Amos 8-9 – International Children’s Bible

AUGUST 28 (Year One)

This is what the Lord showed me: a basket of ripe fruit. The Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?”

I said, “A basket of fruit from the end of the harvest.”

Then the Lord said to me, “An end has come for my people, the Israelites. I will not overlook their sins anymore.

“On that day the palace songs will become funeral songs,” says the Lord God. “There will be dead bodies thrown everywhere! Silence!”

Listen to me you who walk on helpless people.
    You are trying to destroy the poor people of this country.
Your businessmen say,
“When will the New Moon Festival be over
    so we can sell grain?
When will the Sabbath be over
    so we can bring out wheat to sell?
We can charge them more
    and give them less.
    We can change the scales to cheat the people.
We will buy poor people for silver.
    And we will buy needy people for the price of a pair of sandals.
    We will even sell the wheat that was swept up from the floor.”

The Lord used his name, the Pride of Jacob, to make a promise. He said, “I will never forget what these people did.

The whole land will shake because of it.
    Everyone who lives in the land will cry for those who died.
The whole land will rise like the Nile.
    It will be shaken, and then it will fall
    like the Nile River in Egypt.”

The Lord God says:

“At that time I will cause the sun to go down at noon.
    I will make the earth dark on a clear day.
I will change your festivals into days of crying for the dead.
    All your songs will become songs of sadness for the dead.
I will make all of you wear rough cloth to show your sadness.
    You will shave your heads to show sadness.
I will make that day like the crying for the death of an only son.
    Its end will be very painful.”

The Lord God says: “The days are coming
    when I will cause a time of hunger in the land.
The people will not be hungry for bread or thirsty for water.
    But they will be hungry for words from the Lord.
People will wander from the Mediterranean Sea to the Dead Sea.
    They will wander from the north to the east.
They will search for the word of the Lord.
    But they won’t find it.
At that time the beautiful young women and the young men
    will become weak from thirst.
They made promises by the idol in Samaria.
    They said, ‘As surely as the god of Dan lives . . .’
    And they said, ‘As surely as the god of Beersheba lives, we promise . . .’
So they will fall
    and never get up again.”

I saw the Lord standing by the altar. He said:

“Smash the top of the pillars
    so that even the bottom of the doors will shake.
Make the pillars fall on the people’s heads.
    Anyone left alive I will kill with a sword.
Not one person will get away.
    No one will escape.
If they dig down as deep as where the dead are,
    I will pull them up from there.
If they climb up into the skies,
    I will bring them down from there.
If they hide at the top of Mount Carmel,
    I will find them and take them away.
If they try to hide from me at the bottom of the sea,
    I will command a snake to bite them.
If they are captured and taken away by their enemies,
    I will command the sword to kill them.
I will keep watch over them.
    But I will keep watch to give them trouble, not to do them good.”

The Master, the Lord of heaven’s armies, will touch the land.
    And the land will shake.
    Then everyone who lives in the land will cry for the dead.
The whole land will rise like the Nile River.
    It will fall like the river of Egypt.
The Lord built his upper rooms above the skies.
    He sets their foundations on the earth.
He calls for the waters of the sea.
    He pours them out on the land.
    The Lord is his name.

The Lord says this:

“Israel, you are no different to me than the people of Cush.
I brought Israel out of the land of Egypt.
    I also brought the Philistines from Crete
    and the Arameans from Kir.
I, the Lord God, am watching the sinful kingdom Israel.
I will destroy Israel
    from the earth’s surface.
But I will not completely destroy
    Jacob’s descendants,” says the Lord.
“I am giving the command
    to scatter the nation of Israel among all nations.
It will be like someone sifting flour.
    A person shakes flour through a sifter.
    The good flour falls through, but not the bad clumps.
Sinners among my people
    will die by the sword.
All of them say,
    ‘Nothing bad will happen to us.’

“The kingdom of David is like a fallen tent.
    But in that day I will set it up again
    and mend its broken places.
I will rebuild its ruins.
    I will rebuild it as it was before.
Then Israel will take over what is left of Edom
    and the other nations that belong to me,”
says the Lord.
    And he will make it happen.

