The Bible Part 178

1:20 The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

2:1 Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand; 2:2 A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.

2:3 A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.

2:4 The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as hors.e.m.e.n, so shall they run.

2:5 Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array.

2:6 Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness.

2:7 They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks: 2:8 Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded.

2:9 They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief.

2:10 The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining: 2:11 And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it? 2:12 Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: 2:13 And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your G.o.d: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.

2:14 Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the LORD your G.o.d? 2:15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn a.s.sembly: 2:16 Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, a.s.semble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the b.r.e.a.s.t.s: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet.

2:17 Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their G.o.d? 2:18 Then will the LORD be jealous for his land, and pity his people.

2:19 Yea, the LORD will answer and say unto his people, Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith: and I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen: 2:20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army, and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.

2:21 Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the LORD will do great things.

2:22 Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field: for the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength.

2:23 Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your G.o.d: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month.

2:24 And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.

2:25 And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.

2:26 And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your G.o.d, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed.

2:27 And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your G.o.d, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed.

2:28 And it shall come to pa.s.s afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: 2:29 And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.

2:30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.

2:31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the LORD come.

2:32 And it shall come to pa.s.s, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.

3:1 For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, 3:2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.

3:3 And they have cast lots for my people; and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.

3:4 Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine? will ye render me a recompence? and if ye recompense me, swiftly and speedily will I return your recompence upon your own head; 3:5 Because ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things: 3:6 The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye might remove them far from their border.

3:7 Behold, I will raise them out of the place whither ye have sold them, and will return your recompence upon your own head: 3:8 And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off: for the LORD hath spoken it.

3:9 Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: 3:10 Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.

3:11 a.s.semble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O LORD.

3:12 Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about.

3:13 Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great.

3:14 Mult.i.tudes, mult.i.tudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.

3:15 The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.

3:16 The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.

3:17 So shall ye know that I am the LORD your G.o.d dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pa.s.s through her any more.

3:18 And it shall come to pa.s.s in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth out of the house of the LORD, and shall water the valley of s.h.i.ttim.

3:19 Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.

3:20 But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.

3:21 For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for the LORD dwelleth in Zion.

Amos 1:1 The words of Amos, who was among the herdmen 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.

1:2 And he said, The LORD will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither.

1:3 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron: 1:4 But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, which shall devour the palaces of Benhadad.

1:5 I will break also the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven, and him that holdeth the sceptre from the house of Eden: and the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir, saith the LORD.

1:6 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they carried away captive the whole captivity, to deliver them up to Edom: 1:7 But I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, which shall devour the palaces thereof: 1:8 And I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod, and him that holdeth the sceptre from Ashkelon, and I will turn mine hand against Ekron: and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, saith the Lord G.o.d.

1:9 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Tyrus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they delivered up the whole captivity to Edom, and remembered not the brotherly covenant: 1:10 But I will send a fire on the wall of Tyrus, which shall devour the palaces thereof.

1:11 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he did pursue his brother with the sword, and did cast off all pity, and his anger did tear perpetually, and he kept his wrath for ever: 1:12 But I will send a fire upon Teman, which shall devour the palaces of Bozrah.

1:13 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have ripped up the women with child of Gilead, that they might enlarge their border: 1:14 But I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it shall devour the palaces thereof, with shouting in the day of battle, with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind: 1:15 And their king shall go into captivity, he and his princes together, saith the LORD.

2:1 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime: 2:2 But I will send a fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the palaces of Kirioth: and Moab shall die with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet: 2:3 And I will cut off the judge from the midst thereof, and will slay all the princes thereof with him, saith the LORD.

2:4 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have despised the law of the LORD, and have not kept his commandments, and their lies caused them to err, after the which their fathers have walked: 2:5 But I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.

2:6 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes; 2:7 That pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and his father will go in unto the same maid, to profane my holy name: 2:8 And they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their G.o.d.

2:9 Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath.

2:10 Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you forty years through the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite.

2:11 And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites. Is it not even thus, O ye children of Israel? saith the LORD.

2:12 But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not.

2:13 Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves.

2:14 Therefore the flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not strengthen his force, neither shall the mighty deliver himself: 2:15 Neither shall he stand that handleth the bow; and he that is swift of foot shall not deliver himself: neither shall he that rideth the horse deliver himself.

2:16 And he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, saith the LORD.

3:1 Hear this word that the LORD hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, 3:2 You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.

3:3 Can two walk together, except they be agreed? 3:4 Will a lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey? will a young lion cry out of his den, if he have taken nothing? 3:5 Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin is for him? shall one take up a snare from the earth, and have taken nothing at all? 3:6 Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it? 3:7 Surely the Lord G.o.d will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.

3:8 The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord G.o.d hath spoken, who can but prophesy? 3:9 Publish in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, a.s.semble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria, and behold the great tumults in the midst thereof, and the oppressed in the midst thereof.

3:10 For they know not to do right, saith the LORD, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces.

3:11 Therefore thus saith the Lord G.o.d; An adversary there shall be even round about the land; and he shall bring down thy strength from thee, and thy palaces shall be spoiled.

3:12 Thus saith the LORD; As the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear; so shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria in the corner of a bed, and in Damascus in a couch.

3:13 Hear ye, and testify in the house of Jacob, saith the Lord G.o.d, the G.o.d of hosts, 3:14 That in the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel upon him I will also visit the altars of Bethel: and the horns of the altar shall be cut off, and fall to the ground.

3:15 And I will smite the winter house with the summer house; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end, saith the LORD.

4:1 Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink.

4:2 The Lord G.o.d hath sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks.

4:3 And ye shall go out at the breaches, every cow at that which is before her; and ye shall cast them into the palace, saith the LORD.

4:4 Come to Bethel, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your t.i.thes after three years: 4:5 And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, and proclaim and publish the free offerings: for this liketh you, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord G.o.d.

4:6 And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.

4:7 And also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered.

4:8 So two or three cities wandered unto one city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.

4:9 I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmerworm devoured them: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.

4:10 I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses; and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.

4:11 I have overthrown some of you, as G.o.d overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.

4:12 Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy G.o.d, O Israel.

4:13 For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The LORD, The G.o.d of hosts, is his name.

5:1 Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel.

5:2 The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up.

5:3 For thus saith the Lord G.o.d; The city that went out by a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel.

5:4 For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live: 5:5 But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pa.s.s not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought.

5:6 Seek the LORD, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel.

5:7 Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth, 5:8 Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name: 5:9 That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.

5:10 They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.

5:11 Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.

5:12 For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.

5:13 Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.

5:14 Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the LORD, the G.o.d of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.

5:15 Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the LORD G.o.d of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.

5:16 Therefore the LORD, the G.o.d of hosts, the LORD, saith thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing.

5:17 And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pa.s.s through thee, saith the LORD.

5:18 Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light.

5:19 As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.

5:20 Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it? 5:21 I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn a.s.semblies.

5:22 Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.

5:23 Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.

5:24 But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.

5:25 Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? 5:26 But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your G.o.d, which ye made to yourselves.

5:27 Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the LORD, whose name is The G.o.d of hosts.

6:1 Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came! 6:2 Pa.s.s ye unto Calneh, and see; and from thence go ye to Hamath the great: then go down to Gath of the Philistines: be they better than these kingdoms? or their border greater than your border? 6:3 Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near; 6:4 That lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall; 6:5 That chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of musick, like David; 6:6 That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments: but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.