Amos 5:10–24

¹⁰They have hated him that rebuketh in the gate: and have abhorred him that speaketh perfectly.

¹¹Therefore because you robbed the poor, and took the choice prey from him: you shall build houses with square stone, and shall not dwell in them: you shall plant most delightful vineyards, and shall not drink the wine of them.

¹²Because I know your manifold crimes, and your grievous sins: enemies of the just, taking bribes, and oppressing the poor in the gate.

¹³Therefore the prudent shall keep silence at that time, for it is an evil time.

¹⁴Seek ye good, and not evil, that you may live: and the Lord the God of hosts will be with you, as you have said.

¹⁵Hate evil, and love good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be the Lord the God of hosts may have mercy on the remnant of Joseph.

¹⁶Therefore thus saith the Lord the God of hosts the sovereign Lord: In every street there shall be wailing: and in all places that are without, they shall say: Alas, alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful in lamentation to lament.

¹⁷And in all vineyards there shall be wailing: because I will pass through in the midst of thee, saith the Lord.

¹⁸Woe to them that desire the day of the Lord: to what end is it for you? the day of the Lord is darkness, and not light.

¹⁹As if a man should flee from the face of a lion, and a bear should meet him: or enter into the house, and lean with his hand upon the wall, and a serpent should bite him.

²⁰Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light: and obscurity, and no brightness in it?

²¹I hate, and have rejected your festivities: and I will not receive the odour of your assemblies.

²²And if you offer me holocausts, and your gifts, I will not receive them: neither will I regard the vows of your fat beasts.

²³Take away from me the tumult of thy songs: and I will not hear the canticles of thy harp.

²⁴But judgment shall be revealed as water, and justice as a mighty torrent.