<p class="poetry">&#8220;I destroyed your crops<n id="1" /> with blight and disease.p> <p class="poetry">Locusts kept<n id="2" /> devouring your orchards,<n id="3" /> vineyards, fig trees, and olive trees.p> <p class="poetry">Still you did not come back to me.&#8221;p> <p class="poetry">The <sc>Lordsc> is speaking!p>

<p class="poetry">&#8220;I overthrew some of you the way God<n id="1" /> overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">You were like a burning stick<n id="3" /> snatched from the flames.p> <p class="poetry">Still you did not come back to me.&#8221;p> <p class="poetry">The <sc>Lordsc> is speaking!p>

<t /><p class="poetry">Woe<n id="1" /> to those who wish for the day of the <sc>Lord!sc>p> <p class="poetry">Why do you want the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s day of judgment to come?p> <p class="poetry">It will bring darkness, not light.p>

<p class="bodytext">Amos replied<n id="1" /> to Amaziah, &#8220;I was not a prophet by profession.<n id="2" /> No,<n id="3" /> I was a herdsman who also took care of<n id="4" /> sycamore fig trees.<n id="5" />

So now listen to the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s message! You say, &#8216;Don&#8217;t prophesy against Israel! Don&#8217;t preach<n id="1" /> against the family of Isaac!&#8217;p>

<p class="poetry">People<n id="1" /> will stagger from sea to sea,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">and from the north around to the east.p> <p class="poetry">They will wander about looking for a revelation from<n id="3" /> the <sc>Lordsc>,p> <p class="poetry">but they will not find any.<n id="4" />p>

These are the ones who now take oaths<n id="1" /> in the name of the sinful idol goddess<n id="2" /> of Samaria.p> <p class="poetry">They vow,<n id="3" /> &#8216;As surely as your god<n id="4" /> lives, O Dan,&#8217; or &#8216;As surely as your beloved one<n id="5" /> lives, O Beer Sheba!&#8217;p> <p class="poetry">But they will fall down and not get up again.&#8221;p>

<p class="poetry">Even when their enemies drive them into captivity,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">from there<n id="2" /> I will command the sword to kill them.p> <p class="poetry">I will not let them out of my sight;p> <p class="poetry">they will experience disaster, not prosperity.&#8221;<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry">&#8220;For look, I am giving a commandp> <p class="poetry">and I will shake the family of Israel together with all the nations.p> <p class="poetry">It will resemble a sieve being shaken,p> <p class="poetry">when not even a pebble falls to the ground.<n id="1" />p>

<p class="poetry">I will plant them on their landp> <p class="poetry">and they will never again be uprooted from the<n id="1" /> land I have given them,&#8221;p> <p class="bodytext">says the <sc>Lordsc> your God.p>

When God saw their actions &#8211; they turned<n id="1" /> from their evil way of living!<n id="2" /> &#8211; God relented concerning the judgment<n id="3" /> he had threatened them with<n id="4" /> and he did not destroy them.<n id="5" />p>

The <sc>Lordsc> said, &#8220;You were upset<n id="1" /> about this little<n id="2" /> plant, something for which you have not worked nor did you do anything to make it grow. It grew up overnight and died the next day.<n id="3" />

<p class="poetry">Someday these sinners will cry to the <sc>Lordsc> for help,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">but he will not answer them.p> <p class="poetry">He will hide his face from them at that time,p> <p class="poetry">because they have done such wicked deeds.&#8221;p>

<p class="poetry">Your courtiers<n id="1" /> are like locusts,p> <p class="poetry">your officials<n id="2" /> are like a swarm of locusts!p> <p class="poetry">They encamp in the walls on a cold day,p> <p class="poetry">yet when the sun rises, they<n id="3" /> fly away;<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">and no one knows where they<n id="5" /> are.<n id="6" />p>

<p class="poetry">For this reason the law lacks power,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">and justice is never carried out.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Indeed,<n id="3" /> the wicked intimidate<n id="4" /> the innocent.<n id="5" />p> <p class="poetry">For this reason justice is perverted.<n id="6" />p>

<p class="poetry">For the message is a witness to what is decreed;<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">it gives reliable testimony about how matters will turn out.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Even if the message<n id="3" /> is not fulfilled right away, wait patiently;<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">for it will certainly come to pass &#8211; it will not arrive late.p>

<p class="poetry">The just <sc>Lordsc> resides<n id="1" /> within her;p> <p class="poetry">he commits no unjust acts.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Every morning he reveals<n id="3" /> his justice.p> <p class="poetry">At dawn he appears without fail.<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">Yet the unjust know no shame.p>

<p class="poetry">I thought,<n id="1" /> &#8216;Certainly you will respect<n id="2" /> me!p> <p class="poetry">Now you will accept correction!&#8217;p> <p class="poetry">If she had done so, her home<n id="3" /> would not be destroyed<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">by all the punishments I have threatened.<n id="5" />p> <p class="poetry">But they eagerly sinnedp> <p class="poetry">in everything they did.<n id="6" />p>

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;For the <sc>Lordsc> who rules over all says, &#8216;As I had planned to hurt<n id="1" /> you when your fathers made me angry,&#8217; says the <sc>Lordsc> who rules over all, &#8216;and I was not sorry,

Then I will surround my temple<n id="1" /> to protect it like a guard<n id="2" /> from anyone crossing back and forth; so no one will cross over against them anymore as an oppressor, for now I myself have seen it.p>