1 Thus hath the Lord 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.
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.
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 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.
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:
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.
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.
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 Beersheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.
<html><b>a basket of late figs</b> Heb. כְּלוּב. A basket full of late figs, which are not good</html>
<html><b>And the songs of the temple</b>—which they sing within their temples at their banquets. <b>corpses shall increase</b>—The corpses of the slain shall increase. [from <i>Jonathan</i>] <b>everywhere “Cast away, remove!”</b>—Everywhere one will say, “Cast away, remove!” Cast away from here, remove these corpses from here. [from <i>Jonathan</i>]</html>
<html><b>you who swallow up</b> Heb. הַשֹׁאֲפִים, who swallow up the needy. <b>and to cut off</b> Heb. וְלַשְׁבִּית, like וּלְהַשְׁבִּית. And examples [of this are found in Isaiah 23:11:] “To destroy (לַשְׁמִד) its strongholds.” (II Kings 9:15) “To go and tell (לַגִיד) in Jezreel.”</html>
<html><b>Saying, “When will the month be delayed”</b>—This is the swallowing up. They anticipate the time that the grain will be expensive and will be sold to the poor with interest, and they will take their fields. <b>the month be delayed</b> Heb. יַעֲבֹר. <i>Jonathan</i> renders: When will the year be interpolated and [when] will the month of interpolation come? This is an expression of delay, like (Jer. 46:17) “Has allowed the appointed time to pass by (הֶעֱבִיר).” And because they delay the offering up of the Omer, and the year is extended, and the old grain becomes expensive. <b>and the Sabbatical Year, so that we will open grain</b>—When will the Sabbatical Year come, and the grain will become expensive, and we will open our storehouses of grain. <b>to make the ephah smaller</b> To sell for a smaller measure, and our money we will receive with a large shekel.</html>
<html><b>in order to inherit them</b> Heb. בַּעֲבוּר נַעֲלָיִם. [from <i>Jonathan</i>] <b>and the refuse of the corn we will sell</b>—[<i>Jonathan</i> renders:] And the sweepings of the grains we will sell. The refuse that fell from the wheat into the sieve, to sell at high prices to the poor.</html>
<html><b>Shall the land not quake for this</b>—Is this iniquity not serious enough that the land be destroyed because of it? <b>Yea, it shall rise up wholly like the rain cloud</b> Heb. כָּאֹר. And in another place (9:5), Scripture says: “And it shall come up wholly like the river (כַיְאֹר),” and <i>Jonathan</i> renders them both identically: And a king shall rise upon it with his camp as numerous as the waters of the river, and cover it completely. To me, it seems difficult to define כָאֹר like כַיְאֹר. It can, however be explained like: (Job 36:32) “On the clouds, the rain (אוֹר) is covered. (Job 37:11)” He scatters his rain cloud (אוֹרוֹ) .” And it shall go up wholly like a rain cloud, pitch darkness. <b>and it shall overflow and sink like the river of Egypt</b>—The Nile overflows once in forty years and waters the land, and when it overflows, it brings up mud and dirt on its banks, and when it returns from watering, it returns over its banks and its water sinks. And that is called sinking, for the dirt that makes the water murky, settles. <b>and it shall cast up</b> Heb. וְנִגְרְשָׁה, Like (Isa. 57:20) “And its waters cast up (וַ ִיּגְרְשׁוּ) mud and dirt.” Also the land will spew out the wicked in its midst, and afterwards it will rest.</html>
<html><b>I will cause the sun to set at midday</b>—When there will be exceeding tranquility, a sudden downfall will come and our Rabbis said: This refers to the day of Josiah who died by the “peaceful sword” as our Rabbis said: There was no more peaceful sword than Pharaoh-Neco who said to Josiah, (II Chron. 35:21) “What do I have to do with you, O king of Judah; not upon you yourself today.” Not upon you do I come today, but to pass through your land “to the house against which I wage war etc.” [from <i>Mo’ed Katan</i>, <i>Ta’anith</i> 22a] <b>the sun</b>—The kingdom of the house of David is compared to the sun, as it is said: (Psalms 89:37) “And his throne is like the sun opposite Me.”</html>
<html><b>And I will turn your festivals into mourning</b>—as the matter is stated: (II Chron 35:24) “And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.” <b>and all your songs into lamentation</b>—as the matter is stated: (ibid. verse 25) “And all the singing men and singing women spoke in their lamentations.” <b>like the mourning for an only son</b>—Like a father who mourns over an only son.</html>
<html><b>but to hear</b>—for the holy spirit shall terminate from them.</html>
<html><b>shall faint</b> Heb. תִּתְעַלַּפְנָה. Their spirit shall fly out. Cf. (Jonah 4:8) “And he fainted (וַיִּתְעַלָּף).” And so, (Ezekiel 31:15) “The trees of the field fainted (עֻלְפֶּה) for him.” And so in the language of the Mishnah (<i>Chullin</i> 3b): “He may faint (נִתְעַלְּפָה),” pasmer, (pamer) in French. [from <i>Dunash</i> p.84]</html>
<html><b>“As your god lives, O Dan,”</b>—One of the calves that Jeroboam erected in Dan.</html>