BOOK OF AMOS - CHAPTER 8
A Basket of Ripe Fruit
In this short chapter, notice that God continues showing Amos object lessons. The last chapter contained locusts, fire, and a plumb line. God showed Amos a plumb line and asked him what he saw. In this chapter, He showed Amos a basket of ripe fruit. That indicated the time was ripe for Israel's "the day of the Lord."
1 This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: a basket of ripe fruit. 2 “What do you see, Amos?” he asked.
“A basket of ripe fruit,” I answered.
Then the Lord said to me, “The time is ripe for my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.
3 “In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “the songs in the temple will turn to wailing. Many, many bodies—flung everywhere! Silence!”
COMMENTARY
VERSES 1-3
Amos now has a fourth picture from God. It is a very ordinary picture. Workers put the fruit in baskets like this at harvest time.
God asks Amos a clear question. God does not want to wait. His mercy has come to an end. Amaziah warned Amos not to prophesy against Israel. But nothing can stop Amos.
The people always thanked God for their harvest. However, there would now be no more songs of thanks at harvest. Instead, there would be sad songs. People would not laugh. Instead, they would weep. There would be a still sad silence. It would be the silence of death.
4 Hear this, you who trample the needy
and do away with the poor of the land,
5 saying,
“When will the New Moon be over
that we may sell grain,
and the Sabbath be ended
that we may market wheat?”—
skimping on the measure,
boosting the price
and cheating with dishonest scales,
6 buying the poor with silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals,
selling even the sweepings with the wheat.
COMMENTARY
VERSE 4
In this short verse, there were two groups of people: the poor and those who trampled on the poor.
VERSE 5
This verse describes the rich people who knew that they had to keep the Sabbath, the New Moon, and religious holidays. They hated waiting for the Sabbath to end. They were in a hurry to start selling and making money again. The people in the towns needed to buy food. So the merchants took advantage of this. They were not honest when they weighed the food on sale. They gave the poor people less food than they had paid for.
VERSE 6
God hated the way that people became slaves. He hated the way that merchants bought slaves. They were buying slaves at low prices. They were using the same money that the poor people gave them. The poor people were desperate for food. So, the people who were selling wheat mixed it with rubbish. They would sell anything if they could get more money.
7 The Lord has sworn by himself, the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget anything they have done.
8 “Will not the land tremble for this,
and all who live in it mourn?
The whole land will rise like the Nile;
it will be stirred up and then sink
like the river of Egypt.
COMMENTARY
VERSE 8
Amos said there would be an earthquake, and the whole land shakes and buildings fall down. Israel will become a place of death. Water filled the whole valley and the result was much good soil.
9 “In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord,
“I will make the sun go down at noon
and darken the earth in broad daylight.
10 I will turn your religious festivals into mourning
and all your singing into weeping.
I will make all of you wear sackcloth
and shave your heads.
I will make that time like mourning for an only son
and the end of it like a bitter day.
11 “The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord,
“when I will send a famine through the land—
not a famine of food or a thirst for water,
but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.
12 People will stagger from sea to sea
and wander from north to east,
searching for the word of the Lord,
but they will not find it.
13 “In that day
“the lovely young women and strong young men
will faint because of thirst.
14 Those who swear by the sin of Samaria—
who say, ‘As surely as your god lives, Dan,’
or, ‘As surely as the god of Beersheba lives’—
they will fall, never to rise again.”
COMMENTARY
VERSE 9
These are events that will happen in the future. God will bring sudden darkness.
VERSE 10
The joy of Israel will come to an end. The holidays of the Israelites were special days when they celebrated with food and singing. But there would be no more of those happy days. People would cry instead of laughing. They would have to wear clothes made out of cheap rough cloth.
In the time of Amos, if a son died, the family name came to an end.
VERSES 11-12
There would be a famine of a different kind. People would not be able to hear God speak through a prophet. No matter where people walked, they would not find the word of God. This situation would only last until God's anger was over.
VERSE 13
Two things would happen. The people would have little to drink, and they would also know little of God.
VERSE 14
Israel has made promises to gods instead of to the Sovereign Lord. Israel worshiped the gold bull at Bethel, the Baal-Asherah idol at the city of Samaria, idols at Dan and Beersheba.
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