The Lord says, “The time is coming when there will be plenty of food.
A person will still be harvesting his crops
    when it’s time to plow again.
A person will still be taking the juice from his grapes
    when it’s time to plant again.
Sweet wine will drip from the mountains.
    And it will pour from the hills.
I will bring my people Israel back from captivity.
    They will build the ruined cities again.
    And they will live in them.
They will plant vineyards and drink the wine from them.
    They will plant gardens and eat their fruit.
I will plant my people on their land.
    And they will not be pulled out again
    from the land which I have given them,”
    says the Lord your God.

Yesterday’s Reading

The 6 Year Plan

Tomorrow’s Reading

Amos 7 – New American Standard Bible

AUGUST 26 (Year One)

This is what the Lord God showed me, and behold, He was forming a swarm of locusts when the spring crop began to sprout. And behold, the spring crop was after the king’s mowing. And it came about, when it had finished eating the vegetation of the land, that I said,

“Lord God, please pardon!
How can Jacob stand?
For he is small.”
The Lord relented of this.
“It shall not be,” said the Lord.

So the Lord God showed me, and behold, the Lord God was calling to contend with them by fire, and it consumed the great deep and began to consume the farmland. Then I said,

“Lord God, please stop!
How can Jacob stand?
For he is small.”
The Lord relented of this.
“This too shall not be,” said the Lord God.

So He showed me, and behold, the Lord was standing by a vertical wall with a plumb line in His hand. And the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Amos?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said,

“Behold I am about to put a plumb line
In the midst of My people Israel.
I will not spare them any longer.
The high places of Isaac will become deserted,
And the sanctuaries of Israel will be in ruins.
Then I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”

Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent word to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel; the land is unable to endure all his words. For this is what Amos says: ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will certainly go from its land into exile.’” Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Go, you seer, flee to the land of Judah; and eat bread there and do your prophesying there! But do not prophesy at Bethel any longer, for it is a sanctuary of the king and a royal residence.”

Then Amos replied to Amaziah, “I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet; for I am a herdsman and a grower of sycamore figs. But the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go prophesy to My people Israel.’ So now hear the word of the Lord: you are saying, ‘You shall not prophesy against Israel nor shall you prophesy against the house of Isaac.’ Therefore, this is what the Lord says: ‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the city, your sons and your daughters will fall by the sword, your land will be parceled up by a measuring line, and you yourself will die upon unclean soil. Furthermore Israel will certainly go from its land into exile.’”

Yesterday’s Reading

The 6 Year Plan

Tomorrow’s Reading

Joel

Amos

English Standard Version

Amos

Amos 6 – New International Reader’s Version

AUGUST 24 (Year One)

How terrible it will be for you men
    who are so contented on Mount Zion!
How terrible for you who feel secure
    on the hill of Samaria!
You are famous men from the greatest nation.
    The people of Israel come to you
    for help and advice.
Go and look at the city of Kalneh.
    Go from there to the great city of Hamath.
    Then go down to Gath in Philistia.
Are those places better off than your two kingdoms?
    Is their land larger than yours?
You are trying to avoid the time
    when trouble will come.
But you are only bringing closer
    the Assyrian rule of terror.
You lie down on beds
    that are decorated with ivory.
    You rest on your couches.
You eat the best lambs
    and the fattest calves.
You pluck away on your harps as David did.
    You play new songs on musical instruments.
You drink wine by the bowlful.
    You use the finest lotions.
But Joseph’s people will soon be destroyed.
    And you aren’t even sad about it.
So you will be among the first
    to be taken away as prisoners.
You won’t be able to enjoy good food.
    You won’t lie around on couches anymore.

The Lord and King has made a promise in his own name. He is the Lord God who rules over all. He announces,

“I hate the pride of Jacob’s people.
I can’t stand their forts.
I will hand the city of Samaria
and everything in it over to their enemies.”

Ten people might be left in one house. If they are, they will die there. Relatives might come to burn the dead bodies. If they do, they’ll have to carry them out of the house first. They might ask someone still hiding there, “Is anyone else here with you?” If the answer is no, the relatives will go on to say, “Be quiet! We must not pray in the Lord’s name.”

That’s because the Lord has already given an order.
He will smash large houses to pieces.
He will crush small houses to bits.

Horses don’t run on rocky ground.
    People don’t plow the sea with oxen.
But you have turned fair treatment into poison.
    You have turned the fruit of right living into bitterness.
You are happy because you captured the town of Lo Debar.
    You say, “We were strong enough to take Karnaim too.”

