PROPHECY III.

A LAMENTATION FOR ISRAEL.

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1 HEAR this word which I take up against you, a lamentation, house of Israel. The virgin of Israel has fallen, she shall no more rise; she is cast down on her land, there is none to raise her up. For thus says the Lord Jehovah, The city that went out a thousand shall be left a hundred, and the city that went out a hundred shall be left ten, of the house of Israel. For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel, Seek me and live but seek not Bethel, and go not to Gilgal, pass not over to Beersheba; for Gilgal shall certainly go into exile, and Bethel shall come to nought. Seek Jehovah and live, lest he fall like lightning on the house of Joseph, and consume it, and there be none to extinguish it in Bethel. You that turn judgment to wormwood, and cast righteousness to the ground, he makes the seven stars and Orion, and turns the shade of death to morning, and changes day into night; he calls the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the face of the earth: Jehovah is his name. He flashes destruction on the mighty, and destruction comes on the fortress.

2 They hate him that reproves in the gate, and abhor him that speaks uprightly. Therefore, because you tread down the weak, and take from him loads of wheat, you shall build houses of cut stone, but shall not inhabit them; you shall plant desirable vineyards, but shall not drink their wine. For I know your many transgressions and your mighty sins, afflicting the righteous with taking bribes; and they thrust away the needy in the gate. Therefore the wise man will be silent at that time, for it is an evil time. Seek good, and not evil, that you may live, and Jehovah, the God of hosts, will be just with you, as you have said. Hate evil and love good, establish justice in the gate. It may be that Jehovah, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

3 Therefore thus says Jehovah, the God of hosts the Lord, There shall be lamentation in all the streets and in all places without; they shall say, Alas, alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and those that know how to lament to lamentation, and there shall be lamentation in all the vineyards; for I will pass through the midst of you, says Jehovah.

4 Woe to you who desire the day of Jehovah. What is the day of Jehovah to you? It is darkness, and not light. As if a man fled from before a lion, and a bear met him, or went to his house and put his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. Is not the day of Jehovah darkness, and not light? and thick darkness, and no light in it?

5 I have hated and rejected your feasts, and will not smell in your assemblies. When you offer me burnt offerings and bread offerings I will not be pleased, nor look on the peace offerings of your fat beasts. Take away from me the noise of your songs, for I will not hear the music of your nabliums, but let justice flow like water, and righteousness like a mighty river. Did you bring me sacrifices and bread offerings in the wilderness forty years, house of Israel? But you took up the tabernacles of your king and of Chiun, your images, the star of your god, which you made for you; and I will carry you away captive beyond Damascus, says Jehovah; the God of hosts is his name.

6 Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who trust in the mountain of Samaria, called the chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came! Pass over to Calneh and see, and thence to Hamath the great, and go down to Gath of the Philistines, are they better than these kingdoms? Is their boundary greater than your boundary, you who put far off the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to approach, who lie on beds of ivory, and are stretched on your couches, and eat lambs from the flock and calves from the stall, who prate to the mouth of the nablium, [and] like David, invent for themselves instruments of music, who drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the best of oils, but they have not inherited the ruin of Joseph. Therefore they shall now be made captives with the first that are made captives, and the shouting of the loungers shall depart.

7 Jehovah has sworn by himself, Jehovah the God of hosts says, I hate the pride of Jacob, and I hate his palaces, and will deliver up the city and all it contains; and if ten men shall be left in one house they shall die. And when a man's friend, or he that burns him, shall take him up, to carry out the bodies from the house, then he shall say to those in the sides of the house, Are there yet any more with you? and one shall say, No. Then shall he say, Be still, for we are not allowed to mention the name of Jehovah. For behold, Jehovah will command, and smite the great house with breaches,

and the small house with clefts. Will horses run on a rock ? will one plow with oxen [there]? But you have turned justice to the poppy and the fruit of righteousness to wormwood. You rejoice in a thing of no account, and say, Have we not by our strength taken to ourselves horns? But behold, house of Israel, says Jehovah the God of hosts, I will raise up a nation against you, and they shall oppress you from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of Arabah [the desert].

PROPHECY IV.

VISION OF THE LOCUSTS AND PLUMB LINE.

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1 THUS the Lord Jehovah showed me; and behold, he formed locusts in the beginning of the coming up of the latter grass. And behold it was the latter grass after the king's mowing. And when he had finished devouring the herbage of the earth, then I said, Lord Jehovah, forgive now: who will raise up Jacob? for he is small. Jehovah changed his mind concerning this: It shall not be, said Jehovah.

