Amos 5

1 Hear ye this word which I take up against you, [even] a lamentation, O house of Israel.

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

2 The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise! she is forsaken upon her land; [there is] none to raise her up.

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

3 For thus saith the Lord GOD; The city that went out [by] a thousand shall leave a hundred, and that which went forth [by] a hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel.

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.

4 For thus saith the LORD to the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live:

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

5 But seek not Beth-el, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beer-sheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Beth-el shall come to naught.

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.

6 Seek the LORD, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour [it], and [there be] none to quench [it] in Beth-el.

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.

7 Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness on the earth,

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

8 [Seek him] that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shades of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: JEHOVAH [is] his name:

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!

9 That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.

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

10 They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.

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

11 Forasmuch therefore as your treading [is] upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.

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.

12 For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate [from their right].

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.

13 Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it [is] an evil time.

So smart people keep quiet in such evil times.

14 Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.

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.

15 Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

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.

16 Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus; Wailing [shall be] in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skillful in lamentation to wailing.

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.

17 And in all vineyards [shall be] wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the LORD.

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

18 Woe to you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end [is] it for you? the day of the LORD [is] darkness, and not light.

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.

19 As if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.

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.

20 [Shall] not the day of the LORD [be] darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?

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

21 I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.

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

22 Though ye offer me burnt-offerings and your meat-offerings, I will not accept [them]; neither will I regard the peace-offerings of your fat beasts.

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.

23 Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.

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

24 But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.

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

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

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

26 But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.

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

27 Therefore I will cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the LORD, whose name [is] The God of hosts.

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