Amos-Ahmos
To Our Forefathers Yisrael
1 The words of Ahmos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoah, which he saw concerning Yisrael in the yamim of Uziyahu melech of Yahudah and in the yamim of Yahravam the son of Yoash melech of Yisrael, two years before the earthquake.
2 And he said, 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 will roar from Tzion and utter His voice from Yahrushalayim; and the pastures of the shepherds shall mourn and the top of Carmel shall wither.
3 This says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄; For three transgressions of Dameshek and for four, I will not turn away the punishment of it; because they have threshed Gilad with threshing instruments of iron:
4 But I will send a fire into the bayit of Haza-El, which shall devour the palaces of Ben-Hadad.
5 I will break also the bar of Dameshek and cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven and him that holds the scepter from Beit Ayden: and the people of Aram shall go into exile to Kir, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄.
6 This says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄; For three transgressions of Azah and for four, I will not turn away the punishment of it; because they carried away captive the whole exile, to deliver them up to Edom:
7 But I will send a fire on the wall of Azah, which shall devour the palaces of it:
8 And I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod and him that holds the scepter from Ashkelon and I will turn My hand against Ekron: and the remnant of the Plishtim shall perish, says The Master 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄.
9 This says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄; For three transgressions of Tzor and for four, I will not turn away the punishment of it; because they delivered up
the whole exile to Edom and remembered not the brotherly brit:
10 But I will send a fire on the wall of Tzor that shall devour the palaces of it.
11 This says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄; For three transgressions of Edom and for four, I will not turn away the punishment of it; 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 le-olam-va-ed:
12 But I will send a fire upon Teman, which shall devour the palaces of Bozrah.
13 This says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄; For three transgressions of the children of Ammon and for four, I will not turn away the punishment of it; because they have ripped up the women with child in Gilad, that they might enlarge their border:
14 But I will kindle a fire in the wall of Ravah and it shall devour the palaces of it, with shouting in the yom of battle, with a storm in the yom of the whirlwind:
15 And their melech shall go into exile, he and his princes together, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄.
2 This says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄; For three transgressions of Moav and for four, I will not turn away the punishment of it; because he burned the bones of the melech of Edom into lime:
2 But I will send a fire upon Moav and it shall devour the palaces of Keriyoth: and Moav shall die with a tumult, with shouting and with the sound of the shofar:
3 And I will cut off the shophet from the midst of it and will slay all the princes of it with him, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄.
4 This says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄; For three transgressions of Yahudah and for four, I will not turn away the punishment of it; because they have despised the Torot of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 and have not kept His chukim and their lies have caused them to go astray, after the halacha that their ahvot have also gone:
5 But I will send a fire upon Yahudah and it shall devour the palaces of Yahrushalayim.
6 This says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄; For three transgressions of Yisrael, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment of it; because they sold the tzadik for silver and the poor for a pair of sandals;
7 They crush the head of the poor in the dust of the earth and they turn aside the derech of the meek: and a man and his abba go into the same young girl, to profane My kadosh Name:
8 And they lay themselves down upon clothes taken in pledge by every altar and they drink the wine of the condemned in the bayit of their ahlahim.
9 Yet I destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars and they were as strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed their fruit from above and their roots from beneath.
10 Also I brought you up from the land of Mitzrayim and led you forty years through the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite.
11 And I raised up your sons to be neviim and your young men to be Nazarites. Is it not so, O children of Yisrael? Says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄.
12 But you gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and commanded the neviim, saying, Prophesy not!
13 Behold, I am weighed down by your sin, as a cart is weighed down that is full of sheaves.
14 Therefore the safe place shall perish from the swift and the strong shall not strengthen his power, neither shall the mighty deliver himself:
15 Neither shall he stand that handles the bow; and he that is swift of foot shall not deliver himself: neither shall he that rides the horse deliver himself.
16 And he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that yom, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄.
3 Shema to this word that 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 has spoken against you, O children of Yisrael, against the whole mishpacha that I brought up from the land of Mitzrayim, saying,
2 You only have I known of all the mishpachot of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.
3 Can two walk together, except they are first in agreement
4 Will a lion roar in the forest, when he has no prey? Will a young lion cry out of his den, if he has taken nothing?
5 Can a bird fall in a trap upon the earth, where no trap exists? Does a trap spring up from the earth, if it has not taken prey?
6 Shall a shofar be blown in the city and the people not tremble? Shall there be evil in a city, if 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 has not allowed it?
