What Amos said
1These are the words of Amos. He was a farmer with a lot of sheep and he lived in the town of Tekoa. The Lord showed him what would happen to the Israelites. This was 2 years before the earthquake, when Azariah was king of the land_of_Judah and Jeroboam, son of Jehoash, was king_of_Israel. 2Amos said:
‘When the Lord talks from Jerusalem,
it is like a lion that roars.
Then the field becomes dry
where the sheep must eat grass
and the plants on Mount Carmel die.’
The Lord will punish the Arameans
3The Lord says:
‘The people in the city of Damascus
have done a lot of sins.
That is why I will punish them.
They were very cruel to the people of Gilead.
4I will send fire to the house
that King Hazael built.
I will burn down the city with strong walls
that King Ben-Hadad built.
5I will break open the gate of Damascus,
and I will kill all the people in the Valley of Aven
with the king in the city of Beth-Eden.
The enemies will catch the Arameans
and take them away to the land of Kir.’
This is what the Lord said.
The Lord will punish the Philistines
6The Lord says:
‘The people in the city of Gaza have done a lot of sin.
That is why I will punish them.
They caught all the people in some towns
and sold them, and those people
became slaves of the people of Edom.
7That is why I will send fire
to the city of Gaza
and its city with strong walls will burn down.
8I will kill all the people in the city of Ashdod,
and also the king of the city of Ashkelon.
I will punish the people in the city of Ekron
and the Philistines
who are still_alive will die.’
This is what the Lord said.
The Lord will punish the people of Tyre
9The Lord says:
‘The people of the city of Tyre
have done a lot of sins.
That is why I will punish them.
They took the prisoners in some of the towns
and sold them to the Edomites
and those people became slaves
of the people of Edom.
The people of Tyre forgot that they
had made an agreement with those people.
10That is why I will send fire to the city of Tyre,
and its strong buildings in the city will burn down.’
The Lord will punish the Edomites
11The Lord says:
‘The people in the land of Edom
have done a lot of sins.
That is why I will punish them.
They went to war_against people
who were their family.
They did not feel sorry for their family.
They kept on killing people and they stayed angry.
12That is why I will send fire to the city of Teman,
and the strong buildings
in the city of Bozrah will burn down.’
The Lord will punish the Ammonites
13The Lord says:
‘The Ammonites have done a lot of sins.
That is why I will punish them.
They went to war to get more land
in the land of Gilead,
and they cut open pregnant women.
14That is why I will burn down
the city of Rabbah and its strong buildings.
The enemies will shout_loudly
when they attack the city.
They will go through the city like a storm wind.
15They will catch the king of the Ammonites
and his officials and take them away
to another land.’
This is what the Lord said.
