Amos 5:13-24

In such times the wise person will keep quiet, because it is a bad time. Try to do good, not evil, so that you will live, and the LORD God All-Powerful will be with you just as you say he is. Hate evil and love good; be fair in the courts. Maybe the LORD God All-Powerful will be kind to the people of Joseph who are left alive. This is what the Lord, the LORD God All-Powerful, says: “People will be crying in all the streets; they will be saying, ‘Oh, no!’ in the public places. They will call the farmers to come and weep and will pay people to cry out loud for them. People will be crying in all the vineyards, because I will pass among you to punish you,” says the LORD. How terrible it will be for you who want the LORD’s day of judging to come. Why do you want that day to come? It will bring darkness for you, not light. It will be like someone who runs from a lion and meets a bear, or like someone who goes into his house and puts his hand on the wall, and then is bitten by a snake. So the LORD’s day of judging will bring darkness, not light; it will be very dark, not light at all. The LORD says, “I hate and reject your feasts; I cannot stand your religious meetings. If you offer me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I won’t accept them. You bring your best fellowship offerings of fattened cattle, but I will ignore them. Take the noise of your songs away from me! I won’t listen to the music of your harps. But let justice flow like a river, and let goodness flow like a never-ending stream.