Amos 9

The Destruction of Israel

1 I saw the Lord standing by the altar, and He said:

“Strike the doorposts, that the thresholds may shake,

# Andbreak them on the heads of them all.

I will slay the last of them with the sword.

# He who flees from them shall not get away,

And he who escapes from them shall not be delivered.

2 “Thoughthey dig into hell,

From there My hand shall take them;

# Though they climb up to heaven,

From there I will bring them down;

3 And though theyhide themselves on top of Carmel,

From there I will search and take them;

Though they hide from My sight at the bottom of the sea,

From there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them;

4 Though they go into captivity before their enemies,

# From thereI will command the sword,

And it shall slay them.

# I will set My eyes on them for harm and not for good.”

5 The LordGodof hosts,

# He who touches the earth and itmelts,

# And all who dwell there mourn;

All of it shall swell like the River,

And subside like the River of Egypt.

6 He who builds Hislayers in the sky,

And has founded His strata in the earth;

# Whocalls for the waters of the sea,

And pours them out on the face of the earth—

# TheLordisHis name.

7 “Areyou not like the people of Ethiopia to Me,

O children of Israel?” says theLord.

“Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt,

# ThePhilistines fromCaphtor,

# And the Syrians fromKir?

8 “Behold,the eyes of the LordGodareon the sinful kingdom,

# And Iwill destroy it from the face of the earth;

Yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,”

Says theLord.

9 “For surely I will command,

And will sift the house of Israel among all nations,

Asgrainis sifted in a sieve;

# Yet not the smallest grain shall fall to the ground.

10 All the sinners of My people shall die by the sword,

# Who say, ‘The calamity shall not overtake nor confront us.’

Israel Will Be Restored

11 “Onthat day I will raise up

The tabernacle of David, which has fallen down,

And repair its damages;

I will raise up its ruins,

And rebuild it as in the days of old;

12 That they may possess the remnant ofEdom,

And all the Gentiles who are called by My name,”

Says theLordwho does this thing.

13 “Behold,the days are coming,” says theLord,

“When the plowman shall overtake the reaper,

And the treader of grapes him who sows seed;

# The mountains shall drip with sweet wine,

And all the hills shall flowwithit.

14 I will bring back the captives of My people Israel;

# They shall build the waste cities and inhabitthem;

They shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them;

They shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them.

15 I will plant them in their land,

# And no longer shall they be pulled up

From the land I have given them,”

Says theLordyour God.

Joel 1

1 The word of theLordthat came toJoel the son of Pethuel.

The Land Laid Waste

2 Hear this, you elders,

And give ear, all you inhabitants of the land!

# Hasanythinglikethis happened in your days,

Or even in the days of your fathers?

3 Tell your children about it,

Letyour childrentelltheir children,

And their children another generation.

4 What the chewing locust left, theswarming locust has eaten;

What the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten;

And what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten.

5 Awake, youdrunkards, and weep;

And wail, all you drinkers of wine,

Because of the new wine,

# For it has been cut off from your mouth.

6 Fora nation has come up against My land,

Strong, and without number;

# His teetharethe teeth of a lion,

And he has the fangs of a fierce lion.

7 He haslaid waste My vine,

And ruined My fig tree;

He has stripped it bare and thrownitaway;

Its branches are made white.

8 Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth

# Forthe husband of her youth.

9 The grain offering and the drink offering

Have been cut off from the house of theLord;

# The priestsmourn, who minister to theLord.

10 The field is wasted,

# The land mourns;

For the grain is ruined,

# The new wine is dried up,

The oil fails.

11 Be ashamed, you farmers,

Wail, you vinedressers,

For the wheat and the barley;

Because the harvest of the field has perished.

12 The vine has dried up,

And the fig tree has withered;

The pomegranate tree,

The palm tree also,

And the apple tree—

All the trees of the field are withered;

# Surelyjoy has withered away from the sons of men.

Mourning for the Land

13 Gird yourselves and lament, you priests;

Wail, you who minister before the altar;

Come, lie all night in sackcloth,

You who minister to my God;

For the grain offering and the drink offering

Are withheld from the house of your God.

