From the Prophets - Amos

     1:1 The words of Amos, a shepherd —the vision he saw concerning Israel two years before the earthquake..

Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab …and Judah..

   ..sold the innocent for silver .. you trample on the heads of the poor as on the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed.. 2:14 The swift will not escape, the strong will not muster their strength, and the warrior will not save his life. 15 The archer will not stand his ground, the fleet-footed soldier will not get away, and the horseman will not save his life. 16 Even the bravest warriors will flee.. 3:6 When a trumpet sounds.. 7 Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets. ..11 An enemy will overrun your land, pull down your strongholds and plunder your fortresses ..15 the mansions will be demolished..

    4:1 .. who oppress the poor and crush the needy.. 6 lack of bread in every town.. 11 yet you have not returned to me, declares the Lord. 12 ..prepare to meet your God. 13 He who forms the mountains,�    who creates the wind,�    and who reveals his thoughts to mankind, who turns dawn to darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth — the Lord God Almighty is his name.

5:9  With a blinding flash he destroys the stronghold and brings the fortified city to ruin..

11 You levy a straw tax on the poor and impose a tax on their grain. Therefore, though you have built stone mansions, you will not live in them; though you have planted lush vineyards, you will not drink their wine. 12 ..There are those who oppress the innocent and take bribes and deprive the poor of justice in the courts. 13  Therefore the prudent keep quiet in such times, for the times are evil. 15 Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the Lord God Almighty will have mercy..

    6:11 ..he will smash the great house into pieces and the small house into bits. 14 Amos answered Amaziah, “I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. 15 But the Lord took me from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ 16 Now then, hear the word of the Lord. You say, ‘Do not prophesy.. and stop preaching against the descendants of Isaac.’

17 Therefore this is what the Lord says, ‘Israel will surely go into exile, away from their native land’..”

     8:1 This 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. 8 Will not the land tremble for this, and all who live in it mourn? .. 9 “In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord,

“I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. 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. 12 People will stagger..

     9:11 “In that day I will restore David’s fallen shelter — I will repair its broken walls and its ruins — and will rebuild it as it used to be.. 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, 14 and I will bring my people Israel back from exile. (We are all Israel, when the scales fall from our eyes and we believe, we are “grafted into Israel” and Israel and Jerusalem will be God’s capitol.) 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. 15 I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them..”