Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, that oppress the poor, that crush the needy, that say unto their lords, Bring, and let us drink.
The Lord Jehovah hath sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that they shall take you away with hooks, and your residue with fish-hooks.
And ye shall go out at the breaches, every one straight before her; {The text is obscure.}and ye shall cast yourselves into Harmon, saith Jehovah.
Come to Beth-el, and transgress; to Gilgal, and multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes every three days;
and {Hebrew: offer by burning.}offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened, and proclaim freewill-offerings and publish them: for this pleaseth you, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord Jehovah.
And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places; yet have ye not returned unto me, saith Jehovah.
And I also have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest; and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered.
So two or three cities wandered unto one city to drink water, and were not satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith Jehovah.
I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: the multitude of your gardens and your vineyards and your fig-trees and your olive-trees hath the palmer-worm devoured: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith Jehovah.
I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, {Hebrew: with the captivity of your horses.}and have carried away your horses; and I have made the stench of your camp to come up even into your nostrils: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith Jehovah.
I have overthrown cities among you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a brand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith Jehovah.
Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel; and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.
For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought; that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth— Jehovah, the God of hosts, is his name.
Querverweise zu Amos 4,7 Amos 4,7
And if ye will not yet for these things hearken unto me, then I will chastise you seven times more for your sins.
And I will break the pride of your power: and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass;
and your strength shall be spent in vain; for your land shall not yield its increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruit.
And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me, I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins.
Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in Jehovah your God; for he giveth you the former rain {Or in (or, for) righteousness}in just measure, and he causeth to come down for you the rain, the former rain and the latter rain, {Or, at the first}in the first month.
And I will set apart in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there; to the end thou mayest know that I am Jehovah in the midst of the earth.
The field is laid waste, the land mourneth; for the grain is destroyed, the new wine is {Or, ashamed}dried up, the oil languisheth.
{Or, The husbandmen are confounded, the vinedressers wail}Be confounded, O ye husbandmen, wail, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; for the harvest of the field is perished.
The vine is {Or, ashamed}withered, and the fig-tree languisheth; the pomegranate-tree, the palm-tree also, and the apple-tree, even all the trees of the field are withered: for joy is {Or, ashamed}withered away from the sons of men.
Gird yourselves with sackcloth, and lament, ye priests; wail, ye ministers of the altar; come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meal-offering and the drink-offering are withholden from the house of your God.
Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the {Or, elders}old men and all the inhabitants of the land unto the house of Jehovah your God, and cry unto Jehovah.
Alas for the day! for the day of Jehovah is at hand, and as destruction from {Hebrew: Shaddai.}the Almighty shall it come.
Is not the food cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God?
The seeds {Or, shrivel}rot under their clods; the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the grain is withered.
How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep {Or, suffer punishment}are made desolate.
And if by these things ye will not be reformed {Or, by}unto me, but will walk contrary unto me;
Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh the harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, that they are {Or, white unto harvest. Already he that reapeth &c.}white already unto harvest.
And Jehovah shall make a distinction between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt; and there shall nothing die of all that belongeth to the children of Israel.
then will I also walk contrary unto you; and I will smite you, even I, seven times for your sins.
Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail.
And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me;
they saw not one another, neither rose any one from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.
then I will walk contrary unto you in wrath; and I also will chastise you seven times for your sins.
behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing-floor; if there be dew on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the ground, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by my hand, as thou hast spoken.
And it was so; for he rose up early on the morrow, and pressed the fleece together, and wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowlful of water.
And Gideon said unto God, Let not thine anger be kindled against me, and I will speak but this once: let me make trial, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew.
And God did so that night: for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground.
And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron.
For who maketh thee to differ? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? but if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it?
Jehovah will make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed.
When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, {Or, because}when thou {Or, answerest}dost afflict them:
then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, {Or, because}when thou teachest them the good way wherein they should walk; and send rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance.
If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people;
if my people, {Hebrew: upon whom my name is called.}who are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
and I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned nor hoed; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; yet thou hast a harlot's forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed.
Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear Jehovah our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in its season; that preserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.
Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good from you.
Because of the ground which is {Or, dismayed}cracked, for that no rain hath been in the land, the plowmen are put to shame, they cover their heads.
Are there any among the vanities of the nations that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not thou he, O Jehovah our God? therefore we will wait for thee; for thou hast {Or, done}made all these things.
Therefore {Or, over you}for your sake the heavens withhold the dew, and the earth withholdeth its fruit.
And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the grain, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labor of the hands.
And it shall be, that whoso of all the families of the earth goeth not up unto Jerusalem to worship the King, Jehovah of hosts, upon them there shall be no rain.
Elijah was a man of like {Or, nature}passions with us, and he prayed {Greek: with prayer.}fervently that it might not rain; and it rained not on the earth for three years and six months.
These have the power to shut the heaven, that it rain not during the days of their prophecy: and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with every plague, as often as they shall desire.