But the Lord God rules over all. He announces, “People of Israel,
I will stir up a nation against you.
They will crush you from Lebo Hamath
all the way down to the Arabah Valley.”

Yesterday’s Reading

The 6 Year Plan

Tomorrow’s Reading

Amos 5 – New International Version

AUGUST 22 (Year One)

Hear this word, Israel, this lament I take up concerning you:

“Fallen is Virgin Israel,
never to rise again,
deserted in her own land,
with no one to lift her up.”

This is what the Sovereign Lord says to Israel:

“Your city that marches out a thousand strong
will have only a hundred left;
your town that marches out a hundred strong
will have only ten left.”

This is what the Lord says to Israel:

“Seek me and live;
    do not seek Bethel,
do not go to Gilgal,
    do not journey to Beersheba.
For Gilgal will surely go into exile,
    and Bethel will be reduced to nothing.”
Seek the Lord and live,
    or he will sweep through the tribes of Joseph like a fire;
it will devour them,
    and Bethel will have no one to quench it.

There are those who turn justice into bitterness
and cast righteousness to the ground.

He who made the Pleiades and Orion,
    who turns midnight into dawn
    and darkens day into night,
who calls for the waters of the sea
    and pours them out over the face of the land—
    the Lord is his name.
With a blinding flash he destroys the stronghold
    and brings the fortified city to ruin.

There are those who hate the one who upholds justice in court
and detest the one who tells the truth.

You levy a straw tax on the poor
    and impose a tax on their grain.
Therefore, though you have built stone mansions,
    you will not live in them;
though you have planted lush vineyards,
    you will not drink their wine.
For I know how many are your offenses
    and how great your sins.

There are those who oppress the innocent and take bribes
and deprive the poor of justice in the courts.
Therefore the prudent keep quiet in such times,
for the times are evil.

Seek good, not evil,
    that you may live.
Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you,
    just as you say he is.
Hate evil, love good;
    maintain justice in the courts.
Perhaps the Lord God Almighty will have mercy
    on the remnant of Joseph.

Therefore this is what the Lord, the Lord God Almighty, says:

“There will be wailing in all the streets
    and cries of anguish in every public square.
The farmers will be summoned to weep
    and the mourners to wail.
There will be wailing in all the vineyards,
    for I will pass through your midst,”
says the Lord.

Woe to you who long
    for the day of the Lord!
Why do you long for the day of the Lord?
    That day will be darkness, not light.
It will be as though a man fled from a lion
    only to meet a bear,
as though he entered his house
    and rested his hand on the wall
    only to have a snake bite him.
Will not the day of the Lord be darkness, not light—
    pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness?

“I hate, I despise your religious festivals;
    your assemblies are a stench to me.
Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,
    I will not accept them.
Though you bring choice fellowship offerings,
    I will have no regard for them.
Away with the noise of your songs!
    I will not listen to the music of your harps.
But let justice roll on like a river,
    righteousness like a never-failing stream!

“Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings
    forty years in the wilderness, people of Israel?
You have lifted up the shrine of your king,
    the pedestal of your idols,
    the star of your god—
    which you made for yourselves.
Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,”
    says the Lord, whose name is God Almighty.

Yesterday’s Reading

The 6 Year Plan

Tomorrow’s Reading

Amos 8-9 – English Standard Version

AUGUST 27 (Year One)

8 This is what the Lord God showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit. ²And he said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me,

“The end has come upon my people Israel;
I will never again pass by them.
³The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day,”
declares the Lord God.
“So many dead bodies!”
“They are thrown everywhere!”
“Silence!”

⁴Hear this, you who trample on the needy
    and bring the poor of the land to an end,
⁵saying, “When will the new moon be over,
    that we may sell grain?
And the Sabbath,
    that we may offer wheat for sale,
that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great
    and deal deceitfully with false balances,
⁶that we may buy the poor for silver
    and the needy for a pair of sandals
    and sell the chaff of the wheat?”

⁷The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
“Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.
⁸Shall not the land tremble on this account,
and everyone mourn who dwells in it,
and all of it rise like the Nile,
and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?”

⁹“And on that day,” declares the Lord God,
    “I will make the sun go down at noon
    and darken the earth in broad daylight.
¹⁰I will turn your feasts into mourning
    and all your songs into lamentation;
I will bring sackcloth on every waist
    and baldness on every head;
I will make it like the mourning for an only son
    and the end of it like a bitter day.

