AMOS prophesied in Israel about the same time as Osee: and
was called from following the cattle to denounce GOD'S
judgments to the people of Israel, and the neighbouring
nations, for their repeated crimes, in which they continued
without repentance.
Amos Chapter 1
The prophet threatens Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, and Ammon
with the judgments of God, for their obstinacy in sin.
1:1. The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of
Thecua: which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Ozias
king of Juda, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joas
king of Israel two years before the earthquake.
The earthquake... Many understand this of a great
earthquake, which they say was felt at the time that king
Ozias attempted to offer incense in the temple. But the
best chronologists prove that the earthquake here spoken
of must have been before that time: because Jeroboam the
second, under whom Amos prophesied, was dead long before
that attempt of Ozias.
1:2. And he said: The Lord will roar from Sion, and utter
his voice from Jerusalem: and the beautiful places of the
shepherds have mourned, and the top of Carmel is withered.
1:3. Thus saith the Lord: For three crimes of Damascus, and
for four I will not convert it: because they have thrashed
Galaad with iron wains.
For three crimes-and for four... That is, for their many
unrepented of crimes.-Ibid. I will not convert it... That
is, I will not spare them, nor turn away the punishments I
design to inflict upon them.
1:4. And I will send a fire into the house of Azael, and it
shall devour the houses of Benadad.
1:5. And I will break the bar of Damascus: and I will cut
off the inhabitants from the plain of the idol, and him that
holdeth the sceptre from the house of pleasure: and the
people of Syria shall be carried away to Cyrene, saith the
Lord.
1:6. Thus saith the Lord: For three crimes of Gaza, and for
four I will not convert it: because they have carried away a
perfect captivity to shut them up in Edom.
1:7. And I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, and it
shall devour the houses thereof.
1:8. And I will cut off the inhabitant from Azotus, and him
that holdeth the sceptre from Ascalon: and I will turn my
hand against Accaron, and the rest of the Philistines shall
perish, saith the Lord God.
1:9. Thus saith the Lord: For three crimes of Tyre, and for
four I will not convert it: because they have shut up an
entire captivity in Edom, and have not remembered the
covenant of brethren.
1:10. And I will send a fire upon the wall of Tyre, and it
shall devour the houses thereof.
1:11. Thus saith the Lord: For three crimes of Edom, and for
four I will not convert him: because he hath pursued his
brother with the sword, and hath carried on his fury, and
hath kept his wrath to the end.
1:12. I will send a fire into Theman: and it shall devour
the houses of Bosra.
1:13. Thus saith the Lord: For three crimes of the children
of Ammon, and for four I will not convert him: because he
hath ripped up the women with child of Galaad to enlarge his
border.
1:14. And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabba: and it
shall devour the houses thereof with shouting in the day of
battle, and with a whirlwind in the day of trouble.
1:15. And Melchom shall go into captivity, both he, and his
princes together, saith the Lord.
Melchom... The god or idol of the Ammonites, otherwise
called Moloch, and Melech: which in Hebrew signifies a
king, and Melchom their king.
Amos Chapter 2
The judgments with which God threatens Moab, Juda, and
Israel for their sins, and their ingratitude.
2:1. Thus saith the Lord: For three crimes of Moab, and for
four I will not convert him: because he hath burnt the bones
of the king of Edom even to ashes.
2:2. And I will send a fire into Moab, and it shall devour
the houses of Carioth: and Moab shall die with a noise, with
the sound of the trumpet:
2:3. And I will cut off the judge from the midst thereof,
and will slay all his princes with him, saith the Lord.
2:4. Thus saith the Lord: For three crimes of Juda, and for
four I will not convert him: because he hath cast away the
law of the Lord, and hath not kept his commandments: for
their idols have caused them to err, after which their
fathers have walked.
2:5. And I will send a fire into Juda, and it shall devour
the houses of Jerusalem.
2:6. Thus saith the Lord: For three crimes of Israel, and
for four I will not convert him: because he hath sold the
just man for silver, and the poor man for a pair of shoes.
