Amos 8:1-2

The sovereign Lord showed Amos a basket of summer fruit. Amos saw what God enabled him to see. The Lord asked him what he saw (cf. Amos 7:8), and the prophet replied that he saw a basket of ripe summer fruit (Heb. qayis). Normally this would have been a pleasant sight associated with the joys and provisions of harvest. Then Yahweh told him that Israel was also ripe (Heb. qes), but ripe for judgment. The Lord would spare the Israelites no longer. Like the fruit in the basket, Israel also needed to be consumed soon.

"Just as the final fruit of the summer signaled the end of the harvest season, so God’s ’end’ for Israel was now at hand. God would judge the religious hypocrisy and greed of the people." [Note: Charles H. Dyer, in The Old Testament Explorer, p. 760.]

"The Lord takes into his confidence those whom he desires to understand his words and his works (cf. Amos 3:7; Genesis 18:17-19)." [Note: Niehaus, p. 467.]