¹¹“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God,
    “when I will send a famine on the land—
not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,
    but of hearing the words of the Lord.
¹²They shall wander from sea to sea,
    and from north to east;
they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord,
    but they shall not find it.

¹³“In that day the lovely virgins and the young men
    shall faint for thirst.
¹⁴Those who swear by the Guilt of Samaria,
    and say, ‘As your god lives, O Dan,’
and, ‘As the Way of Beersheba lives,’
    they shall fall, and never rise again.”

9 I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said:

“Strike the capitals until the thresholds shake,
    and shatter them on the heads of all the people;
and those who are left of them I will kill with the sword;
    not one of them shall flee away;
    not one of them shall escape.

²“If they dig into Sheol,
    from there shall my hand take them;
if they climb up to heaven,
    from there I will bring them down.
³If they hide themselves on the top of Carmel,
    from there I will search them out and take them;
and if they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea,
    there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them.
⁴And if they go into captivity before their enemies,
    there I will command the sword, and it shall kill them;
and I will fix my eyes upon them
    for evil and not for good.”

⁵The Lord God of hosts,
he who touches the earth and it melts,
    and all who dwell in it mourn,
and all of it rises like the Nile,
    and sinks again, like the Nile of Egypt;
⁶who builds his upper chambers in the heavens
    and founds his vault upon the earth;
who calls for the waters of the sea
    and pours them out upon the surface of the earth—
the Lord is his name.

⁷“Are you not like the Cushites to me,
    O people of Israel?” declares the Lord.
“Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt,
    and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Syrians from Kir?
⁸Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom,
    and I will destroy it from the surface of the ground,
    except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,”
declares the Lord.

⁹“For behold, I will command,
    and shake the house of Israel among all the nations
as one shakes with a sieve,
    but no pebble shall fall to the earth.
¹⁰All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword,
    who say, ‘Disaster shall not overtake or meet us.’

¹¹“In that day I will raise up
    the booth of David that is fallen
and repair its breaches,
    and raise up its ruins
    and rebuild it as in the days of old,
¹²that they may possess the remnant of Edom
    and all the nations who are called by my name,”
    declares the Lord who does this.

¹³“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord,
    “when the plowman shall overtake the reaper
    and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed;
the mountains shall drip sweet wine,
    and all the hills shall flow with it.
¹⁴I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel,
    and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them;
they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine,
    and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit.
¹⁵I will plant them on their land,
    and they shall never again be uprooted
    out of the land that I have given them,”
says the Lord your God.

Yesterday’s Reading

The 6 Year Plan

Tomorrow’s Reading

Amos 9

Amos

English Standard Version

Obaduah 1

Amos 7 – English Standard Version

AUGUST 25 (Year One)

7 This is what the Lord God showed me: behold, he was forming locusts when the latter growth was just beginning to sprout, and behold, it was the latter growth after the king’s mowings. ²When they had finished eating the grass of the land, I said,

“O Lord God, please forgive!
    How can Jacob stand?
    He is so small!”
³The Lord relented concerning this:
    “It shall not be,” said the Lord.

⁴This is what the Lord God showed me: behold, the Lord God was calling for a judgment by fire, and it devoured the great deep and was eating up the land. ⁵Then I said,

“O Lord God, please cease!
    How can Jacob stand?
    He is so small!”
⁶The Lord relented concerning this:
    “This also shall not be,” said the Lord God.

⁷This is what he showed me: behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. ⁸And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said,

“Behold, I am setting a plumb line
    in the midst of my people Israel;
    I will never again pass by them;
⁹the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate,
    and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste,
    and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”

¹⁰Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. ¹¹For thus Amos has said,

“‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword,
and Israel must go into exile
away from his land.’”

¹²And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there, ¹³but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.”

¹⁴Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, “I was no prophet, nor a prophet’s son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. ¹⁵But the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ ¹⁶Now therefore hear the word of the Lord.

“You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel,
and do not preach against the house of Isaac.’

¹⁷Therefore thus says the Lord:

“‘Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city,
    and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword,
    and your land shall be divided up with a measuring line;
you yourself shall die in an unclean land,
    and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.’”