2:7. They bruise the heads of the poor upon the dust of the
earth, and turn aside the way of the humble: and the son and
his father have gone to the same young woman, to profane my
holy name.
2:8. And they sat down upon garments laid to pledge by every
altar: and drank the wine of the condemned in the house of
their God.
2:9. Yet I cast out the Amorrhite before their face: whose
height was like the height of cedars, and who was strong as
an oak: and I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots
beneath.
2:10. It is I that brought you up out of the land of Egypt,
and I led you forty years through the wilderness, that you
might possess the land of the Amorrhite.
2:11. And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your
young men for Nazarites. Is it not so, O ye children of
Israel, saith the Lord?
2:12. And you will present wine to the Nazarites: and
command the prophets, saying: Prophesy not.
2:13. Behold, I will screak under you as a wain screaketh
that is laden with hay.
I will screak... Unable to bear any longer the enormous
load of your sins, etc. The spirit of God, as St. Jerome
takes notice, accommodates himself to the education of the
prophet and inspires him with comparisons taken from
country affairs.
2:14. And flight shall perish from the swift, and the
valiant shall not possess his strength, neither shall the
strong save his life.
2:15. And he that holdeth the bow shall not stand, and the
swift of foot shall not escape, neither shall the rider of
the horse save his life.
2:16. And the stout of heart among the valiant shall flee
away naked in that day, saith the Lord.
Amos Chapter 3
The evils that shall fall upon Israel for their sins.
3:1. Hear the word that the Lord hath spoken concerning you,
O ye children of Israel: concerning the whole family that I
brought up out of the land of Egypt, saying:
3:2. You only have I known of all the families of the earth:
therefore will I visit upon you all your iniquities.
Visit upon... That is, punish.
3:3. Shall two walk together except they be agreed?
3:4. Will a lion roar in the forest, if he have no prey?
will the lion's whelp cry out of his den, if he have taken
nothing?
3:5. Will the bird fall into the snare upon the earth, if
there be no fowler? Shall the snare be taken up from the
earth, before it hath taken somewhat?
3:6. Shall the trumpet sound in a city, and the people not
be afraid? Shall there be evil in a city, which the Lord
hath not done?
Evil in a city... He speaks of the evil of punishments of
war, famine, pestilence, desolation, etc., but not of the
evil of sin, of which God is not the author.
3:7. For the Lord God doth nothing without revealing his
secret to his servants the prophets.
3:8. The lion shall roar, who will not fear? The Lord God
hath spoken, who shall not prophesy?
3:9. Publish it in the houses of Azotus, and in the houses
of the land of Egypt, and say: Assemble yourselves upon the
mountains of Samaria, and behold the many follies in the
midst thereof, and them that suffer oppression in the inner
rooms thereof.
3:10. And they have not known to do the right thing, saith
the Lord, storing up iniquity, and robberies in their
houses.
3:11. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: The land shall be
in tribulation, and shall be compassed about: and thy
strength shall be taken away from thee, and thy houses shall
be spoiled.
3:12. Thus saith the Lord: As if a shepherd should get out
of the lion's mouth two legs, or the tip of the ear: so
shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in
Samaria, in a place of a bed, and in the couch of Damascus.
3:13. Hear ye, and testify in the house of Jacob, saith the
Lord the God of hosts:
3:14. That in the day when I shall begin to visit the
transgressions of Israel, I will visit upon him, and upon
the altars of Bethel: and the horns of the altars shall be
cut off, and shall fall to the ground.
3:15. And I will strike the winter house with the summer
house: and the houses of ivory shall perish, and many houses
shall be destroyed, saith the Lord.
Amos Chapter 4
The Israelites are reproved for their oppressing the poor,
for their idolatry, and their incorrigibleness.
4:1. Hear this word, ye fat kine that are in the mountains
of Samaria: you that oppress the needy, and crush the poor:
that say to your masters: Bring, and we will drink.
Fat kine... He means the great ones that lived in plenty
and wealth.
4:2. The Lord God hath sworn by his holiness, that lo, the
days shall come upon you, when they shall lift you up on
pikes, and what shall remain of you in boiling pots.
