Amos 8, 1-10

1. The LORD shows Amos a vision of summer fruit.

2. This is way of showing Amos that Israel will soon be destroyed and that there is no hope of repentance and rescue.

"The end has come for people Israel. I will spare them no longer."

Perhaps the summer fruit is ripe--so it looks fine now, but soon will be rotten.

3. The destruction will reach the king in his palace: "the songs of the palace will turn to wailing in that day."

Many will die: "Many will be the corpses; in every place they will cast them forth in silence."

4. A crime of Israel: there is no equal protection of the law for the weak and poor. The strong violate the rights of the weak: "Hear this, you who trample the needy to do away with the humble of the land."

5. The merchants cheat and steal from those who do business with them. They sell in quantities less than promised (and so can sell more and make more money): they "make the bushel smaller."

They also use false weights and so again sell less than promised. They also somehow inflate the currency--"make the shekel bigger." (?) When someone inflates the currency, it take more of it to buy the same amount of things.

6. It sounds as if the rich make slaves of the poor (who presumably become debtors): they "buy the helpless for money and the needy for a pair of sandals."

The merchants also sell poor quality wheat, "the refuse of the wheat."

7. Israel is proud and God will punish them for that. He will remember all of their wicked deeds.

8. The punishment of Israel will come: the land will quake "and everyone who dwells in it will mourn."

It will be like the Nile that swells and floods the land and then subsides. (?)

9. Literally or figuratively, God will make the daytime dark "in that day."

10. The people of Israel presently enjoy festivals and singing, but God will turn them into mourning and lamentation.

People will wear sackcloth and will shave their heads.

They will feel the deepest grief, as if they were mourning for the death of an only son.