14 Consecrate a fast,

# Calla sacred assembly;

Gather the elders

# Andall the inhabitants of the land

Intothe house of theLordyour God,

And cry out to theLord.

15 Alas for the day!

# Forthe day of theLordisat hand;

It shall come as destruction from the Almighty.

16 Is not the foodcut off before our eyes,

# Joy and gladness from the house of our God?

17 The seed shrivels under the clods,

Storehouses are in shambles;

Barns are broken down,

For the grain has withered.

18 Howthe animals groan!

The herds of cattle are restless,

Because they have no pasture;

Even the flocks of sheep suffer punishment.

19 OLord,to You I cry out;

# Forfire has devoured the open pastures,

And a flame has burned all the trees of the field.

20 The beasts of the field alsocry out to You,

# Forthe water brooks are dried up,

And fire has devoured the open pastures.

Joel 2

The Day of the Lord

1 Blowthe trumpet in Zion,

# Andsound an alarm in My holy mountain!

Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble;

# Forthe day of theLordis coming,

For it is at hand:

2 A day of darkness and gloominess,

A day of clouds and thick darkness,

Like the morningcloudsspread over the mountains.

# A peoplecome,great and strong,

# The like of whom has never been;

Nor will there ever be anysuchafter them,

Even for many successive generations.

3 A fire devours before them,

And behind them a flame burns;

# The landislikethe Garden of Eden before them,

# And behind them a desolate wilderness;

Surely nothing shall escape them.

4 Their appearance is like the appearance of horses;

And like swift steeds, so they run.

5 With a noise like chariots

Over mountaintops they leap,

Like the noise of a flaming fire that devours the stubble,

Like a strong people set in battle array.

6 Before them the people writhe in pain;

# All faces are drained of color.

7 They run like mighty men,

They climb the wall like men of war;

Every one marches in formation,

# And they do not breakranks.

8 They do not push one another;

Every one marches in his own column.

Though they lunge between the weapons,

They are not cut down.

9 They run to and fro in the city,

They run on the wall;

They climb into the houses,

# Theyenter at the windowslike a thief.

10 The earth quakes before them,

The heavens tremble;

# The sun and moon grow dark,

And the stars diminish their brightness.

11 TheLordgives voice before His army,

For His camp is very great;

# For strongistheOnewho executes His word.

# For theday of theLordisgreat and very terrible;

# Who can endure it?

A Call to Repentance

12 “Now, therefore,” says theLord,

# “Turn to Me with all your heart,

With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”

13 Sorend your heart, and notyour garments;

Return to theLordyour God,

# For Heisgracious and merciful,

Slow to anger, and of great kindness;

And He relents from doing harm.

14 Who knowsifHe will turn and relent,

# And leavea blessing behind Him—

# A grain offering and a drink offering

For theLordyour God?

15 Blow the trumpet in Zion,

# Consecrate a fast,

Call a sacred assembly;

16 Gather the people,

# Sanctify the congregation,

Assemble the elders,

Gather the children and nursing babes;

# Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber,

And the bride from her dressing room.

17 Let the priests, who minister to theLord,

# Weepbetween the porch and the altar;

# Let them say,“Spare Your people, OLord,

And do not give Your heritage to reproach,

That the nations should rule over them.

# Why should they say among the peoples,

‘Whereistheir God?’ ”

The Land Refreshed

18 Then theLordwillbe zealous for His land,

And pity His people.

19 TheLordwill answer and say to His people,

# “Behold, I will send yougrain and new wine and oil,

And you will be satisfied by them;

I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations.

20 “ButI will remove far from youthe northernarmy,

And will drive him away into a barren and desolate land,

With his face toward the eastern sea

# And his backtoward the western sea;

His stench will come up,

And his foul odor will rise,

Because he has done monstrous things.”