4:3. And you shall go out at the breaches one over against
the other, and you shall be cast forth into Armon, saith the
Lord.
Armon... A foreign country; some understand it of
Armenia.
4:4. Come ye to Bethel, and do wickedly: to Galgal, and
multiply transgressions: and bring in the morning your
victims, your tithes in three days.
4:5. And offer a sacrifice of praise with leaven: and call
free offerings, and proclaim it: for so you would do, O
children of Israel, saith the Lord God.
4:6. Whereupon I also have given you dulness of teeth in all
your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet you
have not returned to me, saith the Lord.
4:7. I also have withholden the rain from you, when there
were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to
rain upon on city, and caused it not to rain upon another
city: one piece was rained upon: and the piece whereupon I
rained not, withered.
4:8. And two and three cities went to one city to drink
water, and were not filled: yet you returned not to me,
saith the Lord.
4:9. I struck you with a burning wind, and with mildew, the
palmerworm hath eaten up your many gardens, and your
vineyards: your olive groves, and fig groves: yet you
returned not to me, saith the Lord.
4:10. I sent death upon you in the way of Egypt, I slew your
young men with the sword, even to the captivity of your
horses: and I made the stench of your camp to come up into
your nostrils: yet you returned not to me, saith the Lord.
4:11. I destroyed some of you, as God destroyed Sodom and
Gomorrha, and you were as a firebrand plucked out of the
burning: yet you returned not to me, saith the Lord.
4:12. Therefore I will do these things to thee, O Israel:
and after I shall have done these things to thee, be
prepared to meet thy God, O Israel.
4:13. For behold he that formeth the mountains and createth
the wind, and declareth his word to man, he that maketh the
morning mist, and walketh upon the high places of the earth:
the Lord the God of hosts is his name.
Amos Chapter 5
A lamentation for Israel: an exhortation to return to God.
5:1. Hear ye this word, which I take up concerning you for a
lamentation. The house of Israel is fallen, and it shall
rise no more.
5:2. The virgin of Israel is cast down upon her land, there
is none to raise her up.
5:3. For thus saith the Lord God: The city, out of which
came forth a thousand, there shall be left in it a hundred:
and out of which there came a hundred, there shall be left
in it ten, in the house of Israel.
5:4. For thus saith the Lord to the house of Israel: Seek ye
me, and you shall live.
5:5. But seek not Bethel, and go not into Galgal, neither
shall you pass over to Bersabee: for Galgal shall go into
captivity, and Bethel shall be unprofitable.
Bethel,-Galgal,-Bersabee... The places where they
worshipped their idols.
5:6. Seek ye the Lord, and live: lest the house of Joseph be
burnt with fire, and it shall devour, and there shall be
none to quench Bethel.
5:7. You that turn judgment into wormwood, and forsake
justice in the land,
5:8. Seek him that maketh Arcturus, and Orion, and that
turneth darkness into morning, and that changeth day into
night: that calleth the waters of the sea, and poureth them
out upon the face of the earth: The Lord is his name.
Arcturus and Orion... Arcturus is a bright star in the
north: Orion a beautiful constellation in the south.
5:9. He that with a smile bringeth destruction upon the
strong, and waste upon the mighty.
With a smile... That is, with all ease, and without making
any effort.
5:10. They have hated him that rebuketh in the gate: and
have abhorred him that speaketh perfectly.
5:11. Therefore because you robbed the poor, and took the
choice prey from him: you shall build houses with square
stone, and shall not dwell in them: you shall plant most
delightful vineyards, and shall not drink the wine of them.
5:12. Because I know your manifold crimes, and your grievous
sins: enemies of the just, taking bribes, and oppressing the
poor in the gate.
5:13. Therefore the prudent shall keep silence at that time,
for it is an evil time.
5:14. Seek ye good, and not evil, that you may live: and the
Lord the God of hosts will be with you, as you have said.
5:15. Hate evil, and love good, and establish judgment in
the gate: it may be the Lord the God of hosts may have mercy
on the remnant of Joseph.
