Amos 5

¹ Hear this word that I take up over you as a lament,
O house of Israel:

² "Fallen, never to rise again,
is the virgin Israel.
She is abandoned on her land;
there is no one to raise her up."

³ For thus says the Lord GOD:
"The city that marches out a thousand
will have a hundred left,
and the one that marches out a hundred
will have ten left to the house of Israel."

⁴ For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel:
"Seek me and live.

⁵ But do not seek Bethel;
do not enter Gilgal
or cross over to Beersheba.
For 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 devour it,
with no one to quench it for Bethel.

⁷ You who turn justice into wormwood
and cast righteousness to the ground —

⁸ he who made the Pleiades and Orion,
who turns deep darkness into morning
and darkens day into night,
who calls for the waters of the sea
and pours them out on the face of the earth —
the LORD is his name.

⁹ He makes destruction flash against the strong,
and destruction comes upon the fortress.

¹⁰ They hate the one who reproves in the gate,
and they abhor the one who speaks with integrity.

¹¹ Therefore, because you trample on the poor
and exact a tax of grain from him,
you have built houses of hewn stone,
but you will not live in them.
You have planted pleasant vineyards,
but you will not drink their wine.

¹² For I know how many are your transgressions
and how great are your sins —
you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe,
and turn aside the needy in the gate.

¹³ Therefore the prudent will keep silent in that time,
for it is an evil time.

¹⁴ Seek good and not evil,
that you may live,
and so the LORD, the God of hosts,
will be with you,
as you have said.

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

¹⁶ Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord:
"In every square there will be wailing,
and in all the streets they will say, 'Alas! Alas!'
They will call the farmer to mourning
and those skilled in lamentation to wailing.

¹⁷ In all the vineyards there will be wailing,
for I will pass through your midst,"
says the LORD.

¹⁸ Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD!
Why would you want the day of the LORD?
It is darkness, and not light.

¹⁹ It is as if a man fled from a lion
and a bear met him,
or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall
and a serpent bit him.

²⁰ Is not the day of the LORD darkness, and not light —
utter gloom with no brightness in it?

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

²² Even though you offer me burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them;
and the peace offerings of your fattened animals,
I will not look upon them.

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

²⁴ But let justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

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

²⁶ You shall take up Sikkuth your king
and Kiyyun, your star-god —
your images that you made for yourselves.

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