Amos 5

1 Hear this word, O house of Israel, this lamentation I take up against you:

Listen to this word, which I lift over you in lamentation. The house of Israel has fallen, and it will no longer rise again.

2 “Fallen is Virgin Israel, never to rise again. She lies abandoned on her land, with no one to raise her up.”

The virgin of Israel has been thrown onto her land, there is no one who can raise her up.

3 This is what the Lord GOD says: “The city that marches out a thousand strong will only see a hundred return, and the one that marches out a hundred strong will have but ten left in the house of Israel.”

For thus says the Lord God: In the city from which a thousand departed, a hundred will remain, and in that from which a hundred departed, ten will remain, in the house of Israel.

4 For this is what the LORD says to the house of Israel: “Seek Me and live!

For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel: Seek me and you will live.

5 Do not seek Bethel or go to Gilgal; do not journey to Beersheba, for Gilgal will surely go into exile, and Bethel will come to nothing.

But do not be willing to seek Bethel, and do not be willing to enter Gilgal, and you will not cross into Beer-sheba. For Gilgal will be led into captivity, and Bethel will be useless.

6 Seek the LORD and live, or He will sweep like fire through the house of Joseph; it will devour everything, with no one at Bethel to extinguish it.

Seek the Lord and live. Otherwise, the house of Joseph may be destroyed with fire, and it will devour, and there will be no one who can extinguish Bethel.

7 There are those who turn justice into wormwood and cast righteousness to the ground.

You turn judgment into wormwood, and you abandon justice on earth.

8 He who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns darkness into dawn and darkens day into night, who summons the waters of the sea and pours them over the face of the earth— the LORD is His name—

The Maker of Arcturus and Orion, who turns darkness into daybreak and who changes day into night; who calls forth the waters of the sea and who pours them out over the face of the earth: The Lord is his name.

9 He flashes destruction on the strong, so that fury comes upon the stronghold.

It is he who smiles destruction on the healthy, and who brings pillaging upon the powerful.

10 There are those who hate the one who reproves in the gate and despise him who speaks with integrity.

They held hatred for the one who corrects at the gate, and they have abhorred the one who speaks perfectly.

11 Therefore, because you trample on the poor and exact from him a tax of grain, you will never live in the stone houses you have built; you will never drink the wine from the lush vineyards you have planted.

Therefore, on his behalf, because you have torn apart the poor and stolen choice prey from him: you will build houses with square stones and you will not dwell in them; you will plant the most delightful vineyards, and you will not drink wine from them.

12 For I know that your transgressions are many and your sins are numerous. You oppress the righteous by taking bribes; you deprive the poor of justice in the gate.

For I know your many wicked deeds and the strength of your sins, you enemies of the just, accepting bribes, and depriving the poor at the gate.

13 Therefore, the prudent keep silent in such times, for the days are evil.

Therefore, the prudent will be silent at that time, for it is an evil time.

14 Seek good, not evil, so that you may live. And the LORD, the God of Hosts, will be with you, as you have claimed.

Seek good and not evil, so that you may live. And the Lord God of hosts will be with you, just as you have asked.

15 Hate evil and love good; establish justice in the gate. Perhaps the LORD, the God of Hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”

Hate evil and love good, and establish judgment at the gate. Perhaps then the Lord God of hosts may have mercy on the remnant of Joseph.

16 Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Hosts, the Lord, says: “There will be wailing in all the public squares and cries of ‘Alas! Alas!’ in all the streets. The farmer will be summoned to mourn, and the mourners to wail.

Therefore, thus says the Lord God of hosts, the Sovereign: In all the streets, there will be wailing. And in every place where they are outdoors, they will say, “Woe, woe!” And they will call the farmer to mourn, and those who know mourning to lamentation.

17 There will be wailing in all the vineyards, for I will pass through your midst,”

And in all the vineyards there will be wailing. For I will cross through your midst, says the Lord.

18 Woe to you who long for the Day of the LORD! What will the Day of the LORD be for you? It will be darkness and not light.

Woe to those who desire the day of the Lord. What is it to you? The day of the Lord is this: darkness and not light.

19 It will be like a man who flees from a lion, only to encounter a bear, or who enters his house and rests his hand against the wall, only to be bitten by a snake.

It is as if a man flees from the face of a lion, only to have a bear meet him; or, he enters a house and leans with his hand against the wall, only to have a snake bite him.

20 Will not the Day of the LORD be darkness and not light, even gloom with no brightness in it?

Will not the day of the Lord be darkness and not light, and gloom with no brightness in it?

21 “I hate, I despise your feasts! I cannot stand the stench of your solemn assemblies.

I hate and have rejected your feasts; and I will not accept the odor from your gatherings.

22 Even though you offer Me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; for your peace offerings of fattened cattle I will have no regard.

For if you offer me holocausts and your gifts, I will not receive them; and I will not look upon the vows of your fatness.

23 Take away from Me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.

Take away from me the tumult of your songs, and I will not listen to the canticles of your lyre.

24 But let justice roll on like a river, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

And judgment will be revealed like water, and justice like a mighty torrent.

25 Did you bring Me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?

Was it you who offered victims and sacrifices to me in the desert for forty years, house of Israel?

26 You have taken along Sakkuth your king and Kaiwan your star god, the idols you made for yourselves.

And you carried a tabernacle for your Moloch and the image of your idols: the star of your god, which you made for yourselves.

27 Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the LORD, whose name is the God of Hosts.

And I will cause you to go into captivity across Damascus, says the Lord. The God of hosts is his name.