5:16. Therefore thus saith the Lord the God of hosts the
sovereign Lord: In every street there shall be wailing: and
in all places that are without, they shall say: Alas, alas!
and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as
are skilful in lamentation to lament.
5:17. And in all vineyards there shall be wailing: because I
will pass through in the midst of thee, saith the Lord.
5:18. Woe to them that desire the day of the Lord: to what
end is it for you? the day of the Lord is darkness, and not
light.
5:19. As if a man should flee from the face of a lion, and a
bear should meet him: or enter into the house, and lean with
his hand upon the wall, and a serpent should bite him.
5:20. Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not
light: and obscurity, and no brightness in it?
5:21. I hate, and have rejected your festivities: and I will
not receive the odour of your assemblies.
5:22. And if you offer me holocausts, and your gifts, I will
not receive them: neither will I regard the vows of your fat
beasts.
5:23. Take away from me the tumult of thy songs: and I will
not hear the canticles of thy harp.
5:24. But judgment shall be revealed as water, and justice
as a mighty torrent.
5:25. Did you offer victims and sacrifices to me in the
desert for forty years, O house of Israel?
Did you offer, etc... Except the sacrifices that were
offered at the first, in the dedication of the tabernacle,
the Israelites offered no sacrifices in the desert.
5:26.But you carried a tabernacle for your Moloch, and the
image of your idols, the star of your god, which you made to
yourselves.
A tabernacle, etc... All this alludes to the idolatry
which they committed, when they were drawn away by the
daughters of Moab to the worship of their gods. Num. 25.
5:27. And I will cause you to go into captivity beyond
Damascus, saith the Lord, the God of hosts is his name.
Amos Chapter 6
The desolation of Israel for their pride and luxury.
6:1. Woe to you that are wealthy in Sion, and to you that
have confidence in the mountain of Samaria: ye great men,
heads of the people, that go in with state into the house of
Israel.
6:2. Pass ye over to Chalane, and see, and go from thence
into Emath the great: and go down into Geth of the
Philistines, and to all the best kingdoms of these: if their
border be larger than your border.
6:3. You that are separated unto the evil day: and that
approach to the throne of iniquity;
6:4. You that sleep upon beds of ivory, and are wanton on
your couches: that eat the lambs out of the flock, and the
calves out of the midst of the herd;
6:5. You that sing to the sound of the psaltery: they have
thought themselves to have instruments of music like David;
6:6. That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with
the best ointments: and they are not concerned for the
affliction of Joseph.
6:7. Wherefore now they shall go captive at the head of them
that go into captivity: and the faction of the luxurious
ones shall be taken away.
6:8. The Lord God hath sworn by his own soul, saith the Lord
the God of hosts: I detest the pride of Jacob, and I hate
his houses, and I will deliver up the city with the
inhabitants thereof.
6:9. And if there remain ten men in one house, they also
shall die.
6:10. And a man's kinsman shall take him up, and shall burn
him, that he may carry the bones out of the house; and he
shall say to him that is in the inner rooms of the house: Is
there yet any with thee?
6:11. And he shall answer: There is an end. And he shall say
to him: Hold thy peace, and mention not the name of the
Lord.
6:12. For behold the Lord hath commanded, and he will strike
the greater house with breaches, and the lesser house with
clefts.
6:13. Can horses run upon the rocks, or can any one plough
with buffles? for you have turned judgment into bitterness,
and the fruit of justice into wormwood.
6:14. You that rejoice in a thing of nought: you that say:
Have we not taken unto us horns by our own strength?
6:15. But behold, I will raise up a nation against you, O
house of Israel, saith the Lord the God of hosts; and they
shall destroy you from the entrance of Emath, even to the
torrent of the desert.
Amos Chapter 7
The prophet sees, in three visions, evils coming upon
Israel: he is accused of treason by the false priest of
Bethel.
7:1. These things the Lord God shewed to me: and behold the
locust was formed in the beginning of the shooting up of the
latter rain, and lo, it was the latter rain after the king's
mowing.