Yesterday’s Reading

The 6 Year Plan

Tomorrow’s Reading

Amos 6

Amos

English Standard Version

Amos 8

Amos 6 – English Standard Version

AUGUST 23 (Year One)

6 “Woe to those who are at ease in Zion,
    and to those who feel secure on the mountain of Samaria,
the notable men of the first of the nations,
    to whom the house of Israel comes!
²Pass over to Calneh, and see,
    and from there go to Hamath the great;
    then go down to Gath of the Philistines.
Are you better than these kingdoms?
    Or is their territory greater than your territory,
³O you who put far away the day of disaster
    and bring near the seat of violence?

⁴“Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory
    and stretch themselves out on their couches,
and eat lambs from the flock
    and calves from the midst of the stall,
⁵who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp
    and like David invent for themselves instruments of music,
⁶who drink wine in bowls
    and anoint themselves with the finest oils,
    but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!
⁷Therefore they shall now be the first of those who go into exile,
    and the revelry of those who stretch themselves out shall pass away.”

⁸The Lord God has sworn by himself, declares the Lord, the God of hosts:

“I abhor the pride of Jacob
and hate his strongholds,
and I will deliver up the city and all that is in it.”

⁹And if ten men remain in one house, they shall die. ¹⁰And when one’s relative, the one who anoints him for burial, shall take him up to bring the bones out of the house, and shall say to him who is in the innermost parts of the house, “Is there still anyone with you?” he shall say, “No”; and he shall say, “Silence! We must not mention the name of the Lord.”

¹¹For behold, the Lord commands,
    and the great house shall be struck down into fragments,
    and the little house into bits.
¹²Do horses run on rocks?
    Does one plow there with oxen?
But you have turned justice into poison
    and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood—
¹³you who rejoice in Lo-debar,
    who say, “Have we not by our own strength
    captured Karnaim for ourselves?”
¹⁴“For behold, I will raise up against you a nation,
    O house of Israel,” declares the Lord, the God of hosts;
“and they shall oppress you from Lebo-hamath
    to the Brook of the Arabah.”

Yesterday’s Reading

The 6 Year Plan

Tomorrow’s Reading

Amos 5

Amos

English Standard Version

Amos 7

Amos 3-4 – Easy-to-Read Version

AUGUST 20 (Year One)

People of Israel, listen to this message! This is what the Lord said about you, Israel. This message is about all the families that I brought from the land of Egypt. “There are many families on earth, but you are the only family I chose to know in a special way. And you turned against me, so I will punish you for all your sins.”

Two people will not walk together
    unless they have agreed to do so.
A lion will roar in the forest
    only if it catches its prey.
A young lion roaring in his cave
    means he has caught something to eat.
A bird doesn’t fly into a trap
    unless there is food in it.
If a trap closes,
    it will catch the bird.
If people hear the warning blast of a trumpet,
    they shake with fear.
If trouble comes to a city,
    the Lord caused it to happen.

When the Lord God decides to do something, he will first tell his servants, the prophets. When a lion roars, people are frightened. When the Lord God speaks, a prophet must prophesy.

Go to the high towers in Ashdod and in Egypt and announce this message from the Lord: “Come together on the mountains of Samaria. See the great confusion there because the people don’t know how to live right. See how cruel they are to others. They take things from people to hide in their high towers. Their treasuries are filled with the things they have taken in war.”

So the Lord God says, “An enemy will surround your land. They will break down your strong walls and take the things you have hidden in your high towers.”

The Lord says,

“A lion might attack a lamb,
    and a shepherd might try to save the lamb.
But the shepherd will save
    only a part of that lamb.
He might pull two legs
    or a part of an ear from the lion’s mouth.
In the same way, most of the people of Israel will not be saved.
    Those who live in Samaria will save only a corner from a bed,
    or a piece of cloth from a couch.”

This is what the Lord God All-Powerful says: “Warn the family of Jacob about these things. Israel sinned, and I will punish them for their sins. And when I do, I will also destroy the altars at Bethel. The horns of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground. I will destroy the winter house with the summer house. The houses of ivory will be destroyed. Many houses will be destroyed.” This is what the Lord said.

Listen to me, you cows of Bashan on Samaria’s mountain. You hurt the poor and crush those in need. You tell your husbands, “Bring us something to drink!”

The Lord God made a promise. He promised by his holiness that troubles will come to you. People will use hooks and take you away as prisoners. They will use fishhooks to take away your children. Your city will be destroyed. The women will rush out through cracks in the wall and throw themselves onto the pile of dead bodies.

