prophet is speaking of a time when there will be no water available at all. Moreover, although young men can sometimes endure without much water, on that day they will lose consciousness. There will be an intense yearning for the word of God, but not all will be able to withstand the extreme drought.

Those who take an oath by the sin of Samaria, its idols, and say: As your god lives, Dan, and: As the way of Beersheba lives; they, these sinners, will fall, and they will not rise again. Dan and Beersheba are singled out for the idolatry worshipped in those places, such as the golden calf in Samaria, dating back to the days of Yorovam son of Nevat.

I saw the Lord standing upon the altar, and He said: Strike the apex, the upper edge of the Temple structure, and the Temple thresholds underneath will shake. Shatter those who are at the head of all of them, the political leadership, or the priests, and then I will kill the rest of them, the people, with the sword; no fugitive will flee from them and no refugee will escape, as every last one will be killed.

If they dig into the netherworld to hide there, from there My hand will take them and if they ascend heavenward, from there will I take them down.

If they hide themselves atop the Carmel, from there I will search and take them, and if they are hidden from My eyes at the bottom of the sea, from there I will command the sea serpent, probably a reference to the leviathan, or a sea monster, and it will bite them. None will escape the decree.

If they go into captivity before their enemies, even from there I will command the sword and it will kill them; I will set My eyes upon them for harm and not for good.

The Lord, the Lord of hosts, who touches the land and immediately it melts, and all its inhabitants will mourn; and it will all rise up like the Nile, as it will be flooded, and it will sink like the Nile of Egypt. God will bring about all of these calamities, as He fulfills His word.

Who builds His upper chambers in the heavens and has established His coterie, groups of living creatures, upon the earth; who calls the waters of the sea and will pour them on the face of the earth, the Lord is His name. He established the entire world and He can uproot it if He so desires.

Are you not like the children of the Kushites to Me, children of Israel? You are no more privileged before Me than the descendants of Kush, the firstborn of Ham; this is the utterance of the Lord. Did I not take Israel up from the land of Egypt, which you perceive as a sign of your uniqueness? However, even in this regard, you are not special: And the Philistines, also descendants of Ham, I brought up from Kaftor. The Philistines were not native inhabitants of Israel; rather, they arrived from the island of Crete. And I also brought up Aram to its land from Kir, its place of origin. I treated several nations similarly; you are not unique.

Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are placed upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from upon the face of the earth. However, you should know that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob; this is the utterance of the Lord. Although the other nations ultimately will not survive, there is hope for you. You will be stricken and exiled, but you will not be entirely destroyed.

For behold, I command, and I will shake the house of Israel among all the nations by forcing Israel to wander in their lands, as if it is shaken in a sieve, and yet not a kernel of grain will fall to the ground. Although the kernels are shaken inside the sieve and the thin refuse falls away, the kernels remain inside.

By the sword will die all the sinners of My people who say: The misfortune will not come upon us more quickly.

On that day, I will raise the booth of David that is fallen, either the collapsing Davidic dynasty or the City of David. In its current state, it is like a temporary hut on the verge of collapse, but in the future, it will be rebuilt. I will repair their breaches in their walls, their ruins will I raise, and I will build it as in days of old. The Davidic dynasty, or the City of David, will be restored to its former glory,

so that they upon whom My name is called, Israel, will inherit the remnant of Edom and all the nations; this is the utterance of the Lord who does this.

Behold, days are coming; this is the utterance of the Lord. And the plowman will encounter the reaper during their labor. The land will be so fertile that the season for plowing will overlap with the harvest. The grape treader will overtake the sower of seed. Generally, there are several months between the treading of grapes at the end of the summer and the planting season. However, in the future they too will overlap. And the mountains will drip nectar, or juice from other fruits, and all the hills will melt, as choice fruit will flow down the mountainside.

I will return the captives of My people Israel and they will build the desolate cities, and they will inhabit them; they will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will till gardens and eat their fruits.

I will plant them and establish them permanently upon their land, and they will not be uprooted from their land that I gave them, said the Lord your God. After the punishment of the wicked, those who are left will merit to see the reestablishment of the Davidic dynasty, as well as the blessing of the land, and they will be supported by its bounty forever.