The locust, etc... These judgments by locusts and fire,
which, by the prophet's intercession, were moderated,
signify the former invasions of the Assyrians under Phul
and Theglathphalasar, before the utter desolation of
Israel by Salmanasar.
7:2. And it came to pass, that when they had made an end of
eating the grass of the land, I said: O Lord God, be
merciful, I beseech thee: who shall raise up Jacob, for he
is very little?
7:3. The Lord had pity upon this: It shall not be, said the
Lord.
7:4. These things the Lord God shewed to me: and behold the
Lord called for judgment unto fire, and it devoured the
great deep, and ate up a part at the same time.
7:5. And I said: O Lord God, cease, I beseech thee, who
shall raise up Jacob, for he is a little one?
7:6. The Lord had pity upon this. Yea this also shall not
be, said the Lord God.
7:7. These things the Lord shewed to me: and behold the Lord
was standing upon a plastered wall, and in his hand a
mason's trowel.
7:8. And the Lord said to me: What seest thou, Amos? And I
said: A mason's trowel. And the Lord said: Behold, I will
lay down the trowel in the midst of my people Israel. I will
plaster them over no more.
7:9. And the high places of the idol shall be thrown down,
and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste: and I
will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.
7:10. And Amasias the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king
of Israel, saying: Amos hath rebelled against thee in the
midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear
all his words.
7:11. For thus saith Amos: Jeroboam shall die by the sword,
and Israel shall be carried away captive out of their own
land.
Jeroboam shall die by the sword... The prophet did not say
this; but that the Lord would rise up against the house of
Jeroboam with the sword: which was verified, when
Zacharias, the son and successor of Jeroboam, was slain by
the sword. 4 Kings 15.10.
7:12. And Amasias said to Amos: Thou seer, go, flee away
into the land of Juda: and eat bread there, and prophesy
there.
7:13. But prophesy not again any more in Bethel: because it
is the king's sanctuary, and it is the house of the kingdom.
7:14. And Amos answered and said to Amasias: I am not a
prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet: but I am a herdsman
plucking wild figs.
I am not a prophet... That is, I am not a prophet by
education: nor is prophesying my calling or profession:
but I am a herdsman, whom God was pleased to send hither
to prophesy to Israel.
7:15. And the Lord took me when I followed the flock, and
the Lord said to me: Go, prophesy to my people Israel.
7:16. And now hear thou the word of the Lord: Thou sayest,
thou shalt not prophesy against Israel, and thou shalt not
drop thy word upon the house of the idol.
The house of the idol... Viz., of the calf worshipped in
Bethel.
7:17. Therefore thus saith the Lord: Thy wife shall play the
harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall
fall by the sword, and thy land shall be measured by a line:
and thou shalt die in a polluted land, and Israel shall go
into captivity out of their land.
Amos Chapter 8
Under the figure of a hook, which bringeth down the fruit,
the approaching desolation of Israel is foreshewed for their
avarice and injustices.
8:1. These things the Lord shewed to me: and behold a hook
to draw down the fruit.
8:2. And he said: What seest thou, Amos? And I said: A hook
to draw down fruit. And the Lord said to me: The end is come
upon my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any
more.
8:3. And the hinges of the temple shall screak in that day,
saith the Lord God: many shall die: silence shall be cast in
every place.
8:4. Hear this, you that crush the poor, and make the needy
of the land to fail,
8:5. Saying: When will the month be over, and we shall sell
our wares: and the sabbath, and we shall open the corn: that
we may lessen the measure, and increase the sicle, and may
convey in deceitful balances,
8:6. That we may possess the needy for money, and the poor
for a pair of shoes, and may sell the refuse of the corn?
8:7. The Lord hath sworn against the pride of Jacob: surely
I will never forget all their works.
8:8. Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one
mourn that dwelleth therein: and rise up altogether as a
river, and be cast out, and run down as the river of Egypt?
8:9. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord
God, that the sun shall go down at midday, and I will make
the earth dark in the day of light:
8:10. And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all
your songs into lamentation: and I will bring up sackcloth
upon every back of yours, and baldness upon every head: and
I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the
latter end thereof as a bitter day.
