Amos 2

⁴Thus says the Lord:

For three transgressions of Judah,

and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;

because they have rejected the law of the Lord,

and have not kept his statutes,

but they have been led astray by the same lies

after which their ancestors walked.

⁵So I will send a fire on Judah,

and it shall devour the strongholds of Jerusalem.

⁶Thus says the Lord:

For three transgressions of Israel,

and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;

because they sell the righteous for silver,

and the needy for a pair of sandals—

⁷they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth,

and push the afflicted out of the way;

father and son go in to the same girl,

so that my holy name is profaned;

⁸they lay themselves down beside every altar

on garments taken in pledge;

and in the house of their God they drink

wine bought with fines they imposed.

⁹Yet I destroyed the Amorite before them,

whose height was like the height of cedars,

and who was as strong as oaks;

I destroyed his fruit above,

and his roots beneath.

¹⁰Also I brought you up out of the land of Egypt,

and led you forty years in the wilderness,

to possess the land of the Amorite.

¹¹And I raised up some of your children to be prophets

and some of your youths to be nazirites.

Is it not indeed so, O people of Israel?

says the Lord.

¹²But you made the nazirites drink wine,

and commanded the prophets,

saying, “You shall not prophesy.”

¹³So, I will press you down in your place,

just as a cart presses down

when it is full of sheaves.

¹⁴Flight shall perish from the swift,

and the strong shall not retain their strength,

nor shall the mighty save their lives;

¹⁵those who handle the bow shall not stand,

and those who are swift of foot shall not save themselves,

nor shall those who ride horses save their lives;

¹⁶and those who are stout of heart among the mighty

shall flee away naked in that day,

says the Lord.