A basket of summer fruit is a sign that the end has come for Israel. Amos denounces those who trample the needy and cheat in the market. God says there will be a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.
1 Thus 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 .
4 Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy , even to make the poor of the land to fail ,
5 Saying , When will the new moon be gone , that we may sell corn ? and the sabbath , that we may set forth wheat , making the ephah small , and the shekel great , and falsifying the balances by deceit ?
6 That we may buy the poor for silver , and the needy for a pair of shoes ; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat ?
7 The LORD hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob , Surely I will never forget any of their works .
8 Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein? and it shall rise up wholly as a flood ; and it shall be cast out and drowned , as by the flood of Egypt .
9 And it shall come to pass in that day , saith the Lord GOD , that I will cause the sun to go down at noon , and I will darken the earth in the clear day :
10 And I will turn your feasts into mourning , and all your songs into lamentation ; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins , and baldness upon every head ; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day .
11 Behold, the days come , saith the Lord GOD , that I will send a famine in the land , not a famine of bread , nor a thirst for water , but of hearing the words of the LORD :
12 And they shall wander from sea to sea , and from the north even to the east , they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD , and shall not find it.
13 In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst .
14 They that swear by the sin of Samaria , and say , Thy god , O Dan , liveth ; and, The manner of Beersheba liveth ; even they shall fall , and never rise up again.