A Basket of Ripe Fruit
1This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: a basket of ripe fruit. 2“What do you see, Amos?” he asked.
“A basket of ripe fruit,” I answered.
Then the Lord said to me, “The time is ripe for my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.
3“In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “the songs in the temple will turn to wailing.8:3 Or “the temple singers will wail Many, many bodies—flung everywhere! Silence!”
4Hear this, you who trample the needy
and do away with the poor of the land,
5saying,
“When will the New Moon be over
that we may sell grain,
and the Sabbath be ended
that we may market wheat?”—
skimping on the measure,
boosting the price
and cheating with dishonest scales,
6buying the poor with silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals,
selling even the sweepings with the wheat.
7The Lord has sworn by himself, the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget anything they have done.
8“Will not the land tremble for this,
and all who live in it mourn?
The whole land will rise like the Nile;
it will be stirred up and then sink
like the river of Egypt.
9“In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord,
“I will make the sun go down at noon
and darken the earth in broad daylight.
10I will turn your religious festivals into mourning
and all your singing into weeping.
I will make all of you wear sackcloth
and shave your heads.
I will make that time like mourning for an only son
and the end of it like a bitter day.
11“The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord,
“when I will send a famine through the land—
not a famine of food or a thirst for water,
but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.
12People will stagger from sea to sea
and wander from north to east,
searching for the word of the Lord,
but they will not find it.
13“In that day
“the lovely young women and strong young men
will faint because of thirst.
14Those who swear by the sin of Samaria—
who say, ‘As surely as your god lives, Dan,’
or, ‘As surely as the god8:14 Hebrew the way of Beersheba lives’—
they will fall, never to rise again.”
Maono Ya Nne: Kikapu Cha Matunda Yaliyoiva
1Hili ndilo alilonionyesha Bwana Mwenyezi katika maono: kikapu cha matunda yaliyoiva. 28:2 Mao 4:18; Yer 1:2, 13; 24:3; Eze 7:2-9; Amo 7:8; Mwa 40:16Akaniuliza, “Amosi, unaona nini?”
Nikajibu, “Kikapu chenye matunda yaliyoiva.”
Ndipo Bwana akaniambia, “Wakati umewadia kwa watu wangu Israeli; sitawahurumia zaidi.”
38:3 Amo 5:16-23; 6:10Bwana Mwenyezi asema, “Katika siku ile, nyimbo katika Hekalu zitageuka kuwa maombolezo. Miili mingi, mingi sana: itatupwa kila mahali! Kimya!”
48:4 Mit 30:14; Ay 20:19; Zek 14:4; Amo 2:7Lisikieni hili, ninyi ambao mnawagandamiza wahitaji,
na kuwaonea maskini wa nchi,
58:5 Kum 25:15; 2Fal 4:23; Neh 13:15-16; Hes 10:10; Isa 58:13; Mik 6:10; Mwa 31:7; Hos 12:7mkisema,
“Ni lini Mwezi Mwandamo utakapopita
ili tupate kuuza nafaka,
na Sabato itakwisha lini
ili tuweze kuuza ngano?”
Mkipunguza vipimo,
na kuongeza bei,
na kudanganya kwa mizani zisizo sawa,
68:6 Amo 2:6; 4:1; 5:11mkiwanunua maskini kwa fedha,
na wahitaji kwa jozi ya viatu,
na mkiuza hata takataka za ngano
pamoja na ngano.
78:7 Hos 8:13; Amo 6:8; Za 47:4; 68:34; Ay 35:15Bwana ameapa kwake mwenyewe, aliye Kiburi cha Yakobo: “Kamwe sitasahau chochote ambacho wamefanya.
88:8 Ay 9:6; Hos 4:3; Yer 46:8; 51:29; Za 18:7; Amo 9:5“Je, nchi haitatetemeka kwa ajili ya hili,
nao wote waishio ndani mwake hawataomboleza?
Nchi yote itainuka kama Naili;
itapanda na kushuka kama mto wa Misri.
98:9 Ay 5:14; Mk 15:33; Eze 32:7; Amo 4:13; 5:8; Isa 13:10; 59:9-10; Yer 15:9; Mik 3:6; 1The 5:2, 3; Mt 27:45“Katika siku ile,” asema Bwana Mwenyezi,
“Nitalifanya jua litue alasiri na kuifanya dunia
iwe giza wakati wa mchana mwangavu.
108:10 Yoe 1:8; Zek 12:10; Mwa 21:16; Hos 2:11; Lk 7:12, 13; Yer 6:26; 48:37; 2:19; Eze 7:18; Law 26:31; 13:40; Mao 5:15; Isa 3:17Nitageuza sikukuu zenu za kidini kuwa maombolezo,
na kuimba kwenu kote kuwe kilio.
Nitawafanya ninyi nyote mvae nguo ya gunia
na kunyoa nywele zenu.
Nitaufanya wakati ule uwe kama wa kuombolezea mwana wa pekee,
na mwisho wake kama siku ya uchungu.
118:11 1Sam 3:1; 28:6; Eze 7:26; Za 74:9; Mik 3:6; 2Nya 15:3; Yer 30:3; 31:27“Siku zinakuja,” asema Bwana Mwenyezi,
“wakati nitakapotuma njaa katika nchi yote:
si njaa ya chakula wala kiu ya maji,
lakini njaa ya kusikia maneno ya Bwana.
128:12 Eze 20:31Wanaume watayumbayumba kutoka bahari hadi bahari
na kutangatanga kutoka kaskazini mpaka mashariki,
wakitafuta neno la Bwana,
lakini hawatalipata.
138:13 Isa 41:17; 9:17; Hos 2:3; 8:14; Kum 9:21; 1Fal 12:29, 30; Hos 8:5, 6; 10:5; Mik 1:5; Za 46:2; Amo 5:2-5“Katika siku ile
“wasichana wazuri na vijana wanaume wenye nguvu
watazimia kwa sababu ya kiu.
14Wale waapao kwa aibu ya Samaria,
au kusema, ‘Hakika kama miungu yenu iishivyo, ee Dani,’
au ‘Hakika kama mungu wa Beer-Sheba aishivyo’:
wataanguka, wala hawatasimama tena.”
