In late afternoon light, a woven basket of ripe figs and late summer fruit sits on a stone ledge, a few figs split open with ripeness, under a calm empty sky.

Five visions

Amos 8

Ripe fruit is perfect for a day. Then it turns.

14 verses≈ 3 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

1–2The nations judgedEight oracles, closing on Israel
3–5:17Hear this wordThree messages to Samaria
5:18–6Woe to those at easeThe Day of the LORD, and Zion’s comfort
7–9:10Five visionsLocusts, fire, plumb line, fruit, the altarChapter 8
9:11–15The fallen tent raisedRuins rebuilt, vineyards planted

The Basket of Summer Fruit

Amos

This is what the Lord GOD showed me: I saw a basket of summer fruit.

God

“Amos, what do you see?” He asked.

Amos

“A basket of summer fruit,” I replied.

God

So the LORD said to me, “The end has come for My people Israel; I will no longer spare them.”

Tap to go deeper: meaning, history and related Scripture

God

“In that day,” declares the Lord GOD, “the songs of the temple will turn to wailing. Many will be the corpses, strewn in silence everywhere!”

Amos

Amos

Hear this, you who trample the needy,

who do away with the poor of the land,

asking, “When will the New Moon be over,

that we may sell grain?

When will the Sabbath end,

that we may market wheat?

Let us reduce the ephah and increase the shekel;

let us cheat with dishonest scales.

Amos

A grain sack slumped open on a stone floor, its wheat mixed with chaff, husks and grit spilling out.

Let us buy the poor with silver

and the needy for a pair of sandals,

selling even the chaff with the wheat!”

Reflect

When will the Sabbath end?

The traders sat through the holy day asking, “When will the Sabbath end, that we may market wheat?” Their bodies were at rest; their minds were at the market. Where do work and money crowd out rest and worship in your week? Write down one change you could make.

God

The Nile in flood season: the broad brown river spread over flat fields, palms standing in the water, a mud-brick village on its mound.

Will not the land quake for this,

and all its dwellers mourn?

All of it will swell like the Nile;

it will surge and then subside

like the Nile in Egypt.

God

A village lane at midday under a sky gone deep and dark, the sun small and dim; a woman stands in a doorway, looking up.

And in that day,

declares the Lord GOD,

I will make the sun go down at noon,

and I will darken the earth in the daytime.

God

God

I will turn your feasts into mourning

and all your songs into lamentation.

I will cause everyone to wear sackcloth

and every head to be shaved.

I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son,

and its outcome like a bitter day.

Question

Quick question

God showed Amos “a basket of summer fruit.” In Hebrew the vision is a play on words.

In Hebrew, ‘summer fruit’ sounds like which word?

God

Behold, the days are coming,

declares the Lord GOD,

when I will send a famine on the land—

not a famine of bread or a thirst for water,

but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.

Amos 8:11

God

From behind, one traveler with a staff walks an empty road between bare hills at dusk, the road running on toward the haze of the sea.

People will stagger from sea to sea

and roam from north to east,

seeking the word of the LORD,

but they will not find it.

God

In that day the lovely young women—

the young men as well—

will faint from thirst.

God

God

Those who swear by the guilt of Samaria

and say, ‘As surely as your god lives, O Dan,’

or, ‘As surely as the way of Beersheba lives’—

they will fall, never to rise again.”

You’ve experienced

Amos 8

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A verse to carry with you

Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord GOD, when I will send a famine on the land—not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.

Amos 8:11

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