Amos
5:1 Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O
house of Israel.
5:2 The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken
upon her land; there is none to raise her up.
5:3 For thus saith the Lord GOD; The city that went out by a thousand shall
leave an hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred shall leave
ten, to the house of Israel.
5:4 For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye
shall live:
5:5 But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba:
for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to
nought.
5:6 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
Bethel.
5:7 Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the
earth,
5:8 Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow
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: The LORD is his name:
5:9 That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled
shall come against the fortress.
5:10 They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that
speaketh uprightly.
5:11 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.
5:12 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.
5:13 Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil
time.
5:14 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.
5:15 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 unto the remnant of
Joseph.
5:16 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
skilful of lamentation to wailing.
5:17 And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through thee,
saith the LORD.
5:18 Woe unto 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.
5:19 As if a man did flee 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.
5:20 Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even very
dark, and no brightness in it?
5:21 I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn
assemblies.
5:22 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.
5:23 Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the
melody of thy viols.
5:24 But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty
stream.
5:25 Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty
years, O house of Israel?
5:26 But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images,
the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.
5:27 Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith
the LORD, whose name is The God of hosts.
