Sep 28 - Amos 6-9, Obadiah 1
Amos
1Woe to you who are complacent in Zion, and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria, you notable men of the foremost nation, to whom the people of Israel come!2Go to Calneh and look at it; go from there to great Hamath, and then go down to Gath in Philistia. Are they better off than your two kingdoms? Is their land larger than yours?3You put off the evil day and bring near a reign of terror.4You lie on beds inlaid with ivory and lounge on your couches. You dine on choice lambs and fattened calves.5You strum away on your harps like David and improvise on musical instruments.6You drink wine by the bowlful and use the finest lotions, but you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph.7Therefore you will be among the first to go into exile; your feasting and lounging will end.8The Sovereign LORD has sworn by himself-the LORD God Almighty declares: "I abhor the pride of Jacob and detest his fortresses; I will deliver up the city and everything in it."9If ten men are left in one house, they too will die.10And if a relative who is to burn the bodies comes to carry them out of the house and asks anyone still hiding there, "Is anyone with you?" and he says, "No," then he will say, "Hush! We must not mention the name of the LORD."11For the LORD has given the command, and he will smash the great house into pieces and the small house into bits.12Do horses run on the rocky crags? Does one plow there with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness-13you who rejoice in the conquest of Lo Debar and say, "Did we not take Karnaim by our own strength?"14For the LORD God Almighty declares, "I will stir up a nation against you, O house of Israel, that will oppress you all the way from Lebo Hamath to the valley of the Arabah."
1This is what the Sovereign LORD showed me: He was preparing swarms of locusts after the king's share had been harvested and just as the second crop was coming up.2When they had stripped the land clean, I cried out, "Sovereign LORD, forgive! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!"3So the LORD relented. "This will not happen," the LORD said.4This is what the Sovereign LORD showed me: The Sovereign LORD was calling for judgment by fire; it dried up the great deep and devoured the land.5Then I cried out, "Sovereign LORD, I beg you, stop! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!"6So the LORD relented. "This will not happen either," the Sovereign LORD said.7This is what he showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb, with a plumb line in his hand.8And the LORD asked me, "What do you see, Amos?A plumb line," I replied. Then the Lord said, "Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.9"The high places of Isaac will be destroyed and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined; with my sword I will rise against the house of Jeroboam."10Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent a message to Jeroboam king of Israel: "Amos is raising a conspiracy against you in the very heart of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words.11For this is what Amos is saying: "'Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will surely go into exile, away from their native land.'"12Then Amaziah said to Amos, "Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there.13Don't prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king's sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom."14Amos answered Amaziah, "I was neither a prophet nor a prophet's son, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees.15But the LORD took me from tending the flock and said to me, 'Go, prophesy to my people Israel.'16Now then, hear the word of the LORD. You say, "'Do not prophesy against Israel, and stop preaching against the house of Isaac.'17"Therefore this is what the LORD says: "'Your wife will become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword. Your land will be measured and divided up, and you yourself will die in a pagan country. And Israel will certainly go into exile, away from their native land.'"
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. 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 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 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 feasts 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.12Men 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.14They who swear by the shame of Samaria, or say, 'As surely as your god lives, O Dan,' or, 'As surely as the god of Beersheba lives'- they will fall, never to rise again."
1I saw the Lord standing by the altar, and he said: "Strike the tops of the pillars so that the thresholds shake. Bring them down on the heads of all the people; those who are left I will kill with the sword. Not one will get away, none will escape.2Though they dig down to the depths of the grave, from there my hand will take them. Though they climb up to the heavens, from there I will bring them down.3Though they hide themselves on the top of Carmel, there I will hunt them down and seize them. Though they hide from me at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent to bite them.4Though they are driven into exile by their enemies, there I will command the sword to slay them. I will fix my eyes upon them for evil and not for good."5The Lord, the LORD Almighty, he who touches the earth and it melts, and all who live in it mourn- the whole land rises like the Nile, then sinks like the river of Egypt-6he who builds his lofty palace in the heavens and sets its foundation on the earth, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the land- the LORD is his name.7"Are not you Israelites the same to me as the Cushites?" declares the LORD. "Did I not bring Israel up from Egypt, the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir?8"Surely the eyes of the Sovereign LORD are on the sinful kingdom. I will destroy it from the face of the earth- yet I will not totally destroy the house of Jacob," declares the LORD.9"For I will give the command, and I will shake the house of Israel among all the nations as grain is shaken in a sieve, and not a pebble will reach the ground.10All the sinners among my people will die by the sword, all those who say, 'Disaster will not overtake or meet us.'11"In that day I will restore David's fallen tent. I will repair its broken places, restore its ruins, and build it as it used to be,12so that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations that bear my name, "declares the LORD, who will do these things.13"The days are coming," declares the LORD, "when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills.14I will bring back my exiled people Israel; they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit.15I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them," says the LORD your God.
Obadiah
1The vision of Obadiah. This is what the Sovereign LORD says about Edom- We have heard a message from the LORD: An envoy was sent to the nations to say, "Rise, and let us go against her for battle"-2"See, I will make you small among the nations; you will be utterly despised.3The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights, you who say to yourself, 'Who can bring me down to the ground?'4Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down," declares the LORD.5"If thieves came to you, if robbers in the night- Oh, what a disaster awaits you- would they not steal only as much as they wanted? If grape pickers came to you, would they not leave a few grapes?6But how Esau will be ransacked, his hidden treasures pillaged!7All your allies will force you to the border; your friends will deceive and overpower you; those who eat your bread will set a trap for you, but you will not detect it.8"In that day," declares the LORD, "will I not destroy the wise men of Edom, men of understanding in the mountains of Esau?9Your warriors, O Teman, will be terrified, and everyone in Esau's mountains will be cut down in the slaughter.10Because of the violence against your brother Jacob, you will be covered with shame; you will be destroyed forever.11On the day you stood aloof while strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were like one of them.12You should not look down on your brother in the day of his misfortune, nor rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their destruction, nor boast so much in the day of their trouble.13You should not march through the gates of my people in the day of their disaster, nor look down on them in their calamity in the day of their disaster, nor seize their wealth in the day of their disaster.14You should not wait at the crossroads to cut down their fugitives, nor hand over their survivors in the day of their trouble.15"The day of the LORD is near for all nations. As you have done, it will be done to you; your deeds will return upon your own head.16Just as you drank on my holy hill, so all the nations will drink continually; they will drink and drink and be as if they had never been.17But on Mount Zion will be deliverance; it will be holy, and the house of Jacob will possess its inheritance.18The house of Jacob will be a fire and the house of Joseph a flame; the house of Esau will be stubble, and they will set it on fire and consume it. There will be no survivors from the house of Esau." The LORD has spoken.19People from the Negev will occupy the mountains of Esau, and people from the foothills will possess the land of the Philistines. They will occupy the fields of Ephraim and Samaria, and Benjamin will possess Gilead.20This company of Israelite exiles who are in Canaan will possess the land as far as Zarephath; the exiles from Jerusalem who are in Sepharad will possess the towns of the Negev.21Deliverers will go up on Mount Zion to govern the mountains of Esau. And the kingdom will be the LORD's.