Amos 5:16-27

Because of Israel’s sins, Lord YAHWEH, God of Angel Armies, says this: “Wailing and sorrow everywhere! In every street they will mourn the dead. Those who work in the fields will be expected to mourn along with the professional mourners. There will be wailing in all the vineyards, for I will pass through your midst to punish you,” declares YAHWEH. Woe to you who long for the day of YAHWEH! Why do you long for the day of YAHWEH? Its arrival will mean darkness, not light. You will be seized like someone who runs from a lion and a bear charges at him. Then he hides indoors and leans his hand against the wall only to have a venomous snake bite him. Will not the day of YAHWEH bring darkness, not light— a day of gloom without a ray of light? YAHWEH “I hate your religious festivals; I absolutely despise them! Your pious gatherings make me sick! Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. And though you bring me choice peace offerings of fattened animals, I won’t even look at them. Spare me the monotonous melodies of your ‘worship.’ I don’t want to hear your strumming guitars anymore. It’s just noise to me. However, I delight in a land where justice flows like a river and where true righteousness rolls like a steady flowing stream. Listen, people of Israel! Didn’t you worship me with your offerings and sacrifices during those forty years in the wilderness? Now you carry around the pagan idols that you made to worship your phony king, Sakkuth, and your very own star-god, Kaiwan. Therefore, you can carry them all the way beyond Damascus, where I am about to drive you into captivity,” says YAHWEH. God of Angel Armies is his name!