Amos 4–6

SOCIAL AND SPIRITUAL CORRUPTION

4Listen to this message, you cows of Bashan^ab

who are on the hill of Samaria,

women who oppress the poor

and crush the needy,^ac

who say to their husbands,

“Bring us something to drink.”^ad

²The Lord God has sworn^ae by his holiness:^af

Look, the days are coming^D

when you will be taken away with hooks,^ag

every last one of you with fishhooks.^ah

³You will go through breaches in the wall,^ai

each woman straight ahead,

and you will be driven along toward Harmon.

This is the Lord’s declaration.

⁴Come to Bethel and rebel;

rebel even more at Gilgal!^aj

Bring your sacrifices every morning,^ak

your tenths every three days.

⁵Offer leavened bread as a thanksgiving sacrifice,^al

and loudly proclaim your freewill offerings,^am

for that is what you Israelites love to do!^an

This is the declaration of the Lord God.

GOD’S DISCIPLINE AND ISRAEL’S APOSTASY

⁶I gave you absolutely nothing to eat^Aao

in all your cities,

a shortage of food in all your communities,

yet you did not return to me.^ap

This is the Lord’s declaration.

⁷I also withheld the rain from you^aq

while there were still three months until harvest.

I sent rain on one city

but no rain on another.^ar

One field received rain

while a field with no rain withered.^a

⁸Two or three cities staggered

to another city to drink water^b

but were not satisfied,^c

yet you did not return^d to me.

This is the Lord’s declaration.

⁹I struck you with blight and mildew;^e

the locust devoured^f

your many gardens and vineyards,

your fig trees and olive trees,^g

yet you did not return to me.^h

This is the Lord’s declaration.

¹⁰I sent plagues like those of Egypt;ⁱ

I killed your young men with the sword,^j

along with your captured horses.^k

I caused the stench of your camp

to fill your nostrils,^l

yet you did not return to me.^m

This is the Lord’s declaration.

¹¹I overthrew some of you

as I^B overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,ⁿ

and you were like a burning stick

snatched from a fire,^o

yet you did not return to me^p—

This is the Lord’s declaration.

¹²Therefore, Israel, that is what I will do to you,

and since I will do that to you,

Israel, prepare to meet your God!^q

¹³He is here:

the one who forms the mountains,^r

creates the wind,^s

and reveals his thoughts to man,^t

the one who makes the dawn out of darkness

and strides on the heights of the earth.^u

The Lord, the God of Armies, is his name.^v

LAMENTATION FOR ISRAEL

5Listen to this message that I am singing for you, a lament,^w house of Israel:

²She has fallen;

Virgin Israel^x will never rise again.^y

She lies abandoned on her land

with no one to raise her up.^z

³For the Lord God says:

The city that marches out a thousand strong

will have only a hundred left,^aa

and the one that marches out a hundred strong

will have only ten left^ab in the house of Israel.

SEEK GOD AND LIVE

⁴For the Lord says to the house of Israel:

Seek me and live!^ac

⁵Do not seek Bethel^ad

or go to Gilgal^ae

or journey to Beer-sheba,^af

for Gilgal will certainly go into exile,

and Bethel will come to nothing.

⁶Seek the Lord^ag and live,

or he will spread like fire^ah

throughout the house of Joseph;

it will consume everything

with no one at Bethel to extinguish it.^ai

⁷Those who turn justice into wormwood^aj

also throw righteousness to the ground.

⁸The one who made the Pleiades and Orion,^ak

who turns darkness^A into dawn^al

and darkens day into night,^am

who summons the water of the sea^an

and pours it out over the surface of the earth^ao—

the Lord is his name.^ap

⁹He brings destruction^B on the strong,^Caq

and it falls on the fortress.^ar

¹⁰They hate the one who convicts the guilty^as

at the city gate,

and they despise^at the one who speaks with integrity.

