Amos 5

^aHear ye this word which I ^btake up against you,

Even ^ba lamentation, O house of Israel.

^2cThe virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise:

She ^dis forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up.

³For thus saith the Lord God;

The city that ^ewent out by a thousand shall leave an hundred,

And that which ^ewent forth by an hundred ^fshall leave ten,

To the house of Israel.

⁴For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel,

^gSeek ye me, and ^hye shall live:

⁵But seek not ⁱBeth-el, nor enter into ⁱGilgal,

And pass not to ^kBeer-sheba:

For Gilgal shall surely go into captivity,

And ⁱBeth-el shall come to ^lnought.

^6gSeek the Lord, and ye shall live;

Lest he ^mbreak out like fire in the house of Joseph,

And devour it, and there be none to quench it in ⁱBeth-el.

⁷ⁿYe who turn judgment to ^owormwood,

And ^pleave off righteousness in the earth,

⁸Seek him that maketh ^qthe seven stars and ^qrOrion,

And ^sturneth ^tthe shadow of death into the morning,

And ^uwmaketh the day dark with night:

^vThat calleth for the waters of the sea,

^vAnd poureth them out upon the face of the earth:

^vwThe Lord is his name:

⁹That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong,

So that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.

^10xThey hate ^yhim that ^zrebuketh ^zzin the gate,

And ^athey abhor him that speaketh uprightly.

¹¹Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor,

And ye take from him ^bburdens of wheat:

^cYe have built houses of hewn stone,

But ye shall not dwell in them;

^cYe have planted pleasant vineyards,

But ye shall not drink wine of them.

¹²For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins:

They afflict the just, they take a bribe,

And they ^dturn aside the poor ^zzein the gate from their right.

¹³Therefore the prudent ^fshall keep silence in that time;

^gFor it is an evil time.

^14hSeek good, and not evil, that ye may live:

And so the Lord, ⁱthe God of hosts, shall be with you, ^kas ye have spoken.

^15lHate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment ^ein the gate:

^mIt may be that the Lord ⁱGod of hosts will be gracious unto ⁿthe remnant of Joseph.

¹⁶Therefore the Lord, ⁱthe God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus;

ⁿⁿWailing shall be in all streets;

And they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas!

And they shall call the husbandman to mourning,

And ^osuch as are skilful of lamentation to wailing.

¹⁷And in all vineyards shall be wailing:

For ^pI will pass through thee, saith the Lord.

^18qWoe unto you that desire ^rthe day of the Lord!

To what end is it for you?

^sThe day of the Lord is darkness, and not light.

^19tAs if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him;

Or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and ^ua serpent bit him.

^20sShall not ^rthe day of the Lord be darkness, and not light?

^vEven very dark, and no brightness in it?

^21wI hate, I despise your feast days,

And ^xI will not smell in your ^ysolemn assemblies.

^22wThough ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, ^zI will not accept them:

^wNeither will I regard the ^apeace offerings of your fat beasts.

²³Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs;

For ^bI will not hear the melody of thy ^cviols.

^24dBut let judgment run down as waters,

And righteousness as ^ea mighty stream.

^25fHave ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?

²⁶But ye have ^gborne the tabernacle of your ^hMoloch and Chiun your images,

The star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.

²⁷Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity ⁱbeyond ^kDamascus,

Saith ^lthe Lord, whose name is ^mThe God of hosts.

VI.