Amos 5

Translated from the Hebrew of the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Tap a verse to see why it reads as it does. Tap a small letter to read its footnote.

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A lament for Israel

¹Hear this word, house of Israel, this lament I raise over you: ²Fallen, never to rise again, is Virgin Israel; \q she lies abandoned on her own land, with no one to lift her up. ³For the Lord GOD says this: \q The city that marches out a thousand strong will be left with a hundred, \q and the one that marches out a hundred strong will be left with ten, in the house of Israel.

Seek the LORD and live

⁴For the LORD says this to the house of Israel: \q Seek me and live! ⁵Do not seek Bethel; \q do not go to Gilgal \q or cross over to Beersheba. \q For Gilgal is sure to go into exile, \q and Bethel will be reduced to nothing. ⁶Seek the LORD and live, \q or he will sweep through the house of Joseph like fire; \q it will burn, and there will be no one at Bethel to put it out. ⁷You turn justice into bitter wormwood \q and throw righteousness to the ground. ⁸He made the Pleiades and Orion; he turns deep darkness into morning \q and darkens day into night. \q He calls up the waters of the sea and pours them out across the face of the earth: the LORD is his name.

⁹He makes destruction blaze out against the strong, \q and ruin comes upon the fortress. ¹⁰They hate anyone who rebukes wrongdoing in court \q and detest whoever speaks honestly. ¹¹Therefore, because you trample on the poor and force them to hand over their grain, \q you have built houses of cut stone, but you will not live in them; \q you have planted fine vineyards, \q but you will not drink their wine. ¹²For I know how many your crimes are \q and how great your sins: \q you oppress the innocent and take bribes, \q and you push aside the poor in court. ¹³So at such a time the prudent keep quiet, \q for it is an evil time. ¹⁴Seek good and not evil, so that you may live, \q and so that the LORD God of Armies may truly be with you, as you claim he is. ¹⁵Hate evil and love good; \q establish justice in the courts. \q It may be that the LORD God of Armies will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

Wailing in every street

¹⁶Therefore the LORD God of Armies, the Lord, says this: \q There will be wailing in every square, \q and in every street people will cry, “Alas! Alas!” \q They will call the farmers to mourn \q and the professional mourners to wail. ¹⁷There will be wailing in every vineyard, \q for I will pass through the middle of you, says the LORD.

The day of the LORD

¹⁸Woe to you who long for the day of the LORD! \q Why do you want the day of the LORD? It will be darkness, not light. ¹⁹It will be as when a man runs from a lion \q and a bear meets him, \q or he goes home \q and leans his hand against the wall, \q and a snake bites him. ²⁰Will not the day of the LORD be darkness, not light, \q pitch dark, with no brightness in it? ²¹I hate, I despise your festivals; \q I take no pleasure in your sacred assemblies. ²²Even if you sacrifice burnt offerings and grain offerings to me, I will not accept them; \q I will not look at the peace offerings of your fattened animals. ²³Take the noise of your songs away from me; \q I will not listen to the music of your harps. ²⁴Instead, let justice roll on like water, \q and righteousness like a stream that never runs dry. ²⁵Was it sacrifices and offerings that you brought me during the forty years in the wilderness, house of Israel? ²⁶So you will carry off Sikkuth, your king, \q and Kiyyun, your idols, \q the star of your god, \q which you made for yourselves. ²⁷So I will take you into exile beyond Damascus, \q says the LORD; the God of Armies is his name.