The Skeptics Annotated Bible (693 page)

(8.1-2) God shows Amos a basket of summer fruit and tells him that the end has come.

8
Thus hath the Lord
GOD shewed unto me: and behold a basket of summer fruit.

(8.1) “God shewed unto me: and behold a basket of summer fruit.”

2 And
he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the LORD unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.

(8.2a) “He said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit.”

(8.2b) “Then said the LORD unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.”

3 And
the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord GOD: there shall be many dead bodies in every place
; they shall cast them forth with silence.

(8.3) “The songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord GOD: there shall be many dead bodies in every place.”

4 Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail,

5 Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?

6 That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat?

7
The LORD hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob
, Surely I will never forget any of their works.

(8.7) “The LORD hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob.”

(8.8-9)

8
Shall not the land tremble for this,
and every one mourn that dwelleth therein? and it shall rise up wholly as a flood; and it shall be cast out and drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.

(8.8) “Shall not the land tremble for this?” (Earthquakes are a punishment from God.)

9 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord GOD, that
I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day:

(8.9) “I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day.”

10 And
I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs 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 thereof as a bitter day.

(8.10) “I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs 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 thereof as a bitter day.”

11 Behold,
the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:

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 the LORD, and shall not find it.

(8.11-12) “The days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD … They shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.” (Someday people will actually want to read the Bible.)

(8.13-14)

13
In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.

(8.13) “In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.”

14 They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beer-sheba liveth; even
they shall fall, and never rise up again.

(8.14) “They shall fall, and never rise up again.”

(9.1-4) Amos sees God standing on the altar. God tells Amos that he will “cut them in the head” and “slay the last of them with the sword.” Any that try to escape by diving to the bottom of the sea will be bitten, at God’s command, by a sea-serpent. God will set his “eyes upon them for evil, not for good.”