8:1 The sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw a basket of summer fruit.

In this fourth vision, Amos saw a basket of summer fruit.

 

8:2 He said, “What do you see, Amos?” I replied, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me, “The end has come for my people Israel! I will no longer overlook their sins. 

 

The northern kingdom of Israel is about to end. They are like a basket of summer fruit which will quickly spoil.

 

8:3 The women singing in the temple will wail in that day.”  The sovereign Lord is speaking. “There will be many corpses littered everywhere! Be quiet!” 

 

When the Assyrian invasion arrives, Israel will sing songs of mourning. There will be dead bodies spread throughout all of the land.

 

8:4 Listen to this, you who trample the needy, and do away with the destitute in the land. 

 

Jehovah had a message for the rich who were exploiting the poor.

 

8:5 You say, “When will the new moon festival be over, so we can sell grain? When will the Sabbath end, so we can open up the grain bins? We’re eager to sell less for a higher price, and to cheat the buyer with rigged scales! 

 

The business men of Israel wanted the Sabbath to end as fast as possible so that they could cheat more customers.

 

8:6 We’re eager to trade silver for the poor, a pair of sandals for the needy! We want to mix in some chaff with the grain!” 

 

Israel was guilty of enslaving the poor for profit. They were mixing chaff with grain so that they could deceive the people and make more profit.

 

8:7 The Lord confirms this oath by the arrogance of Jacob: “I swear I will never forget all you have done! 

 

Jehovah will remember these crimes of Israel.

 

8:8 Because of this the earth will quake, and all who live in it will mourn. The whole earth will rise like the River Nile, it will surge upward and then grow calm, like the Nile in Egypt. 

 

Amos looks to the distant prophetic future of the Great Tribulation. During the Great Tribulation, there will be massive earthquakes which will shake the ground of the earth like the waves which roll on the Nile River.

 

8:9 In that day,” says the sovereign Lord, “I will make the sun set at noon, and make the earth dark in the middle of the day. 

 

During the Great Tribulation, there will be blackouts.

 

8:10 I will turn your festivals into funerals, and all your songs into funeral dirges. I will make everyone wear funeral clothes and cause every head to be shaved bald. I will make you mourn as if you had lost your only son; when it ends it will indeed have been a bitter day. 

 

During the Great Tribulation, there will be no festivals or joyous songs. Instead, there will be funerals and lamentations. Israel will mourn as if they have lost their only son. They will mourn, because they rejected the Messiah. 

 

8:11 Be certain of this, the time is coming,” says the sovereign Lord, “when I will send a famine through the land— not a shortage of food or water but an end to divine revelation! 

 

A famine of revelation from God is coming to Israel.

 

8:12 People will stagger from sea to sea, and from the north around to the east. They will wander about looking for a revelation from the Lord, but they will not find any. 

 

During the Great Tribulation, people will search for revelation of the Word of God, but they will not find it.

 

8:13 In that day your beautiful young women and your young men will faint from thirst.

 

During the Great Tribulation, the young men and women will become spiritually thirsty.

 

8:14 These are the ones who now take oaths in the name of the sinful idol goddess of Samaria. They vow, ‘As surely as your god lives, O Dan,’ or ‘As surely as your beloved one lives, O Beer Sheba!’ But they will fall down and not get up again.” 

 

Since Israel desires idolatry, God will no longer give them divine revelation.