Amos 5

1 Listen, people of Israel, to this funeral lament that I sing about you!

Hear ye this word of the Lord, even a lamentation, which I take up against you. The house of Israel is fallen; it shall no more rise.

2 Virgin Israel has fallen, and will never rise again! She lies abandoned on the ground, and there is no one to help her up.

The virgin of Israel has fallen upon his land; there is none that shall raise her up.

3 This is what the Lord says: From a city that sends out a thousand soldiers, only a hundred will return; from a city that sends out a hundred soldiers, only ten will return.

Therefore thus saith the Lord God; The city out of which there went forth a thousand, [in it] there shall be left a hundred, and [in that] out of which there went forth a hundred, there shall be left ten to the house of Israel.

4 This is what the Lord says to the people of Israel: Look to me so you may live!

Wherefore thus saith the Lord to the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live.

5 Do not look to the false gods of Bethel, do not go to the pagan shrines of Gilgal or travel to those of Beersheba. For Gilgal will go into exile, and Bethel will come to nothing.

But seek not Bethel, and go not into Galgala, and cross not over to the Well of the Oath: for Galgala shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall be as that which is not.

6 Look to the Lord so you may live! Otherwise he will explode like fire against the descendants of Joseph and no one from Bethel will be able to quench it.

Seek ye the Lord, and ye shall live; lest the house of Joseph blaze as fire, and it devour him, and there shall be none to quench it for the house of Israel.

7 You twist justice and make it bitter, you throw integrity to the ground.

[It is he] that executes judgment in the height [above], and he has established justice on the earth:

8 The One who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns the darkness into morning, and daytime into night, who calls for the water of the seas, and pours it down as rain upon the earth—the Lord is his name!

who makes all things, and changes [them], and turns darkness into the morning, and darkens the day into night: who calls for the water of the sea, and pours it out on the face of the earth: the Lord is his name:

9 In a flash he cuts down the strong and destroys the fortresses.

who dispenses ruin to strength, and brings distress upon the fortress.

10 You hate anyone who confronts injustice and loathe anyone who speaks honestly.

They hated him that reproved in the gates, and abhorred holy speech.

11 Because you trample down the poor and impose a tax on their grain, building for yourselves impressive houses, you will not live in them, and you will not drink wine from the fine vineyards you have planted.

Therefore because they have smitten the poor with their fists, and ye have received of them choice gifts; ye have built polished houses, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted desirable vineyards, but ye shall not drink the wine of them.

12 For I know the extent of your wrongdoing and your numerous sins. You oppress good people by taking bribes, and you prevent the poor from getting justice in the courts.

For I know your many transgressions, and your sins are great, trampling on the just, taking bribes, and turning aside [the judgment of] the poor in the gates.

13 So smart people keep quiet in such evil times.

Therefore the prudent shall be silent at that time; for it is a time of evils.

14 Do what is right, and not evil, so you may live. Then the Lord God of power will be with you, as you claim he is.

Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the Lord God Almighty shall be with you, as ye have said,

15 Hate evil and love good—and make sure justice wins out in your courts. Maybe the Lord God of power will have mercy on those who are left of Jacob's people.

We have hated evil, and loved good: and restore ye judgment in the gates; that the Lord God Almighty may have mercy on the remnant of Joseph.

16 For this is what the Lord, the Lord God of power says: There will be weeping in the city squares and wailing in the streets. They will call even the farmers to grieve, as well as the professional mourners.

Therefore thus saith the Lord God Almighty; In all the streets [shall be] lamentations; and in all the ways shall it be said, Woe, woe! the husbandman shall be called to mourning and lamentation, and to them that are skilled in complaining.

17 There will be wailing in every vineyard, for I will pass through the midst of you, says the Lord.

And [there shall be] lamentation in all the ways; because I will pass through the midst of thee, saith the Lord.

18 How disastrous it will be for those of you who long for the day of the Lord. Why would you want the day of the Lord to come? It will bring darkness, not light.

Woe to you that desire the day of the Lord! what is this day of the Lord to you? whereas it is darkness, and not light.

19 It will be like a man running away from a lion only to meet a bear; or a man who goes home and leans his hand on a wall, only to be bitten by a snake.

As if a man should flee from the face of a lion, and a bear should meet him; and he should spring into his house, and lean his hands upon the wall, and a serpent should bite him.

20 Isn't the day of the Lord darkness without light? Yes, pitch dark without a glimmer of light.

Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light? and is not this [day] gloom without brightness?

21 I hate, I despise your festivals and take no delight in your religious assemblies.

I hate, I reject your feasts, and I will not smell [your] meat-offerings in your general assemblies.

22 Even though you present me with burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. As for your peace offerings of fattened cattle—I will not even look at them.

Wherefore if ye should bring me your whole-burnt-sacrifices and meat-offerings, I will not accept [them]: neither will I have respect to your grand peace-offerings.

23 Stop your noisy worship songs. I will not listen to the melody of your harps.

Remove from me the sound of thy songs, and I will not hear the music of thine instruments.

24 Rather let justice flow like a river, and doing right like an ever-flowing stream.

But let judgment roll down as water, and righteousness as an impassable torrent.

25 Did you bring me sacrifices during those forty years in the desert, people of Israel?

Have ye offered to me victims and sacrifices, O house of Israel, forty years in the wilderness?

26 But now you carry idols of Sakkuth your king and Kaiwan your star god that you made for yourselves.

Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Raephan, the images of them which ye made for yourselves.

27 So I will send you into exile in a land beyond Damascus, says the Lord, whose name is the God of power.

And I will carry you away beyond Damascus, saith the Lord, the Almighty God is his name.