8:11. Behold the days come, saith the Lord, and I will send
forth a famine into the land: not a famine of bread, nor a
thirst of water, but of hearing the word of the Lord.
8:12. And they shall move from sea to sea, and from the
north to the east: they shall go about seeking the word of
the Lord, and shall not find it.
8:13. In that day the fair virgins, and the young men shall
faint for thirst.
8:14. They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say: Thy
God, O Dan, liveth: and the way of Bersabee liveth: and they
shall fall, and shall rise no more.
Amos Chapter 9
The certainty of the desolation of Israel: the restoring of
the tabernacle of David, and the conversion of the Gentiles
to the church; which shall flourish for ever.
9:1. I saw the Lord standing upon the altar, and he said:
Strike the hinges, and let the lintels be shook: for there
is covetousness in the head of them all, and I will slay the
last of them with the sword: there shall be no flight for
them: they shall flee, and he that shall flee of them shall
not be delivered.
9:2. Though they go down even to hell, thence shall my hand
bring them out: and though they climb up to heaven, thence
will I bring them down.
9:3. And though they be hid in the top of Carmel, I will
search and take them away from thence: and though they hide
themselves from my eyes in the depth of the sea, there will
I command the serpent and he shall bite them.
9:4. And if they go into captivity before their enemies,
there will I command the sword, and it shall kill them. And
I will set my eyes upon them for evil, and not for good.
9:5. And the Lord the God of hosts is he who toucheth the
earth, and it shall melt: and all that dwell therein shall
mourn: and it shall rise up as a river, and shall run down
as the river of Egypt.
9:6. He that buildeth his ascension in heaven, and hath
founded his bundle upon the earth: who calleth the waters of
the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth,
the Lord is his name.
His ascension... That is, his high throne.-Ibid. His
bundle... That is, his church bound up together by the
bands of one faith and communion.
9:7. Are not you as the children of the Ethiopians unto me,
O children of Israel, saith the Lord? did not I bring up
Israel, out of the land of Egypt: and the Philistines out of
Cappadocia, and the Syrians out of Cyrene?
As the children of the Ethiopians... That is, as black as
they, by your iniquities.
9:8. Behold the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful
kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth:
but yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith
the Lord.
9:9. For behold I will command, and I will sift the house of
Israel among all nations, as corn is sifted in a sleve: and
there shall not a little stone fall to the ground.
9:10. All the sinners of my people shall fall by the sword:
who say: The evils shall not approach, and shall not come
upon us.
9:11. In that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David,
that is fallen: and I will close up the breaches of the
walls thereof, and repair what was fallen: and I will
rebuild it as in the days of old.
9:12. That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and all
nations, because my name is invoked upon them: saith the
Lord that doth these things.
9:13. Behold the days come, saith the Lord, when the
ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of
grapes him that soweth seed: and the mountains shall drop
sweetness, and every hill shall be tilled.
Shall overtake, etc... By this is meant the great
abundance of spiritual blessings; which, as it were, by a
constant succession, shall enrich the church of Christ.
9:14. And I will bring back the captivity of my people
Israel: and they shall build the abandoned cities, and
inhabit them: and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the
wine of them: and shall make gardens, and eat the fruits of
them. And I will plant them upon their own land: and I will
no more pluck them out of their land which I have given
them, saith the Lord thy God.
The text in this file was taken with permission from Catholic Software's Douay Bible program, a complete multimedia Bible for the PC. The complete product description follows:
Douay Bible ME: A multimedia Bible. Text and footnotes are from the 1899 version of the Douay-Rheims Bible. Supports unlimited cut and paste as well as searches. It also has a concordance, topical index, and maps. These features make it powerful and easy to use. Music and color photography make it a visual and auditory feast. However, if your computer doesn't support multimedia, you can suppress these features at installation time. Available for DOS, Windows, or Windows 95. $85.00. Order from: Catholic Software, P.O. Box 1914, Murray, KY 42071. Phone: 1-502-753-8198.
