עמוס ב

Thus said GOD:
For three transgressions of Moab,
For four, I will not revoke the decree:
Because he burned the bones
Of the king of Edom to lime.

I will send down fire upon Moab,
And it shall devour the fortresses of Kerioth.
And Moab shall die in tumult,
Amid shouting and the blare of horns;

I will wipe out the ruler from within her
And slay all her officials along with him
—said GOD.

Thus said GOD:
For three transgressions of Judah,
For four, I will not revoke the decree:
Because they have spurned the Teaching of GOD
And have not observed divine laws;
They are beguiled by the delusions
After which their ancestors walked.

I will send down fire upon Judah,
And it shall devour the fortresses of Jerusalem.

Thus said GOD:
For three transgressions of Israel,
For four, I will not revoke the decree:
Because they have sold for silver
Those whose cause was just,
And the needy for a pair of sandals.

[Ah,] you who trample the heads of the poor
Into the dust of the ground,
And make the humble walk a twisted course! as equivalent to shaphim. Emendation yields: “Who crush on the ground / The heads of the poor, / And push off the road / The humble of the land”; cf. Job 24.4.
Father and son go to the same woman,
And thereby profane My holy name.

They recline by every altar
On garments taken in pledge,
And drink in the House of their God
Wine bought with fines they imposed.

Yet I
Destroyed the Amorite before them,
Whose stature was like the cedar’s
And who was stout as the oak,
Destroying his boughs above
And his trunk below!

And I
Brought you up from the land of Egypt
And led you through the wilderness forty years,
To possess the land of the Amorite!

And I raised up prophets from among your sons
And nazirites from among your young men.
Is that not so, O people of Israel?
—says GOD.

But you made the nazirites drink wine
And ordered the prophets not to prophesy.

Ah, I will slow your movements
As a wagon is slowed
When it is full of cut grain.

Flight shall fail the swift,
The strong shall find no strength,
And the warrior shall not save his life.

The archer shall not hold his ground,
And the fleet-footed shall not escape,
Nor the horseman save his life.

Even the most stouthearted warrior
Shall run away unarmed that day
—declares GOD.