Amos 5
5
Lamentation for Israel
1Listen to this message that I am singing for you, a lament, # Jr 7:29; 9:10,17; Ezk 19:1 house of Israel:
2She has fallen;
Virgin Israel # Jr 14:17; 31:4,21 will never rise again. # Am 8:14
She lies abandoned on her land,
with no one to raise her up. # Is 51:18
3For the Lord God says:
The city that marches out a thousand strong
will have only a hundred left, # Is 6:13
and the one that marches out a hundred strong
will have only ten left # Am 6:9 in the house of Israel.
Seek God and Live
4For the Lord says to the house of Israel:
Seek Me and live! # Dt 4:29; 32:46-47
5Do not seek Bethel # 1Kg 12:28-29
or go to Gilgal # 1Sm 7:16; 11:14
or journey to Beer-sheba, # Gn 21:31-33
for Gilgal will certainly go into exile,
and Bethel will come to nothing.
6Seek Yahweh # Is 55:3,6-7 and live,
or He will spread like fire # Dt 4:24; 32:22; Heb 12:29
throughout the house of Joseph;
it will consume everything,
with no one at Bethel to extinguish it. # Is 33:14; 66:24; Jr 4:4
7Those who turn justice into wormwood # Am 6:12
throw righteousness to the ground.
8The One who made the Pleiades and Orion, # Jb 9:9; 38:31
who turns darkness # Or turns the shadow of death into dawn # Gn 1:2-3; Jb 38:12
and darkens day into night, # Am 8:9
who summons the waters of the sea # Ps 104:6-9; Jr 10:13
and pours them out over the face of the earth # Jb 36:27-30 —
Yahweh is His name. # Am 4:13; 9:5-6
9He brings destruction # Hb obscure on the strong, # Or stronghold # Is 29:5
and it falls on the stronghold. # Mc 5:11
10They hate the one who convicts the guilty # Is 29:21
at the city gate
and despise # Is 59:15 the one who speaks with integrity.
11Therefore, because you trample on the poor # Am 3:9; 8:6; Jms 1:27
and exact a grain tax from him,
you will never live in the houses of cut stone # Am 3:15; 6:11
you have built;
you will never drink the wine
from the lush vineyards
you have planted. # Dt 28:30; Mc 6:15; Zph 1:13
12For I know your crimes are many
and your sins innumerable.
They oppress the righteous, # Is 1:23; 5:23 take a bribe,
and deprive the poor of justice # Am 2:6-7 at the gates.
13Therefore, the wise person will keep silent # Or the prudent will perish # Ec 3:7; Hs 4:4
at such a time,
for the days are evil.
14Seek good and not evil
so that you may live,
and the Lord, the God of Hosts,
will be with you,
as you have claimed. # Is 48:1-2
15Hate evil and love good; # Rm 12:9
establish justice in the gate. # Is 1:17
Perhaps the Lord, the God of Hosts, will be gracious # Jl 2:14
to the remnant of Joseph. # Mc 3:5,7-8
16Therefore Yahweh, the God of Hosts, the Lord, says:
There will be wailing in all the public squares; # Jr 9:10,18-20; Am 8:3
they will cry out in anguish # Lit will say, “Alas! Alas!” in all the streets.
The farmer will be called on to mourn, # Jl 1:11
and professional mourners # Lit and those skilled in lamentation # Jr 9:17 to wail.
17There will be wailing in all the vineyards, # Is 16:10; Jr 48:33
for I will pass among you. # Ex 12:12
The Lord has spoken.
The Day of the Lord
18Woe to you who long for the Day of the Lord! # Is 5:19; Jl 1:15; 2:1,11,31
What will the Day of the Lord be for you?
It will be darkness and not light. # Is 5:30
19It will be like a man who flees from a lion # Jb 20:24; Is 24:17; Jr 15:2-3
only to have a bear confront him.
He goes home and rests his hand against the wall
only to have a snake bite him.