7 Surely The Master 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 will do nothing, but He reveals His secrets to His avadim the neviim.
8 The lion has roared, who will not fear? The Master 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 has spoken, who would refrain from prophesying?
9 Publish in the palaces at Ashdod and in the palaces in the land of Mitzrayim and say, Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Shomron and behold the great tumults in its midst and the oppressed in its midst.
10 For they know not to do right, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, they store up violence and robbery in their palaces.
11 Therefore this says Master 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄; An adversary there shall be around the land; and he shall bring down your strength from you and your palaces shall be spoiled.
12 This says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄; As the shepherd takes out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear; so shall the children of Yisrael be rescued that dwell in Shomron, as in the corner of a bed, or the edge of a couch.
13 Hear and testify in Beit Yaakov, says The Master 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, Ahlohim Tzevaot,
14 That in the yom that I shall visit the transgressions of Yisrael upon him I will also visit the altars of Beth-El: and the horns of the altar shall be cut off and fall to the ground.
15 And I will smite the winter bayit as well as the summer bayit; and the houses of ivory shall perish and the great houses shall have an end, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄.
4 Hear this Word, you bulls of Bashan, that are in the har of Shomron, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to their masters, Bring and let us drink.
2 The Master 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 has sworn by His set apartness, that, the yamim shall come upon you, that He will take you away with hooks and your offspring with fishhooks.
3 And you shall go out at the breaches, every woman to the breach before her; and you shall be cast out toward Harmon, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄.
4 Come to Beth-El and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every shachrit and your ma’aser after three years:
5 And offer a sacrifice of hodu with chametz and proclaim and publish the terumah offerings: for you have loved this, O children of Yisrael, says The Master 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄.
6 And I also have given you a shortage of food in all your cities and want of lechem in all your places: yet have you not made teshuvah to Me, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄.
7 And also I have withheld the rain from you, when there were still three chodashem 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 where it did not rain withered.
8 So two, or three cities wandered to one city, to drink mayim; but they were not satisfied: yet have you not made teshuvah to Me, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄.
9 I have smitten you with blight and mildew: when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig eytzim and your olive eytzim increased, the creeping locust devoured them: yet have you not made teshuvah to Me, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄.
10 I have sent among you the plague after the manner of Mitzrayim: 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 to your nostrils: yet have you not made teshuvah to Me, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄.
11 I have overthrown some of you, as Ahlohim overthrew Sedom and Amorah and you were as a burning stick plucked out of the burning: yet have you not made teshuvah to Me, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄.
12 Therefore this will I do to you, O Yisrael: and because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your Ahlohim, O Yisrael.
13 For, see, He that formed the mountains and created the wind and declared to man His thoughts, that made the boker darkness and treads upon the high places of the earth,𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, Ahlohim Tzevaot, is His Name.
5 Hear this word, which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O Beit Yisrael.
2 The virgin of Yisrael is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up.
3 For this says The Master 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄; The city that went out by a thousand shall leave but a hundred and that which went forth by a hundred shall leave but ten, to Beit Yisrael.
4 For this says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 to Beit Yisrael, Seek Me and you shall live:
5 But seek not Beth-El, nor enter into Gilgal and pass not to Be-er-Sheva: for Gilgal shall surely also go into exile and Beth-El shall come to nothing also.
6 Seek 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 and you shall live; lest He break out like fire upon Beit Yoseph and devour it and there be none to quench it in Beth-El.
7 You who turn mishpat to wormwood and cease doing tzedakah in the earth,
8 Seek him that made Pleiades and Hesperus-Orion and turns the shadow of death into the boker and made the yom dark with lyla: that called for the mayim of the sea and poured them out upon the face of the earth:𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 is His Name:
9 Who brings destruction against the strong, so that destruction comes against the fortress.
10 They hate him that rebukes in the gate and they hate him that speaks the emet.
11 Therefore because you trample upon the poor and take grain taxes from him: you have built houses of carved stone, but you shall not dwell in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink wine from them.
12 For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the tzadik, they take a bribe and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their rights.
13 Therefore the wise man shall keep silent in that time; for it is an evil time.
14 Seek tov and not evil, that you may live: and so 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, Ahlohim Tzevaot shall be with you, as you have spoken.
15 Hate the evil and love the tov and establish mishpat in the gate: it may be that 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 Ahlohim Tzevaot will be gracious to the remnant of Yoseph.
