Amos' Basket of Summer Fruit

God showed Amos a basket of ripe summer fruit. The words for 'summer fruit' and 'end' sound alike in Hebrew, and God's message was plain: Israel's end had come.

The Lord GOD showed Amos a basket of summer fruit and asked, 'Amos, what seest thou?' When he answered, 'A basket of summer fruit,' the LORD said, 'The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.' In Hebrew the word for summer fruit sounds very like the word for end, so the ripe fruit of late summer pictured a nation ripe for judgment. The songs of the temple would turn to howling, and there would be many dead bodies cast out in silence. The vision follows Amos' clash with the priest Amaziah at Bethel and leads into his charges against those who trampled the poor.

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Details

Category: Prophets
Dreamer: Amos
Interpretation: Like fruit at the end of summer, Israel was ripe for judgment; its end had come.

Key Chapters

Amos 8 The Basket of Ripe Fruit 3 min read A basket of ripe fruit becomes a sobering picture of a people whose time for rep...

Key Passages

The End Is Come

Amos 8:1-3

A basket of ripe fruit becomes a sobering picture of a people whose time for repentance has run out.

T¹hus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me: and behold a basket of summer fruit.

² And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the LORD unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more. ³ And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord GOD: there shall be many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them forth with silence.