¹¹Therefore, because you trample on the poor^au

and exact a grain tax from him,

you will never live in the houses of cut stone^av

you have built;

you will never drink the wine

from the lush vineyards

you have planted.^aw

¹²For I know your crimes are many

and your sins innumerable.

They oppress the righteous,^a take a bribe,

and deprive the poor of justice^b at the city gates.

¹³Therefore, those who have insight will keep silent^Dc

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.^d

¹⁵Hate evil and love good;^e

establish justice at the city gate.^f

Perhaps the Lord, the God of Armies, will be gracious^g

to the remnant of Joseph.^h

¹⁶Therefore the Lord, the God of Armies, the Lord, says:

There will be wailing in all the public squares;ⁱ

they will cry out in anguish^A in all the streets.

The farmer will be called on to mourn,^j

and professional mourners^Bk to wail.

¹⁷There will be wailing in all the vineyards,^l

for I will pass among you.^m

The Lord has spoken.

THE DAY OF THE LORD

¹⁸Woe to you who long for the day of the Lord!ⁿ

What will the day of the Lord be for you?

It will be darkness and not light.^o

¹⁹It will be like a man who flees from a lion^p

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,^q

even gloom without any brightness in it?^r

²¹I hate, I despise, your feasts!^s

I can’t stand the stench

of your solemn assemblies.^t

²²Even if you offer me

your burnt offerings and grain offerings,^u

I will not accept them;^v

I will have no regard

for your fellowship offerings of fattened cattle.^w

²³Take away from me the noise of your songs!

I will not listen to the music of your harps.^x

²⁴But let justice flow like water,

and righteousness, like an unfailing stream.^y

²⁵“House of Israel, was it sacrifices and grain offerings that you presented to me during the forty years in the wilderness?^{z 26}But you have taken up^C Sakkuth your king and Kaiwan your star god, images you have made for yourselves.^{aa 27}So I will send you into exile beyond Damascus.”^ab The Lord, the God of Armies, is his name.^ac He has spoken.

WOE TO THE COMPLACENT

6Woe to those who are at ease in Zion^ad

and to those who feel secure on the hill of Samaria—

the notable people in this first of the nations,

those the house of Israel comes to.

²Cross over to Calneh^ae and see;

go from there to great Hamath;^af

then go down to Gath^ag of the Philistines.

Are you better than these kingdoms?

Is their territory larger than yours?

³You dismiss any thought of the evil day^ah

and bring in a reign of violence.^ai

⁴They lie on beds inlaid with ivory,^aj

sprawled out on their couches,^ak

and dine on lambs from the flock^al

and calves from the stall.

⁵They improvise songs^A to the sound of the harp^am

and invent^B their own musical instruments like David.^an

⁶They drink wine by the bowlful^ao

and anoint themselves with the finest oils

but do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph.^ap

⁷Therefore, they will now go into exile

as the first of the captives,^aq

and the feasting^a of those who sprawl out

will come to an end.

ISRAEL’S PRIDE JUDGED

⁸The Lord God has sworn by himself^b—this is the declaration of the Lord, the God of Armies:

I loathe Jacob’s pride^c

and hate his citadels,^d

so I will hand over the city^e and everything in it.

⁹And if there are ten men left in one house, they will die.^{f 10}A close relative^C and burner^Dg will remove his corpse^E from the house. He will call to someone in the inner recesses of the house, “Any more with you?”

That person will reply, “None.”

Then he will say, “Silence, because the Lord’s name must not be invoked.”^h

¹¹For the Lord commands:

The large house will be smashed to pieces,

and the small house to rubble.ⁱ

¹²Do horses gallop on the cliffs?

Does anyone plow there with oxen?^F

Yet you have turned justice into poison^j

and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood^k—

¹³you who rejoice over Lo-debar^l

and say, “Didn’t we capture Karnaim

for ourselves by our own strength?”^m

¹⁴But look, I am raising up a nation

against you, house of Israelⁿ—

this is the declaration of the Lord,

the God of Armies—

and they will oppress you

from the entrance of Hamath^Go

to the Brook of the Arabah.^H