| 2:1 | GOD's Message: "Because of the three great sins of Moab--make that four--I'm not putting up with her any longer. She violated the corpse of Edom's king, burning it to cinders. |
| 2:2 | For that, I'm burning down Moab, burning down the forts of Kerioth. Moab will die in the shouting, go out in the blare of war trumpets. |
| 2:3 | I'll remove the king from the center and kill all his princes with him." GOD's Decree. |
| 2:4 | GOD's Message: "Because of the three great sins of Judah--make that four--I'm not putting up with them any longer. They rejected GOD's revelation, refused to keep my commands. But they swallowed the same old lies that got their ancestors onto dead-end roads. |
| 2:5 | For that, I'm burning down Judah, burning down all the forts of Jerusalem." |
| 2:6 | GOD's Message: "Because of the three great sins of Israel--make that four--I'm not putting up with them any longer. They buy and sell upstanding people. People for them are only [things]--ways of making money. They'd sell a poor man for a pair of shoes. They'd sell their own grandmother! |
| 2:7 | They grind the penniless into the dirt, shove the luckless into the ditch. Everyone and his brother sleeps with the 'sacred whore'--a sacrilege against my Holy Name. |
| 2:8 | Stuff they've extorted from the poor is piled up at the shrine of their god, While they sit around drinking wine they've conned from their victims. |
| 2:9 | "In contrast, I was always on your side. I destroyed the Amorites who confronted you, Amorites with the stature of great cedars, tough as thick oaks. I destroyed them from the top branches down. I destroyed them from the roots up. |
| 2:10 | And yes, I'm the One who delivered you from Egypt, led you safely through the wilderness for forty years And then handed you the country of the Amorites like a piece of cake on a platter. |
| 2:11 | I raised up some of your young men to be prophets, set aside your best youth for training in holiness. Isn't this so, Israel?" GOD's Decree. |
| 2:12 | "But you made the youth-in-training break training, and you told the young prophets, 'Don't prophesy!' |
| 2:13 | You're too much for me. I'm hard-pressed--to the breaking point. I'm like a wagon piled high and overloaded, creaking and groaning. |
| 2:14 | "When I go into action, what will you do? There's no place to run no matter how fast you run. The strength of the strong won't count. Fighters won't make it. |
| 2:15 | Skilled archers won't make it. Fast runners won't make it. Chariot drivers won't make it. |
| 2:16 | Even the bravest of all your warriors Won't make it. He'll run off for dear life, stripped naked." GOD's Decree. |
Amos 2 - The Message Bible