21 Fear not, O land;

Be glad and rejoice,

For theLordhas done marvelous things!

22 Do not be afraid, you beasts of the field;

# Forthe open pastures are springing up,

And the tree bears its fruit;

The fig tree and the vine yield their strength.

23 Be glad then, you children of Zion,

# Andrejoice in theLordyour God;

For He has given you the former rain faithfully,

# And Hewill cause the rain to come down for you—

The former rain,

And the latter rain in the firstmonth.

24 The threshing floors shall be full of wheat,

And the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil.

25 “So I will restore to you the yearsthat the swarming locust has eaten,

The crawling locust,

The consuming locust,

And the chewing locust,

My great army which I sent among you.

26 You shalleat in plenty and be satisfied,

And praise the name of theLordyour God,

Who has dealt wondrously with you;

# And My people shall never be put toshame.

27 Then you shall know that Iamin the midst of Israel:

# IamtheLordyour God

And there is no other.

My people shall never be put to shame.

God’s Spirit Poured Out

28 “Andit shall come to pass afterward

# ThatI will pour out My Spirit on all flesh;

# Your sons and yourdaughters shall prophesy,

Your old men shall dream dreams,

Your young men shall see visions.

29 And also onMymenservants and onMymaidservants

I will pour out My Spirit in those days.

30 “AndI will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth:

Blood and fire and pillars of smoke.

31 The sun shall be turned into darkness,

And the moon into blood,

# Before the coming of the great and awesome day of theLord.

32 And it shall come to pass

# Thatwhoever calls on the name of theLord

Shall be saved.

# Forin Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance,

As theLordhas said,

# Amongthe remnant whom theLordcalls.

Joel 3

God Judges the Nations

1 “For behold,in those days and at that time,

When I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem,

2 I will also gather all nations,

And bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat;

# And Iwill enter into judgment with them there

On account of My people, My heritage Israel,

Whom they have scattered among the nations;

They have also divided up My land.

3 They havecast lots for My people,

Have given a boyaspaymentfor a harlot,

And sold a girl for wine, that they may drink.

4 “Indeed, what have you to do with Me,

# O Tyre and Sidon, and all the coasts of Philistia?

Will you retaliate against Me?

But if you retaliate against Me,

Swiftly and speedily I will return your retaliation upon your own head;

5 Because you have taken My silver and My gold,

And have carried into your temples My prized possessions.

6 Also the people of Judah and the people of Jerusalem

You have sold to the Greeks,

That you may remove them far from their borders.

7 “Behold,I will raise them

Out of the place to which you have sold them,

And will return your retaliation upon your own head.

8 I will sell your sons and your daughters

Into the hand of the people of Judah,

# And they will sell them to theSabeans,

# To a peoplefar off;

For theLordhas spoken.”

9 Proclaim this among the nations:

“Prepare for war!

Wake up the mighty men,

Let all the men of war draw near,

Let them come up.

10 Beat your plowshares into swords

And your pruning hooks into spears;

# Let the weak say, ‘Iamstrong.’ ”

11 Assemble and come, all you nations,

And gather together all around.

# CauseYour mighty ones to go down there, OLord.

12 “Let the nations be wakened, and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat;

# For there I will sit tojudge all the surrounding nations.

13 Put in the sickle, forthe harvest is ripe.

Come, go down;

# For thewinepress is full,

The vats overflow—

For their wickednessisgreat.”

14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision!

# Forthe day of theLordisnear in the valley of decision.

15 The sun and moon will grow dark,

And the stars will diminish their brightness.

16 TheLordalso will roar from Zion,

And utter His voice from Jerusalem;

The heavens and earth will shake;

# But theLordwill be a shelter for His people,

And the strength of the children of Israel.

17 “So you shall know that IamtheLordyour God,

# Dwelling in Zion Myholy mountain.

Then Jerusalem shall be holy,

And no aliens shall ever pass through her again.”

