Amos 5

A Lament for Israel

1 Hear this word I am raising as a funeral song over you, house of Israel.

2 Israel has fallen and will not rise again. She has left abandoned in her own land, with nobody to lift her up.

3 This is what the Lord GOD says: “The city that marched out with a thousand will only have a hundred left. The one that marched out with a hundred will only have ten left in the house of Israel.”

A Call to Seek the LORD

4 This is what the LORD says to the house of Israel: “Seek Me and live.

5 Do not seek Bethel, do not go to Gilgal, do not cross over to Beersheba. Gilgal will surely go into exile, and Bethel will come to nothing.”

6 Seek the LORD and live, or He will break out like fire in the house of Joseph and burn it up, with nobody in Bethel able to put it out.

7 You turn justice into bitterness and throw righteousness down on the ground.

8 He made the Pleiades and Orion. He turns deep darkness into morning and darkens day into night. He calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out over the earth. The LORD is His name.

9 He brings sudden destruction on the strong, so ruin comes against the fortress.

Israel’s Injustice

10 They hate the one who speaks truth at the gate and despise the one who talks honestly.

11 Because you trample the poor and force them to give you grain, you built houses of cut stone but you will not live in them. You planted pleasant vineyards but you will not drink their wine.

12 I know how many your crimes are and how great your sins. You oppress the righteous, take bribes, and push aside the needy at the gate.

13 That is why the one who is wise stays quiet in times like this, because it is an evil time.

14 Seek good and not evil so you can live. Then the LORD God of armies will be with you, just like you say He is.

15 Hate evil, love good, establish justice at the gate. Maybe the LORD God of armies will show mercy to the remnant of Joseph.

The Day of the LORD.

16 So this is what the LORD, the God of armies, says: “There will be crying in all the streets and mourning in every public place. They will call farmers to grieve and professional mourners to wail.

17 There will be mourning in every vineyard, because I will pass through your midst,” says the LORD.

18 Woe to you who long for the day of the LORD. Why do you want that day? It is darkness, not light.

19 It will be like someone running from a lion only to meet a bear, or going into the house, leaning on the wall, and getting bitten by a snake.

20 Will not the day of the LORD be darkness instead of light, pitch dark without a ray of brightness,

Empty Worship Rejected

21 “I hate, I reject your festivals. I cannot stand your assemblies.

22 Even if you bring Me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. I will not look at your peace offerings of fattened animals.

23 Take away the noise of your songs. I do not want to hear the sound of your harps.

24 But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a never-ending stream.

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

26 You carried along Sikkuth your king and Kiyyun your star god, the images you made for yourselves.

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