Amos 5:1-17

Listen to this message that I am singing for you, a lament,  house of Israel: She has fallen; Virgin Israel  will never rise again.  She lies abandoned on her land with no one to raise her up.  For the Lord GOD says: The city that marches out a thousand strong will have only a hundred left,  and the one that marches out a hundred strong will have only ten left  in the house of Israel. For the LORD says to the house of Israel: Seek me and live!  Do not seek Bethel  or go to Gilgal  or journey to Beer-sheba,  for Gilgal will certainly go into exile, and Bethel will come to nothing. Seek the LORD   and live, or he will spread like fire  throughout the house of Joseph; it will consume everything with no one at Bethel to extinguish it.  Those who turn justice into wormwood  also throw righteousness to the ground. The one who made the Pleiades and Orion,  who turns darkness  into dawn  and darkens day into night,  who summons the water of the sea  and pours it out over the surface of the earth   — the LORD is his name.  He brings destruction  on the strong,  , and it falls on the fortress.  They hate the one who convicts the guilty  at the city gate, and they despise  the one who speaks with integrity. Therefore, because you trample on the poor  and exact a grain tax from him, you will never live in the houses of cut stone  you have built; you will never drink the wine from the lush vineyards you have planted.  For I know your crimes are many and your sins innumerable. They oppress the righteous,  take a bribe, and deprive the poor of justice  at the city gates. Therefore, those who have insight will keep silent  , at such a time, for the days are evil. Pursue good and not evil so that you may live, and the LORD, the God of Armies, will be with you as you have claimed.  Hate evil and love good;  establish justice at the city gate.  Perhaps the LORD, the God of Armies, will be gracious  to the remnant of Joseph.  Therefore the LORD, the God of Armies, the Lord, says: There will be wailing in all the public squares;  they will cry out in anguish  in all the streets. The farmer will be called on to mourn,  and professional mourners  , to wail. There will be wailing in all the vineyards,  for I will pass among you.  The LORD has spoken.