God Blesses His People

18 And it will come to pass in that day

Thatthe mountains shall drip with new wine,

The hills shall flow with milk,

And all the brooks of Judah shall be flooded with water;

# Afountain shall flow from the house of theLord

And water the Valley of Acacias.

19 “Egypt shall be a desolation,

And Edom a desolate wilderness,

Because of violenceagainstthe people of Judah,

For they have shed innocent blood in their land.

20 But Judah shall abide forever,

And Jerusalem from generation to generation.

21 For I willacquit them of the guilt of bloodshed, whom I had not acquitted;

For theLorddwells in Zion.”

Hosea 1

1 The word of theLordthat came to Hosea the son of Beeri, in the days ofUzziah,Jotham,Ahaz,andHezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days ofJeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.

The Family of Hosea

2 When theLordbegan to speak by Hosea, theLordsaid to Hosea:

# “Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry

And children of harlotry,

# Forthe land has committed great harlotry

Bydepartingfrom theLord.”

3 So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

4 Then theLordsaid to him:

“Call his name Jezreel,

For in a littlewhile

# I will avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu,

# And bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.

5 It shall come to pass in that day

That I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”

6 And she conceived again and bore a daughter. ThenGodsaid to him:

“Call her name Lo-Ruhamah,

# For I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel,

But I will utterly take them away.

7 Yet I will have mercy on the house of Judah,

Will save them by theLordtheir God,

# Andwill not save them by bow,

Nor by sword or battle,

By horses or horsemen.”

8 Now when she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son.

9 ThenGodsaid:

“Call his name Lo-Ammi,

For youarenot My people,

And I will not be yourGod.

The Restoration of Israel

10 “Yetthe number of the children of Israel

Shall be as the sand of the sea,

Which cannot be measured or numbered.

# And it shall come to pass

In the place where it was said to them,

# ‘Youarenot Mypeople,’

Thereit shall be said to them,

# ‘Youaresons of the living God.’

11 Then the children of Judah and the children of Israel

Shall be gathered together,

And appoint for themselves one head;

And they shall come up out of the land,

For greatwillbethe day of Jezreel!

Hosea 2

1 Say to your brethren, ‘My people,’

And to your sisters, ‘Mercyisshown.’

God’s Unfaithful People

2 “Bring charges against your mother, bring charges;

# Forsheisnot My wife, noramI her Husband!

# Let her put away herharlotries from her sight,

And her adulteries from between her breasts;

3 LestI strip her naked

# And expose her, as in the day she wasborn,

And make her like a wilderness,

And set her like a dry land,

# And slay her withthirst.

4 “I will not have mercy on her children,

# For theyarethechildren of harlotry.

5 For their mother has played the harlot;

She who conceived them has behaved shamefully.

For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,

# Who givememy bread and my water,

My wool and my linen,

My oil and my drink.’

6 “Therefore, behold,

# I will hedge up your way with thorns,

And wall her in,

So that she cannot find her paths.

7 She will chase her lovers,

But not overtake them;

Yes, she will seek them, but not findthem.

Then she will say,

# ‘I will go and return to myfirst husband,

For thenitwasbetter for me than now.’

8 For she did notknow

That I gave her grain, new wine, and oil,

And multiplied her silver and gold—

Whichthey prepared for Baal.

9 “Therefore I will return and take away

My grain in its time

And My new wine in its season,

And will take back My wool and My linen,

Givento cover her nakedness.

10 NowI will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers,

And no one shall deliver her from My hand.

11 I will also cause all her mirth to cease,

Her feast days,

Her New Moons,

Her Sabbaths—

All her appointed feasts.

12 “And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees,

Of which she has said,

‘Thesearemy wages that my lovers have given me.’

So I will make them a forest,

And the beasts of the field shall eat them.

13 I will punish her

For the days of the Baals to which she burned incense.

She decked herself with her earrings and jewelry,

And went after her lovers;

But Me she forgot,” says theLord.

