AMOS 7

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Warning Visions  7:1 This is what the Lord God showed me: behold, he was forming locusts when the latter growth was just beginning to sprout, and behold, it was the latter growth after the king’s mowings. 2 When they had finished eating the grass of the land, I said,

“O Lord God, please forgive!

How can Jacob stand?

He is so small!” 3

The Lord relented concerning this:

“It shall not be,” said the Lord.
    4 This is what the Lord God showed me: behold, the Lord God was calling for a judgment by fire, and it devoured the great deep and was eating up the land. 5 Then I said,

“O Lord God, please cease!

How can Jacob stand?

He is so small!” 6

The Lord relented concerning this:

“This also shall not be,” said the Lord God.
    7 This is what he showed me: behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. 8 And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said,

“Behold, I am setting a plumb line

in the midst of my people Israel;

I will never again pass by them; 9

the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate,

and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste,

and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.” Amos Accused10 Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. 11 For thus Amos has said,

“‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword,

and Israel must go into exile

away from his land.’” 12 And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there, 13 but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.”
    14 Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, “I was no prophet, nor a prophet’s son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. 15 But the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ 16 Now therefore hear the word of the Lord.

“You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel,

and do not preach against the house of Isaac.’ 17 Therefore thus says the Lord:

“‘Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city,

and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword,

and your land shall be divided up with a measuring line;

you yourself shall die in an unclean land,

and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.’”

AMOS 8

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The Coming Day of Bitter Mourning  8:1 This is what the Lord God showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit. 2 And he said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me,

“The end has come upon my people Israel;

I will never again pass by them. 3

The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day,”declares the Lord God.“So many dead bodies!”“They are thrown everywhere!”“Silence!”
4

Hear this, you who trample on the needy

and bring the poor of the land to an end, 5

saying, “When will the new moon be over,

that we may sell grain?

And the Sabbath,

that we may offer wheat for sale,

that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great

and deal deceitfully with false balances, 6

that we may buy the poor for silver

and the needy for a pair of sandals

and sell the chaff of the wheat?”
7

The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:

“Surely I will never forget any of their deeds. 8

Shall not the land tremble on this account,

and everyone mourn who dwells in it,

and all of it rise like the Nile,

and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?”
9

“And on that day,” declares the Lord God,

“I will make the sun go down at noon

and darken the earth in broad daylight. 10

I will turn your feasts into mourning

and all your songs into lamentation;

I will bring sackcloth on every waist

and baldness on every head;

I will make it like the mourning for an only son

and the end of it like a bitter day.
11

“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God,

“when I will send a famine on the land—

not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,

but of hearing the words of the Lord. 12

They shall wander from sea to sea,

and from north to east;

they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord,

but they shall not find it.
13

“In that day the lovely virgins and the young men

shall faint for thirst. 14

Those who swear by the Guilt of Samaria,

and say, ‘As your god lives, O Dan,’

and, ‘As the Way of Beersheba lives,’

they shall fall, and never rise again.”

AMOS 9

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The Destruction of Israel  9:1 I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said:

“Strike the capitals until the thresholds shake,

and shatter them on the heads of all the people;

and those who are left of them I will kill with the sword;

not one of them shall flee away;

not one of them shall escape.
2

“If they dig into Sheol,

from there shall my hand take them;

if they climb up to heaven,

from there I will bring them down. 3

If they hide themselves on the top of Carmel,

from there I will search them out and take them;

and if they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea,

there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them. 4

And if they go into captivity before their enemies,

there I will command the sword, and it shall kill them;

and I will fix my eyes upon them

for evil and not for good.”
5

The Lord God of hosts,

he who touches the earth and it melts,

and all who dwell in it mourn,

and all of it rises like the Nile,

and sinks again, like the Nile of Egypt; 6

who builds his upper chambers in the heavens

and founds his vault upon the earth;

who calls for the waters of the sea

and pours them out upon the surface of the earth—

the Lord is his name.
7

“Are you not like the Cushites to me,

O people of Israel?” declares the Lord.

“Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt,

and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Syrians from Kir? 8

Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom,

and I will destroy it from the surface of the ground,

except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,”declares the Lord.
9

“For behold, I will command,

and shake the house of Israel among all the nations

as one shakes with a sieve,

but no pebble shall fall to the earth. 10

All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword,

who say, ‘Disaster shall not overtake or meet us.’ The Restoration of Israel11

“In that day I will raise up

the booth of David that is fallen

and repair its breaches,

and raise up its ruins

and rebuild it as in the days of old, 12

that they may possess the remnant of Edom

and all the nations who are called by my name,”

declares the Lord who does this.
13

“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord,

“when the plowman shall overtake the reaper

and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed;

the mountains shall drip sweet wine,

and all the hills shall flow with it. 14

I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel,

and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them;

they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine,

and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. 15

I will plant them on their land,

and they shall never again be uprooted

out of the land that I have given them,”says the Lord your God.

PROVERBS 8

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The Blessings of Wisdom8:1

Does not wisdom call?

Does not understanding raise her voice? 2

On the heights beside the way,

at the crossroads she takes her stand; 3

beside the gates in front of the town,

at the entrance of the portals she cries aloud: 4

“To you, O men, I call,

and my cry is to the children of man. 5

O simple ones, learn prudence;

O fools, learn sense. 6

Hear, for I will speak noble things,

and from my lips will come what is right, 7

for my mouth will utter truth;

wickedness is an abomination to my lips. 8

All the words of my mouth are righteous;

there is nothing twisted or crooked in them. 9

They are all straight to him who understands,

and right to those who find knowledge. 10

Take my instruction instead of silver,

and knowledge rather than choice gold, 11

for wisdom is better than jewels,

and all that you may desire cannot compare with her.
12

“I, wisdom, dwell with prudence,

and I find knowledge and discretion. 13

The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil.

Pride and arrogance and the way of evil

and perverted speech I hate. 14

I have counsel and sound wisdom;

I have insight; I have strength. 15

By me kings reign,

and rulers decree what is just; 16

by me princes rule,

and nobles, all who govern justly. 17

I love those who love me,

and those who seek me diligently find me. 18

Riches and honor are with me,

enduring wealth and righteousness. 19

My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold,

and my yield than choice silver. 20

I walk in the way of righteousness,

in the paths of justice, 21

granting an inheritance to those who love me,

and filling their treasuries.
22

“The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work,

the first of his acts of old. 23

Ages ago I was set up,

at the first, before the beginning of the earth. 24

When there were no depths I was brought forth,

when there were no springs abounding with water. 25

Before the mountains had been shaped,

before the hills, I was brought forth, 26

before he had made the earth with its fields,

or the first of the dust of the world. 27

When he established the heavens, I was there;

when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, 28

when he made firm the skies above,

when he established the fountains of the deep, 29

when he assigned to the sea its limit,

so that the waters might not transgress his command,

when he marked out the foundations of the earth, 30

then I was beside him, like a master workman,

and I was daily his delight,

rejoicing before him always, 31

rejoicing in his inhabited world

and delighting in the children of man.
32

“And now, O sons, listen to me:

blessed are those who keep my ways. 33

Hear instruction and be wise,

and do not neglect it. 34

Blessed is the one who listens to me,

watching daily at my gates,

waiting beside my doors. 35

For whoever finds me finds life

and obtains favor from the Lord, 36

but he who fails to find me injures himself;

all who hate me love death.”

REVELATION 10

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The Angel and the Little Scroll  10:1 Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head, and his face was like the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire. 2 He had a little scroll open in his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea, and his left foot on the land, 3 and called out with a loud voice, like a lion roaring. When he called out, the seven thunders sounded. 4 And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down.” 5 And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven 6 and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that there would be no more delay, 7 but that in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled, just as he announced to his servants the prophets.
    8 Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, “Go, take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.” 9 So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll. And he said to me, “Take and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.” 10 And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter. 11 And I was told, “You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.”