This is what the Lord says: “Go to Bethel and sin. Go to Gilgal and sin even more. Offer your sacrifices in the morning. Bring a tenth of your crops for the three-day festival. And offer a thank offering made with yeast. Tell everyone about the freewill offerings. Israel, you love to do those things. So go and do them.” This is what the Lord God said.

“I didn’t give you any food to eat. There was no food in any of your cities, but you didn’t come back to me.” This is what the Lord said.

“I also stopped the rain, and it was three months before harvest time. So no crops grew. Then I let it rain on one city, but not on another city. Rain fell on one part of the country, but on the other part of the country, the land became very dry. So the people from two or three cities staggered to another city to get water, but there was not enough water for everyone. Still you didn’t come to me for help.” This is what the Lord said.

“I made your crops die from heat and disease. I destroyed your gardens and your vineyards. Locusts ate your fig trees and olive trees. But you still didn’t come to me for help.” This is what the Lord said.

“I sent diseases against you, as I did to Egypt. I killed your young men with swords. I took away your horses. I made your camp smell very bad from all the dead bodies, but still you didn’t come back to me for help.” This is what the Lord said.

“I destroyed you as I destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. And those cities were completely destroyed. You were like a burned stick pulled from a fire, but still you didn’t come back to me for help.” This is what the Lord says.

“So, Israel, this is what I will do to you. You people of Israel, prepare to meet your God.”

He is the one who made the mountains.
    He created the wind.
    He lets people know his thoughts.
He changes the darkness into dawn.
    He walks over the mountains of the earth.
    His name is Yahweh, Lord God All-Powerful.

Yesterday’s Reading

The 6 Year Plan

Tomorrow’s Reading

Amos 1-2 – New King James Version

AUGUST 18 (Year One)

The words of Amos, who was among the sheepbreeders of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.

And he said:

“The Lord roars from Zion,
And utters His voice from Jerusalem;
The pastures of the shepherds mourn,
And the top of Carmel withers.”

Thus says the Lord:

“For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four,
I will not turn away its punishment,
Because they have threshed Gilead with implements of iron.
But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael,
Which shall devour the palaces of Ben-Hadad.
I will also break the gate bar of Damascus,
And cut off the inhabitant from the Valley of Aven,
And the one who holds the scepter from Beth Eden.
The people of Syria shall go captive to Kir,”
Says the Lord.

Thus says the Lord:

“For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four,
I will not turn away its punishment,
Because they took captive the whole captivity
To deliver them up to Edom.
But I will send a fire upon the wall of Gaza,
Which shall devour its palaces.
I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod,
And the one who holds the scepter from Ashkelon;
I will turn My hand against Ekron,
And the remnant of the Philistines shall perish,”
Says the Lord God.

Thus says the Lord:

“For three transgressions of Tyre, and for four,
I will not turn away its punishment,
Because they delivered up the whole captivity to Edom,
And did not remember the covenant of brotherhood.
But I will send a fire upon the wall of Tyre,
Which shall devour its palaces.”

Thus says the Lord:

“For three transgressions of Edom, and for four,
I will not turn away its punishment,
Because he pursued his brother with the sword,
And cast off all pity;
His anger tore perpetually,
And he kept his wrath forever.
But I will send a fire upon Teman,
Which shall devour the palaces of Bozrah.”

Thus says the Lord:

“For three transgressions of the people of Ammon, and for four,
I will not turn away its punishment,
Because they ripped open the women with child in Gilead,
That they might enlarge their territory.
But I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah,
And it shall devour its palaces,
Amid shouting in the day of battle,
And a tempest in the day of the whirlwind.
Their king shall go into captivity,
He and his princes together,”
Says the Lord.

Thus says the Lord:

“For three transgressions of Moab, and for four,
I will not turn away its punishment,
Because he burned the bones of the king of Edom to lime.
But I will send a fire upon Moab,
And it shall devour the palaces of Kerioth;
Moab shall die with tumult,
With shouting and trumpet sound.
And I will cut off the judge from its midst,
And slay all its princes with him,”
Says the Lord.

Thus says the Lord:

“For three transgressions of Judah, and for four,
I will not turn away its punishment,
Because they have despised the law of the Lord,
And have not kept His commandments.
Their lies lead them astray,
Lies which their fathers followed.
But I will send a fire upon Judah,
And it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.”