16 Therefore 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, Ahlohim Tzevaot, says this; Wailing shall be in all the streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Oy! Oy! And they shall call the farmer to mourning and professional mourners to wailing.
17 And in all the vineyards there shall be wailing: for I will pass through you, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄.
18 Woe to you that desire The Yom 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 To what end is it for you? The Yom 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 is darkness and not ohr.
19 As if a man did flee from a lion and a bear met him; or went into the bayit and leaned his hand on the wall and a serpent bit him.
20 Shall not the Yom 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 be darkness and not ohr? Even very dark and no brightness in it?
21 I hate, I despise your moadeem and I AM not pleased with your miqra qedoshim.
22 Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the shalom offerings of your fattened beasts.
23 Take away from Me the noise of your shirim; for I will not hear the melody of your stringedinstruments.
24 But let My mishpatim run down as mayim and tzedakah as a mighty stream.
25 Have you offered to Me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O Beit Yisrael?
26 But you have borne the sukkah of your Moloch and Chiyun your idols, the cochav of your ahlahim, which you made as an idol for yourselves.
27 Therefore will I cause you to go into exile beyond Dameshek, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, whose Name is Ahlohim Tzevaot.
6 Woe to those that are at ease in Tzion, and trust in the har of Shomron, which is named chief of the goyim, to whom Beit Yisrael came!
2 Pass to Calneh and see; and from there go you to Hamath the great: then go down to Gat of the Plishtim: are you better than these malchutim? Or, their border greater than your border?
3 You that put far away the soon-coming evil yom, who are drawing near and adopting false Shabbats;
4 That lies upon beds of ivory and stretches themselves upon their couches and eats the lambs out of the flock and the calves out of the midst of their stall;
5 That chants to the sound of the stringed instruments and invents for themselves instruments of music, like Dawid;
6 That drinks wine in bowls and anoints themselves with the finest ointments: but they are not grieved, or pained for the affliction of Yoseph.
7 Therefore now shall they go into exile with the first that go into exile, and the banquet of those that stretched themselves out in comfort shall be removed.
8 The Master 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 has sworn by Himself, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 Ahlohim Tzevaot, I hate the pride of Yaakov and hate his palaces: therefore will I deliver up the city with all that is in it.
9 And it shall come to pass, if there remain ten men in one bayit, that they shall die.
10 And a man’s uncle shall take him up, or an undertaker, to bring out his bones from the bayit, and shall say to him that is by the sides of the bayit, Is there yet any with you? And he shall say, No. Then shall he say, Hold your tongue for we may not make mention of the Name of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄.
11 For, behold,𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 commands and He will smite the great bayit with breaches and the little bayit with clefts.
12 Shall horses run upon the rock? Will one plow there with oxen? For you have turned mishpat into poison and the fruit of tzedakah into wormwood:
13 You who gilah in things of nothing, who say, Have we not taken for us horns by our own strength?
14 But, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O Beit Yisrael, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 Ahlohim Tzevaot; and they shall afflict you from the entrance of Hamath to the river of the wilderness.
7 This has The Master 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 showed me; He formed locust swarms at the beginning of the late crop; and, see, it was the late crop after the melech’s tribute.
2 And it came to pass, that when they had made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, O Master 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, forgive, I beg You: how shall Yaakov survive? For he is small.
3 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 relented for this: It shall not be, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄.
4 This has The Master 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 showed to me: behold, The Master 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 called the people to judge them by fire and it devoured the great deep and did eat up a part of it.
5 Then said I, O Master 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, cease, I beg You: how shall Yaakov survive? For he is small.
6 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 relented for this: This also shall not be, says The Master 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄.
7 This He showed me: and, behold,𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 stood upon a wall made by a plumb line, with a plumb line in His hand.
8 And 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 said to me, Ahmos, what do you see? And I said, A plumb line. Then said 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, Behold, I will set a plumb line in the midst of My people Yisrael: I will not again pass by them anymore:
9 And the idol temples of Yitzchak shall be desolate and the pagan shrines of Yisrael shall be laid waste; and I will rise up against Beit Yahravam with the sword.
10 Then Amatzyah the kohen of Beth-El sent to Yahravam melech of Yisrael, saying, Ahmos has conspired against you in the midst of Beit Yisrael: the land is not able to bear all his words.
11 For this Ahmos says, Yahravam shall die by the sword and Yisrael shall surely be led away captive out of their own land.