20Won’t the Day of the Lord
be darkness rather than light, # Is 13:10; Zph 1:15
even gloom without any brightness in it? # Jl 2:2; Zph 1:15
21I hate, I despise your feasts! # Is 1:11-16; 66:3; Am 6:8
I can’t stand the stench
of your solemn assemblies. # Lv 26:31; Jr 14:12; Hs 5:6
22Even if you offer Me
your burnt offerings and grain offerings, # Mc 6:6-7
I will not accept them; # Jr 14:12
I will have no regard
for your fellowship offerings of fattened cattle. # Lv 7:11-15
23Take away from Me the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the music of your harps. # Is 5:12
24But let justice flow like water,
and righteousness, like an unfailing stream. # Mc 6:6-8
25“House of Israel, was it sacrifices and grain offerings that you presented to Me during the 40 years in the wilderness? # Dt 32:17; Jos 24:14; Neh 9:18-21; Ac 7:42-43 26But you have taken up # Or you will lift up Sakkuth # LXX, Sym, Syr, Vg read the tent ; Ac 7:43 # Probably a Mesopotamian war god also called Adar or Ninurta your king # LXX reads up the tent of Molech and Rephan ; Ac 7:43 and Kaiwan # Probably a Mesopotamian god identified with Saturn your star god, images you have made for yourselves. # Is 44:12-20 27So I will send you into exile beyond Damascus.” # 2Kg 17:5-6; Ac 7:42-43 Yahweh, the God of Hosts, is His name. # Am 4:13 He has spoken.
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Amos 5: HCSB
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© 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee. All rights reserved.
Amos 5
5
All Show, No Substance
1Listen to this, family of Israel,
this Message I’m sending in bold print, this tragic warning:
2“Virgin Israel has fallen flat on her face.
She’ll never stand up again.
She’s been left where she’s fallen.
No one offers to help her up.”
3This is the Message, God’s Word:
“The city that marches out with a thousand
will end up with a hundred.
The city that marches out with a hundred
will end up with ten. Oh, family of Israel!”
4-5 God’s Message to the family of Israel:
“Seek me and live.
Don’t fool around at those shrines of Bethel,
Don’t waste time taking trips to Gilgal,
and don’t bother going down to Beer-sheba.
Gilgal is here today and gone tomorrow
and Bethel is all show, no substance.”
6So seek God and live! You don’t want to end up
with nothing to show for your life
But a pile of ashes, a house burned to the ground.
For God will send just such a fire,
and the firefighters will show up too late.
Raw Truth Is Never Popular
7-9Woe to you who turn justice to vinegar
and stomp righteousness into the mud.
Do you realize where you are? You’re in a cosmos
star-flung with constellations by God,
A world God wakes up each morning
and puts to bed each night.
God dips water from the ocean
and gives the land a drink.
God, God-revealed, does all this.
And he can destroy it as easily as make it.
He can turn this vast wonder into total waste.
10-12People hate this kind of talk.
Raw truth is never popular.
But here it is, bluntly spoken:
Because you run roughshod over the poor
and take the bread right out of their mouths,
You’re never going to move into
the luxury homes you have built.
You’re never going to drink wine
from the expensive vineyards you’ve planted.
I know precisely the extent of your violations,
the enormity of your sins. Appalling!
You bully right-living people,
taking bribes right and left and kicking the poor when they’re down.
13Justice is a lost cause. Evil is epidemic.
Decent people throw up their hands.
Protest and rebuke are useless,
a waste of breath.
14Seek good and not evil—
and live!
You talk about God, the God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
being your best friend.
Well, live like it,
and maybe it will happen.
15Hate evil and love good,
then work it out in the public square.
Maybe God, the God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
will notice your remnant and be gracious.
16-17Now again, my Master’s Message, God, God-of-the-Angel-Armies:
“Go out into the streets and lament loudly!
Fill the malls and shops with cries of doom!
Weep loudly, ‘Not me! Not us, Not now!’
Empty offices, stores, factories, workplaces.
Enlist everyone in the general lament.
I want to hear it loud and clear when I make my visit.”
God’s Decree.
Time to Face Hard Reality, Not Fantasy
18-20Woe to all of you who want God’s Judgment Day!
Why would you want to see God, want him to come?
When God comes, it will be bad news before it’s good news,
the worst of times, not the best of times.
Here’s what it’s like: A man runs from a lion
right into the jaws of a bear.
A woman goes home after a hard day’s work
and is raped by a neighbor.
At God’s coming we face hard reality, not fantasy—
a black cloud with no silver lining.
21-24“I can’t stand your religious meetings.
I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions.
I want nothing to do with your religion projects,
your pretentious slogans and goals.
I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes,
your public relations and image making.
I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music.
When was the last time you sang to me?
Do you know what I want?
I want justice—oceans of it.
I want fairness—rivers of it.
That’s what I want. That’s all I want.
25-27“Didn’t you, dear family of Israel, worship me faithfully for forty years in the wilderness, bringing the sacrifices and offerings I commanded? How is it you’ve stooped to dragging gimcrack statues of your so-called rulers around, hauling the cheap images of all your star-gods here and there? Since you like them so much, you can take them with you when I drive you into exile beyond Damascus.” God’s Message, God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.