Thus says the Lord:

“For three transgressions of Israel, and for four,
I will not turn away its punishment,
Because they sell the righteous for silver,
And the poor for a pair of sandals.
They pant after the dust of the earth which is on the head of the poor,
And pervert the way of the humble.
A man and his father go in to the same girl,
To defile My holy name.
They lie down by every altar on clothes taken in pledge,
And drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god.

“Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them,
Whose height was like the height of the cedars,
And he was as strong as the oaks;
Yet I destroyed his fruit above
And his roots beneath.
Also it was I who brought you up from the land of Egypt,
And led you forty years through the wilderness,
To possess the land of the Amorite.
I raised up some of your sons as prophets,
And some of your young men as Nazirites.
Is it not so, O you children of Israel?”
Says the Lord.
“But you gave the Nazirites wine to drink,
And commanded the prophets saying,
‘Do not prophesy!’

“Behold, I am weighed down by you,
As a cart full of sheaves is weighed down.
Therefore flight shall perish from the swift,
The strong shall not strengthen his power,
Nor shall the mighty deliver himself;
He shall not stand who handles the bow,
The swift of foot shall not escape,
Nor shall he who rides a horse deliver himself.
The most courageous men of might
Shall flee naked in that day,”
Says the Lord.

Yesterday’s Reading

The 6 Year Plan

Tomorrow’s Reading

Amos 5 – English Standard Version

AUGUST 21 (Year One)

5 Hear this word that I take up over you in lamentation, O house of Israel:

²“Fallen, no more to rise,
is the virgin Israel;
forsaken on her land,
with none to raise her up.”

³For thus says the Lord God:

“The city that went out a thousand
    shall have a hundred left,
and that which went out a hundred
    shall have ten left
    to the house of Israel.”

⁴For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel:

“Seek me and live;
⁵    but do not seek Bethel,
and do not enter into Gilgal
    or cross over to Beersheba;
for Gilgal shall surely go into exile,
    and Bethel shall come to nothing.”

⁶Seek the Lord and live,
    lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph,
    and it devour, with none to quench it for Bethel,
⁷O you who turn justice to wormwood
    and cast down righteousness to the earth!

⁸He who made the Pleiades and Orion,
    and turns deep darkness into the morning
    and darkens the day into night,
who calls for the waters of the sea
    and pours them out on the surface of the earth,
the Lord is his name;
⁹who makes destruction flash forth against the strong,
    so that destruction comes upon the fortress.

¹⁰They hate him who reproves in the gate,
    and they abhor him who speaks the truth.
¹¹Therefore because you trample on the poor
    and you exact taxes of grain from him,
you have built houses of hewn stone,
    but you shall not dwell in them;
you have planted pleasant vineyards,
    but you shall not drink their wine.
¹²For I know how many are your transgressions
    and how great are your sins—
you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe,
    and turn aside the needy in the gate.
¹³Therefore he who is prudent will keep silent in such a time,
    for it is an evil time.

¹⁴Seek good, and not evil,
    that you may live;
and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you,
    as you have said.
¹⁵Hate evil, and love good,
    and establish justice in the gate;
it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts,
    will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

¹⁶Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord:

“In all the squares there shall be wailing,
    and in all the streets they shall say, ‘Alas! Alas!’
They shall call the farmers to mourning
    and to wailing those who are skilled in lamentation,
¹⁷and in all vineyards there shall be wailing,
    for I will pass through your midst,”
says the Lord.

¹⁸Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord!
    Why would you have the day of the Lord?
It is darkness, and not light,
¹⁹    as if a man fled from a lion,
    and a bear met him,
or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall,
    and a serpent bit him.
²⁰Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light,
    and gloom with no brightness in it?

²¹“I hate, I despise your feasts,
    and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
²²Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
    I will not accept them;
and the peace offerings of your fattened animals,
    I will not look upon them.
²³Take away from me the noise of your songs;
    to the melody of your harps I will not listen.
²⁴But let justice roll down like waters,
    and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

²⁵“Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? ²⁶You shall take up Sikkuth your king, and Kiyyun your star-god—your images that you made for yourselves, ²⁷and I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.

English Standard Version

Amos 6

30 Amos

Yesterday’s Reading