Amos 5

¹Hear this word which I take up over you in lamentation, O house of Israel:

²“Fallen, no more to rise,

is the virgin Israel;

forsaken on her land,

with none to raise her up.”

³For thus says the Lord God:

“The city that went forth a thousand

shall have a hundred left,

and that which went forth a hundred

shall have ten left

to the house of Israel.”

⁴For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel:

“Seek me and live;

⁵but do not seek Bethel,

and do not enter into Gilgal

or cross over to Beer-sheba;

for Gilgal shall surely go into exile,

and Bethel shall come to nought.”

⁶Seek the Lord and live,

lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph,

and it devour, with none to quench it for Bethel,

⁷O you who turn justice to wormwood,

and cast down righteousness to the earth!

⁸He who made the Pleiades and Orion,

and turns deep darkness into the morning,

and darkens the day into night,

who calls for the waters of the sea,

and pours them out upon the surface of the earth,

the Lord is his name,

⁹who makes destruction flash forth against the strong,

so that destruction comes upon the fortress.

¹⁰They hate him who reproves in the gate,

and they abhor him who speaks the truth.

¹¹Therefore because you trample upon the poor

and take from him exactions of wheat,

you have built houses of hewn stone,

but you shall not dwell in them;

you have planted pleasant vineyards,

but you shall not drink their wine.

¹²For I know how many are your transgressions,

and how great are your sins—

you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe,

and turn aside the needy in the gate.

¹³Therefore he who is prudent will keep silent in such a time;

for it is an evil time.

¹⁴Seek good, and not evil,

that you may live;

and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you,

as you have said.

¹⁵Hate evil, and love good,

and establish justice in the gate;

it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts,

will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

¹⁶Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord:

“In all the squares there shall be wailing;

and in all the streets they shall say, ‘Alas! alas!’

They shall call the farmers to mourning

and to wailing those who are skilled in lamentation,

¹⁷and in all vineyards there shall be wailing,

for I will pass through the midst of you,”

says the Lord.

¹⁸Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord!

Why would you have the day of the Lord?

It is darkness, and not light;

¹⁹as if a man fled from a lion,

and a bear met him;

or went into the house and leaned with his hand against the wall,

and a serpent bit him.

²⁰Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light,

and gloom with no brightness in it?

²¹“I hate, I despise your feasts,

and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.

²²Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and cereal offerings,

I will not accept them,

and the peace offerings of your fatted beasts

I will not look upon.

²³Take away from me the noise of your songs;

to the melody of your harps I will not listen.

²⁴But let justice roll down like waters,

and righteousness like an everflowing stream.

²⁵“Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? ²⁶You shall take up Sakkuth your king, and Kaiwan your star-god, your images, which you made for yourselves; ²⁷therefore I will take you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.