2 Then the Lord Jehovah showed me; and behold, Jehovah called fire to contend [with his people]. And it consumed the great deep, and consumed the portion [of Israel]. Then I said, Lord Jehovah, cease now: who shall raise up Jacob? for he is small. Jehovah changed his mind concerning this: This also shall not be, said the Lord Jehovah.

3 Thus he showed me ; and behold, the Lord stood on a plumb line wall, and a plumb line was in his hand. And Jehovah said to me, What do you see, Amos? And I said, A plumb line. Then said the Lord, Behold, I will put a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel, and will not pass through them again any more. The high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel destroyed, and I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.

4 Then sent Amaziah the priest of Bethel 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: for thus says Amos, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall certainly go into captivity from their land.

5 Then said Amaziah to Amos the seer, Go, flee to the land of

Judah, and eat bread there, and there prophesy, for you can no longer prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary, and the house of the kingdom.

6 Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet; but I was a herdman and a cultivator of sycamore [fruits]; and Jehovah took me from following the flock, and Jehovah said to me, Go, prophesy to my people Israel. And now hear the word of Jehovah, you who say, Prophesy not against Israel, and drop not a word against the house of Isaac. Therefore thus says Jehovah, Your wife shall commit adultery in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided with a line, and you shall die in an impure land, and Israel shall certainly go into captivity from off his laud.

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7 Thus the Lord Jehovah showed me; and behold, a basket of fruits. And he said, What do you see, Amos? And I said, A basket of fruits. And Jehovah said to me, The end has come to my people Israel; I will pass through them again no more. that day the songs of the palace shall lament, says the Lord Jehovah. Many dead bodies shall be in every place; cast [them] out; be still.

8 Hear this, you that pant for the needy, and cause the poor of the earth to cease, saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell grain! and the sabbath, that we may open the wheat! who make the ephah [1.25 bushels] small, and the shekel [56 cents] large, and falsify the deceitful scales, to buy the weak for silver and the needy for a pair of shoes, and [who say], We will sell the refuse of the grain.

9 Jehovah has sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget their works. Shall not the earth tremble for this? and all who inhabit it, mourn? And will it not all rise up like a river, and be driven off and overflowed, as by the river of Egypt? And in that day, says the Lord Jehovah, I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and make the earth dark in the daytime. And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation, and I will bring up sackcloth on all loins, and on all heads baldness ; and I will make it like a mourning for an only son, and its latter end shall be like a bitter day.

10 Behold, the days come, says the Lord Jehovah, in which I will send a famine on the earth; not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but for hearing the word of Jehovah. And

they shall go from sea to sea, and shall run about from the north to the east, to seek the word of Jehovah, and shall not find it. In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint from thirst. Those who have sworn by the sin of Samaria, and said, Thy god, Dan, lives, and the way of Beersheba lives, shall both fall, and not rise again.

PROPHECY V.

THE DESTRUCTION AND RESTORATION OF ISRAEL.

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1 I SAW the Lord standing by the altar, and he said, Smite the capitals, till the sills shall shake, and break them all on the head; and the rest of them I will kill with the sword, and he that flees of them shall not escape, and he that escapes of them shall not be delivered. If they dig into Hades, thence shall my hand take them; and if they ascend to heaven, thence will I bring them down; and if they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, thence will I search and take them; and if they are concealed from my sight at the bottom of the sea, there will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them; and if they go into captivity before their enemies, there will I command the sword, and it shall kill them; and I will set my eyes on them for evil, and not for good. For the Lord Jehovah of hosts touches the earth, and it melts, and all its inhabitants mourn, and it all comes up like a river, and is overflowed as by the river of Egypt. He builds his chambers in the heavens, and founds his arch on the earth, and calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the face of the earth: Jehovah is his name.

2 Are you not like the sons of the Ethiopians to me, sons of Israel, says Jehovah? Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Assyrians from Kir? Behold, the eyes of the Lord Jehovah are on the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth. But I will not entirely destroy the house of Jacob, says Jehovah, for behold, I will command and sift the house of Israel in all nations, as one sifts with a sieve, and not a bundle shall fall to the earth. But all the sinners of my people who say, Evil shall not approach nor anticipate us, shall die by the sword.

3 In that day I will set up the booth of David, which has fallen down, and close up their breaches, and set up his ruins, and build up [the city] as in the days of old, that they may possess the rem