12 Also Amatzyah said to Ahmos, O you seer, go, flee into the land of Yahudah and there eat lechem and prophesy there:
13 But prophesy not again anymore at Beth-El: for it is the melech’s worship place and it is the malchut court.
14 Then answered Ahmos and said to Amatzyah, I was not a navi, neither was I a navi’s son; but I was a shepherd and a gatherer of wild figs:
15 And 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 took me as I followed the flock and 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 said to me, Go, prophesy to My people Yisrael.
16 Now therefore hear The Word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄: You have said, Prophesy not against Yisrael and drop not your word against Beit Yitzchak.
17 Therefore this says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄; Your isha shall be a harlot in the city and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword and your land shall be divided by line; and you shall die in a polluted land: and Yisrael shall surely go into exile out of its land.
8 This has The Master 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 showed me: and behold a basket of summer fruit.
2 And He said, Ahmos, what do you see? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 to me, The end is come upon My people of Yisrael; I will not again pass by them anymore.
3 And the shirim of the Hekal shall produce wailings in that yom, says The Master 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄: there shall be many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them forth with silence.
4 Hear this, you that swallow up the needy, even to do away with the poor of the land,
5 Saying, When will the chodesh be gone, that we may sell our grain? And The Shabbat, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small and the shekel large and falsifying the balances by deceit?
6 That we may buy the poor as avadim for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals; yes and sell the refuse of the wheat?
7 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 the Excellency of Yaakov has sworn, Surely I will never forget any of their works.
8 Shall not the land tremble for this and everyone mourn that dwells in it? And it shall rise up wholly as a flood; and it shall be cast out and drowned, as by the flood of Mitzrayim.
9 And it shall come to pass in that yom, says The Master 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, that I will cause the shemesh to go down at noon and I will darken the earth in the clear yom:
10 And I will turn your moadeem into mourning and all your shirim into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only Son, and the end of it as a bitter yom.
11 Behold, the yamim come, says The Master 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of lechem, nor a thirst for mayim, but of hearing the Words of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄:
12 And they shall wander from sea to sea and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek The Word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 and shall not find it.
13 In that yom shall the beautiful virgins and young men faint for thirst.
14 They that swear by the sin of Shomron and say, Your ahlahim, O Dan, lives; and by the false halacha coming from Be-er-Sheva; even they shall fall and never rise up again.
9 I saw 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 standing upon the altar: and He said, Smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake: and cut them in the head, all of them; and I will slay the last of them with the sword: he that tries to flee shall not flee away and he that tries to escape shall not be delivered.
2 Though they dig into Sheol, there shall My hand take them; though they climb up to the shamayim, there will I bring them down:
3 And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out from there; and though they are hidden from My sight in the bottom of the sea, there will I command the serpent and he shall bite them:
4 And though they go into exile before their enemies, there will I command the sword and it shall slay them: and I will set My eyes upon them for evil and not for tov.
5 And The Master 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 Tzevaot is He that touches the land and it shall melt and all that dwell in it shall mourn: and it shall rise up like a massive flood; and it shall be drowned, as by the flood of Mitzrayim.
6 It is He that builds His dwelling places in the shamayim and has founded His possessions on the earth; He that calls for the mayim of the sea and pours them out upon the face of the land: 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 is His Name.
7 Are you not as children of the Ethiopians to Me, O children of Yisrael? Says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄.Have not I brought up Yisrael out of the land of Mitzrayim? And the Plishtim from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir?
8 Behold, the eyes of The Master 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 are upon the sinful malchut, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; except that I will not utterly destroy Beit Yaakov, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄.
9 For, see, I will command and I will sift Beit Yisrael among all goyim, like grain is sifted in a sieve, yet the least kernel of grain shall not fall upon the earth.
10 All the sinners of My people shall die by the sword, who say, The evil shall not overtake nor find us.
11 In that yom I will raise up the Sukkah of Dawid that has fallen and close up the breaches of it; and I will raise up its ruins, and I will rebuild it as in the yamim of old:
12 That they may possess the remnant of Ahdahm, and of all the goyim, who were once called by My Name, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 that does this.
13 Behold, the yamim come, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him that sows zera; and the mountains shall drip with sweet wine and all the hills shall melt.
14 And I will bring again the captivity of My people Yisrael and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards and drink the wine from them; they shall also make gardens and eat the fruit from them.
15 And I will plant them upon their land and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 your Ahlohim.