Amos 2

Contemporary English Version

Judgment on Moab

2 ^(A) The Lord said:

I will punish Moab
for countless crimes,
    and I won't change my mind.
They made lime from the bones^[a]
    of the king of Edom.
²Now I will send fire to destroy
    the fortresses of Kerioth.^[b]
Battle shouts and trumpet blasts
will be heard as I destroy Moab
³    with its king and leaders.
I, the Lord, have spoken!

Judgment on Judah

⁴The Lord said:

I will punish Judah
for countless crimes,
    and I won't change my mind.
They have rejected my teachings
    and refused to obey me.
They were led astray
by the same false gods
    their ancestors worshiped.
⁵Now I will send fire on Judah
and destroy the fortresses
    of Jerusalem.

Judgment on Israel

⁶The Lord said:

I will punish Israel
for countless crimes,
    and I won't change my mind.
They sell honest people for money,
and the needy are sold
    for the price of sandals.
⁷They smear the poor in the dirt
and push aside
    those who are helpless.

My holy name is dishonored,
because fathers and sons sleep
    with the same young women.
⁸They lie down beside altars
on clothes taken
    as security for loans.
And they drink wine in my temple,
wine bought with the money
    they received from fines.

⁹^(B) Israel, the Amorites^[c] were there
    when you entered Canaan.
They were tall as cedars
    and strong as oaks.
But I wiped them out—
I destroyed their branches
    and their roots.
¹⁰I had rescued you from Egypt,
and for forty years I had led you
    through the desert.
Then I gave you the land
    of the Amorites.

¹¹^(C) I chose some of you
to be prophets
    and others to be Nazirites.^[d]
People of Israel,
you know this is true.
    I, the Lord, have spoken!
¹²But you commanded the prophets
    not to speak their message,
and you pressured the Nazirites
    into drinking wine.

¹³And so I will crush you,
just as a wagon full of grain
    crushes the ground.^[e]
¹⁴No matter how fast you run,
    you won't escape.
No matter how strong you are,
you will lose your strength
    and your life.
¹⁵Even if you are an expert
with a bow and arrow,
    you will retreat.
And you won't get away alive,
not even if you run fast
    or ride a horse.
¹⁶You may be brave and strong,
but you will run away,
    stripped naked.
I, the Lord, have spoken!

Footnotes

2.1 They … bones: They dug up the bodies of kings and made lime out of them to use as whitewash on their houses and walls.
2.2 Kerioth: A leading city of Moab and a center for the worship of Chemosh, the chief god of Moab.
2.9 Amorites: This word is used for all the people who lived in Canaan at the time Israel took over the land.
2.11 Nazirites: People who promised the Lord that they would never drink wine or cut their hair or come in contact with a dead body.
2.13 ground: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verse 13.