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 the Lord#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
also throw righteousness to the ground.
8The one who made the Pleiades and Orion,#Jb 9:9; 38:31
who turns darkness#5:8 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 water of the sea#Ps 104:6–9; Jr 10:13
and pours it out over the surface of the earth#Jb 36:27–30 —
the Lord is his name.#Am 4:13; 9:5–6
9He brings destruction#5:9 Hb obscure on the strong,#5:9 Or stronghold#Is 29:5
and it falls on the fortress.#Mc 5:11
10They hate the one who convicts the guilty#Is 29:21
at the city gate,
and they 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 city gates.
13Therefore, those who have insight will keep silent#5:13 Or who are prudent will perish#Ec 3:7; Hs 4:4
at such a time,
for the days are evil.
14Pursue good and not evil
so that you may live,
and the Lord, the God of Armies,
will be with you
as you have claimed.#Is 48:1–2
15Hate evil and love good;#Rm 12:9
establish justice at the city gate.#Is 1:17
Perhaps the Lord, the God of Armies, will be gracious#Jl 2:14
to the remnant of Joseph.#Mc 3:5,7–8
16Therefore the Lord, the God of Armies, 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#5:16 Lit will say, “Alas! Alas!” in all the streets.
The farmer will be called on to mourn,#Jl 1:11
and professional mourners#5:16 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 forty years in the wilderness?#Dt 32:17; Jos 24:14; Neh 9:18–21; Ac 7:42–43 26But you have taken up#5:26 Or you will lift up Sakkuth your king and Kaiwan your star god,#5:26 LXX reads taken up the tent of Molech and the star of your god Rephan; Ac 7:43 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 The Lord, the God of Armies, is his name.#Am 4:13 He has spoken.
© 2017 Holman Bible Publishers