うみねこのしま

CHAPTER7

1This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: He was preparing swarms of locusts after the king’s share had been harvested and just as the late crops were coming up.

2 When they had stripped the land clean, I cried out, “Sovereign Lord, forgive! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!”

3 So the Lord relented.“This will not happen,” the Lord said.

4 This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: The Sovereign Lord was calling for judgment by fire; it dried up the great deep and devoured the land.

5 Then I cried out, “Sovereign Lord, I beg you, stop! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!”

6 So the Lord relented.“This will not happen either,”
the Sovereign Lord said.

7 This is what he showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb,with a plumb line in his hand.

8 And the Lord asked me, “What do you see, Amos?”“A plumb line,” I replied. Then the Lord said, “Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.

9 “The high places of Isaac will be destroyed and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined;
    with my sword I will rise against the house of Jeroboam.”

10 Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent a message to Jeroboam king of Israel: “Amos is raising a conspiracy against you in the very heart of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words.

11 For this is what Amos is saying:

“‘Jeroboam will die by the sword,
     and Israel will surely go into exile,
     away from their native land.’”

12 Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there.

13 Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom.”

14 Amos answered Amaziah, “I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees.

15 But the Lord took me from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ 16 Now then, hear the word of the Lord. You say,

“‘Do not prophesy against Israel,
     and stop preaching against the descendants of Isaac.’

17 “Therefore this is what the Lord says:

“‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the city,
     and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword.
    Your land will be measured and divided up,
     and you yourself will die in a pagan country.
    And Israel will surely go into exile,
     away from their native land.’”

CHAPTER6

1Woe to you who are complacent in Zion,and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria,you notable men of the foremost nation,to whom the people of Israel come!

2 Go to Kalneh and look at it;go from there to great Hamath,and then go down to Gath in Philistia. Are they better off than your two kingdoms? Is their land larger than yours?

3 You put off the day of disaster and bring near a reign of terror.

4 You lie on beds adorned with ivory and lounge on your couches.You dine on choice lambs and fattened calves.

5 You strum away on your harps like David and improvise on musical instruments.

6 You drink wine by the bowlful and use the finest lotions,but you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph.

7 Therefore you will be among the first to go into exile;your feasting and lounging will end.

8 The Sovereign Lord has sworn by himself—the Lord God Almighty declares:“I abhor the pride of Jacob and detest his fortresses;I will deliver up the city and everything in it.”

9 If ten people are left in one house, they too will die.

10 And if the relative who comes to carry the bodies out of the house to burn them asks anyone who might be hiding there, “Is anyone else with you?” and he says, “No,” then he will go on to say, “Hush! We must not mention the name of the Lord.”

11 For the Lord has given the command,and he will smash the great house into pieces and the small house into bits.

12 Do horses run on the rocky crags?Does one plow the sea with oxen?But you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness—

13 you who rejoice in the conquest of Lo Debarand say, “Did we not take Karnaim by our own strength?”

14 For the Lord God Almighty declares,“I will stir up a nation against you, Israel,that will oppress you all the way from Lebo Hamath to the valley of the Arabah.”

(注）

Lebo Hamath 　：　ハマー（アラビア語: حماة、「要塞」の意）は、シリア（シリア・アラブ共和国）西部のオロンテス川中流にある都市で、ハマー県の県都である。

valley of the Arabah　：　アラバは、ガリラヤ湖の南端（ヨルダン川渓谷など）が流れつく死海から、更に南部のアカバ湾の先端までの間の、南北に順応するヨルダン地溝帯のセクションである。　

CHAPTER5

1Hear this word, Israel, this lament I take up concerning you:

2“Fallen is Virgin Israel,never to rise again,deserted in her own land,with no one to lift her up.”

3 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to Israel:“Your city that marches out a thousand strong will have only a hundred left; your town that marches out a hundred strong will have only ten left.”

4 This is what the Lord says to Israel:“Seek me and live;

5 do not seek Bethel,do not go to Gilgal,do not journey to Beersheba.For Gilgal will surely go into exile, and Bethel will be reduced to nothing.”

6 Seek the Lord and live, or he will sweep through the tribes of Joseph like a fire;it will devour them, and Bethel will have no one to quench it.

7 There are those who turn justice into bitterness and cast righteousness to the ground.

8 He who made the Pleiades and Orion,who turns midnight into dawn and darkens day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the land—the Lord is his name.

9 With a blinding flash he destroys the stronghold and brings the fortified city to ruin.

10 There are those who hate the one who upholds justice in court and detest the one who tells the truth.

11 You levy a straw tax on the poor and impose a tax on their grain.Therefore, though you have built stone mansions, you will not live in them; though you have planted lush vineyards,you will not drink their wine.

12 For I know how many are your offenses and how great your sins.There are those who oppress the innocent and take bribes and deprive the poor of justice in the courts.