God’s Mercy on His People

14 “Therefore, behold, I will allure her,

Will bring her into the wilderness,

And speak comfort to her.

15 I will give her her vineyards from there,

# Andthe Valley of Achor as a door of hope;

She shall sing there,

# As inthe days of her youth,

# As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.

16 “And it shall be, in that day,”

Says theLord,

“Thatyou will call Me ‘My Husband,’

And no longer call Me ‘My Master,’

17 ForI will take from her mouth the names of the Baals,

And they shall be remembered by their name no more.

18 In that day I will make acovenant for them

With the beasts of the field,

With the birds of the air,

Andwiththe creeping things of the ground.

# Bow and sword of battleI will shatter from the earth,

# To make themlie down safely.

19 “I will betroth you to Me forever;

Yes, I will betroth you to Me

In righteousness and justice,

In lovingkindness and mercy;

20 I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness,

# Andyou shall know theLord.

21 “It shall come to pass in that day

# ThatI will answer,” says theLord;

“I will answer the heavens,

And they shall answer the earth.

22 The earth shall answer

With grain,

With new wine,

And with oil;

They shall answer Jezreel.

23 ThenI will sow her for Myself in the earth,

# And I will have mercy onherwhohadnot obtained mercy;

# ThenI will say tothosewhowerenot My people,

‘YouareMy people!’

And they shall say,‘You aremy God!’ ”

Hosea 3

Israel Will Return to God

1 Then theLordsaid to me, “Go again, love a womanwhoisloved by alover and is committing adultery, just like the love of theLordfor the children of Israel, who look to other gods and lovetheraisin cakesofthepagans.”

2 So I bought her for myself for fifteenshekelsof silver, and one and one-half homers of barley.

3 And I said to her, “You shallstay with me many days; you shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man—so, too,willIbetoward you.”

4 For the children of Israel shall abide many dayswithout king or prince, without sacrifice orsacredpillar, withoutephod orteraphim.

5 Afterward the children of Israel shall return andseek theLordtheir God andDavid their king. They shall fear theLordand His goodness in thelatter days.

Hosea 4

God’s Charge Against Israel

1 Hear the word of theLord,

You children of Israel,

# For theLordbringsacharge against the inhabitants of the land:

“There is no truth or mercy

# Orknowledge of God in the land.

2 Byswearing and lying,

Killing and stealing and committing adultery,

They break all restraint,

With bloodshed upon bloodshed.

3 Thereforethe land will mourn;

# Andeveryone who dwells there will waste away

With the beasts of the field

And the birds of the air;

Even the fish of the sea will be taken away.

4 “Now let no man contend, or rebuke another;

# For your peoplearelike thosewho contend with the priest.

5 Therefore you shall stumblein the day;

The prophet also shall stumble with you in the night;

And I will destroy your mother.

6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

Because you have rejected knowledge,

I also will reject you from being priest for Me;

# Because you have forgotten the law of your God,

I also will forget your children.

7 “The more they increased,

The more they sinned against Me;

# I will change their glory into shame.

8 They eat up the sin of My people;

They set their heart on their iniquity.

9 And it shall be:like people, like priest.

So I will punish them for their ways,

And reward them for their deeds.

10 Forthey shall eat, but not have enough;

They shall commit harlotry, but not increase;

Because they have ceased obeying theLord.

The Idolatry of Israel

11 “Harlotry, wine, and new wineenslave the heart.

12 My people ask counsel from theirwoodenidols,

And their staff informs them.

# Forthe spirit of harlotry has causedthemto stray,

And they have played the harlot against their God.

13 They offer sacrifices on the mountaintops,

And burn incense on the hills,

Under oaks, poplars, and terebinths,

Because their shadeisgood.

# Therefore your daughters commit harlotry,

And your brides commit adultery.

14 “I will not punish your daughters when they commit harlotry,

Nor your brides when they commit adultery;

Forthementhemselves go apart with harlots,

# And offer sacrifices with aritual harlot.

Therefore peoplewhodo not understand will be trampled.

