There are nine chapters in the short book of Amos.  When we start chapter eight, we get the fourth vision that God gave to Amos.  Amos 8:1-3 Thus has the Lord God showed unto me: and behold a basket of summer fruit.  And God said, Amos, what do you see?  And I said, A basket of sumner 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.  And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, said the Lord God: there shall be many dead bodies in every place…"

Summer fruit.  Sounds good.  But that's not what summer fruit is.  It is the end of all food that the summer will produce.  The leavings from the harvest.  The dregs.  Nothing else to harvest.  The end.  The end is upon Israel.  And once again God says:  "I will not again pass by them any more."  But worse than that,  all attempts to sing in the temple will be as a howling on the ears of God.  They can go to church.  They can sing, chant, and play the harp, but the sounds will offend the ears of God.  He's through with them.

Then Amos gives a particular warning to the wealthy in Amos 8:4-7.  He says that they swallow up the needy and falsify balances by deceit.  They do this so they can "own" the poor and buy the poor for a "pair of shoes" and so that they can sell the poor the refuse of the wheat.  Food not fit for the dogs.  It is a scathing indictment.  God ends by saying "I will never forget any of their works."  God has always had a heart for the poor and downtrodden.

And God has a long memory.  Those who rack up wealth at the expense of the poor had better listen.  God's message back then is God's message today.