13 Therefore the prudent keep quiet in such times,for the times are evil.

14 Seek good, not evil,that you may live.Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you,just as you say he is.

15 Hate evil, love good;maintain justice in the courts.Perhaps the Lord God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph.

16 Therefore this is what the Lord, the Lord God Almighty, says:“There will be wailing in all the streets and cries of anguish in every public square. The farmers will be summoned to weep and the mourners to wail.

17 There will be wailing in all the vineyards,for I will pass through your midst,”
  says the Lord.

18 Woe to you who long for the day of the Lord!Why do you long for the day of the Lord? That day will be darkness, not light.

19 It will be as though a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear,as though he entered his house and rested his hand on the wall only to have a snake bite him.

20 Will not the day of the Lord be darkness, not light—pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness?

21 “I hate, I despise your religious festivals;your assemblies are a stench to me.

22 Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,I will not accept them.Though you bring choice fellowship offerings,I will have no regard for them.

23 Away with the noise of your songs!I will not listen to the music of your harps.

24 But let justice roll on like a river,righteousness like a never-failing stream!

25 “Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, people of Israel?

26 You have lifted up the shrine of your king,the pedestal of your idols,the star of your god—which you made for yourselves.

27 Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,”says the Lord, whose name is God Almighty.

CHAPTER4

1Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria,you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy and say to your husbands, “Bring us some drinks!”

2 The Sovereign Lord has sworn by his holiness:“The time will surely come when you will be taken away with hooks, the last of you with fishhooks.

3 You will each go straight out through breaches in the wall,and you will be cast out toward Harmon,”
declares the Lord.

4 “Go to Bethel and sin;go to Gilgal and sin yet more.Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three years.

5 Burn leavened bread as a thank offering and brag about your freewill offerings—boast about them, you Israelites, for this is what you love to do,”
  declares the Sovereign Lord.

6 “I gave you empty stomachs in every city and lack of bread in every town, yet you have not returned to me,”
  declares the Lord.

7 “I also withheld rain from you when the harvest was still three months away.I sent rain on one town,but withheld it from another.One field had rain; another had none and dried up.

8 People staggered from town to town for water but did not get enough to drink,yet you have not returned to me,”
  declares the Lord.

9 “Many times I struck your gardens and vineyards,destroying them with blight and mildew. Locusts devoured your fig and olive trees, yet you have not returned to me,”
  declares the Lord.

10 “I sent plagues among you as I did to Egypt.I killed your young men with the sword,along with your captured horses. I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps,yet you have not returned to me,”
  declares the Lord.

11 “I overthrew some of you as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.You were like a burning stick snatched from the fire, yet you have not returned to me,”
  declares the Lord.

12 “Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel,and because I will do this to you, Israel, prepare to meet your God.”

13 He who forms the mountains,who creates the wind,and who reveals his thoughts to mankind, who turns dawn to darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth—the Lord God Almighty is his name.

（注）

cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria　:　バシャンはエモリ人の王オグの領土である、後にイスラエル領になり、マナセ族に割り当てられた町である。

北イスラエル王国の首都サマリヤの貴婦人たちのことは「サマリヤの山にいるバシャンの雄牛ども」と表現された

CHAPTER3

1 Hear this word, people of Israel, the word the Lord has spoken against you—against the whole family I brought up out of Egypt:

2 “You only have I chosen　of all the families of the earth;therefore I will punish you　for all your sins.”

3 Do two walk together　unless they have agreed to do so?

4 Does a lion roar in the thicket　when it has no prey?Does it growl in its den　when it has caught nothing?

5 Does a bird swoop down to a trap on the ground　when no bait is there?Does a trap spring up from the ground if it has not caught anything?

6 When a trumpet sounds in a city,do not the people tremble?When disaster comes to a city,has not the Lord caused it?

7 Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.

8 The lion has roared-who will not fear?The Sovereign Lord has spoken—who can but prophesy?

9 Proclaim to the fortresses of Ashdod and to the fortresses of Egypt:“Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria; see the great unrest within her and the oppression among her people.”

10 “They do not know how to do right,” declares the Lord,“who store up in their fortresses what they have plundered and looted.”

11 Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says:“An enemy will overrun your land,pull down your strongholds and plunder your fortresses.”

12 This is what the Lord says:“As a shepherd rescues from the lion’s mouth only two leg bones or a piece of an ear, so will the Israelites living in Samaria be rescued, with only the head of a bed and a piece of fabric from a couch.[b]”

13 “Hear this and testify against the descendants of Jacob,” declares the Lord, the Lord God Almighty.

14 “On the day I punish Israel for her sins,I will destroy the altars of Bethel;the horns of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground.

15 I will tear down the winter house along with the summer house;the houses adorned with ivory will be destroyed and the mansions will be demolished,”
   declares the Lord.

Jacob　:　ヤコブの息子たち12人がイスラエル十二部族の祖となったことから、イスラエル民族のことを「ヤコブの家」と表すこともある。（wikiより）