15 “Though you, Israel, play the harlot,

Let not Judah offend.

# Do not come up to Gilgal,

# Nor go up toBeth Aven,

# Nor swear an oath,saying,‘As theLordlives’—

16 “For Israelis stubborn

Like a stubborn calf;

Now theLordwill let them forage

Like a lamb in open country.

17 “Ephraimisjoined to idols,

# Let him alone.

18 Their drink is rebellion,

They commit harlotry continually.

# Her rulers dearly love dishonor.

19 The wind has wrapped her up in its wings,

# Andthey shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.

Hosea 5

Impending Judgment on Israel and Judah

1 “Hear this, O priests!

Take heed, O house of Israel!

Give ear, O house of the king!

For yoursisthe judgment,

# Becauseyou have been a snare to Mizpah

And a net spread on Tabor.

2 The revolters aredeeply involved in slaughter,

Though I rebuke them all.

3 I know Ephraim,

And Israel is not hidden from Me;

# For now, O Ephraim,you commit harlotry;

Israel is defiled.

4 “They do not direct their deeds

Toward turning to their God,

# Forthe spirit of harlotry is in their midst,

And they do not know theLord.

5 Thepride of Israel testifies to his face;

Therefore Israel and Ephraim stumble in their iniquity;

Judah also stumbles with them.

6 “With their flocks and herds

# They shall go to seek theLord,

But they will not findHim;

He has withdrawn Himself from them.

7 They havedealt treacherously with theLord,

For they have begotten pagan children.

Now a New Moon shall devour them and their heritage.

8 “Blowthe ram’s horn in Gibeah,

The trumpet in Ramah!

# Cry aloudatBeth Aven,

‘Lookbehind you, O Benjamin!’

9 Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke;

Among the tribes of Israel I make known what is sure.

10 “The princes of Judah are like those whoremove a landmark;

I will pour out My wrath on them like water.

11 Ephraim isoppressedandbroken in judgment,

# Because he willingly walked byhumanprecept.

12 Therefore Iwillbeto Ephraim like a moth,

# And to the house of Judahlike rottenness.

13 “When Ephraim saw his sickness,

# And Judahsawhiswound,

# Then Ephraim wentto Assyria

And sent to King Jareb;

Yet he cannot cure you,

Nor heal you of your wound.

14 ForIwillbelike a lion to Ephraim,

And like a young lion to the house of Judah.

# I,evenI, will tearthemand go away;

I will takethemaway, and no one shall rescue.

15 I will return again to My place

Till they acknowledge their offense.

Then they will seek My face;

In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.”

Hosea 6

A Call to Repentance

1 Come,and let us return to theLord;

# ForHe has torn, butHe will heal us;

He has stricken, but He will bind us up.

2 After two days He will revive us;

On the third day He will raise us up,

That we may live in His sight.

3 Let us know,

Let us pursue the knowledge of theLord.

# His going forth is establishedas the morning;

# He will come to uslike the rain,

Like the latterandformer rain to the earth.

Impenitence of Israel and Judah

4 “O Ephraim, what shall I do to you?

O Judah, what shall I do to you?

For your faithfulness is like a morning cloud,

And like the early dew it goes away.

5 Therefore I have hewnthemby the prophets,

# I have slain them bythe words of My mouth;

And your judgmentsarelikelightthatgoes forth.

6 For I desiremercy andnot sacrifice,

# And theknowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

7 “But like men they transgressed the covenant;

There they dealt treacherously with Me.

8 Gileadisa city of evildoers

Anddefiled with blood.

9 As bands of robbers lie in wait for a man,

# Sothe company ofpriestsmurder on the way to Shechem;

# Surely they commitlewdness.

10 I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel:

Thereisthe harlotry of Ephraim;

Israel is defiled.

11 Also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed for you,

When I return the captives of My people.