Amos 2:4–6:14

4  Thus saith the Lord;

aFor three transgressions of Judah,

aAnd for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof;

iBecause they have despised the law of the Lord,

And ihave not kept his commandments,

And ktheir lies caused them to err,

lAfter the which their fathers have walked:

5  dBut mI will send a fire upon Judah,

dAnd mit shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.

6  Thus saith the Lord;

aFor three transgressions of Israel,

aAnd for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof;

Because nthey sold the righteous ofor silver,

oAnd the poor for a pair of shoes;

7  pThat pant after qthe dust of the earth on the head of the poor,

And rturn aside the way of the meek:

And sa man and his father will go in unto the same ||maid,

tTo profane my holy name:

8  And they lay themselves down upon uclothes laid to pledge vby every altar,

And they drink the wine of ||wthe condemned vin the house of their god.

9  Yet xdestroyed I the Amorite before them,

yWhose height was like the height of the cedars,

And he was strong as yythe oaks;

Yet zI destroyed his fruit from above,

And zhis roots from beneath.

10  Also aI brought you up from the land of Egypt,

And bled you forty years through the wilderness,

cTo possess the land of the Amorite.

11  And I raised up of your sons for prophets,

And of your young men for dNazarites.

Is it not even thus, O ye children of Israel? saith the Lord.

12  But eye gave the Nazarites wine to drink;

And commanded the prophets, fsaying, Prophesy not.

13  Behold, ||hI am pressed under you,

As a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves.

14  Therefore ithe flight shall perish from jkthe swift,

And jlthe strong shall not strengthen his force,

mNeither shall the mighty deliver †himself:

15  Neither shall he stand that handleth the bow;

And he that is knswift of foot shall not deliver himself:

joNeither shall he that rideth the horse deliver himself.

16  And he that is †courageous among pthe mighty

Shall flee away naked in that day, saith the Lord.

3 aHear this word that the Lord hath spoken against you, bO children of Israel,

Against the whole family cwhich I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying,

2  dYou only ehave I known of all the families of the earth:

fTherefore I will †punish you for all your iniquities.

3  gCan two walk together, except they be agreed?

4  hWill ia lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey?

iWill a young lion †cry out of his kden, if he have taken nothing?

5  lCan a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin is for him?

lShall one take up a snare from the earth, and have taken nothing at all?

6  eeShall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people ||not be afraid?

ffShall there be ggevil in a city, ||and ffthe Lord hath not done it?

7  Surely the Lord God will do nothing,

hhBut he revealeth jhis secret unto his servants the prophets.

8  iThe lion hath roared, who will not fear?

The Lord God hath spoken, kkwho can but prophesy?

9  Publish in the palaces at llAshdod,

And in the palaces in the land of Egypt,

And say, Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of mSamaria,

And behold the great tumults in the midst thereof,

And the ||noppressed in the midst thereof.

10  For othey know not to do right, saith the Lord,

Who store up ooviolence and ||robbery in their palaces.

11  Therefore thus saith the Lord God;

pAn adversary there shall be even round about the land;

And he shall bring down thy strength from thee,

And pthy palaces shall be spoiled.

12  Thus saith the Lord;

As the shepherd †taketh out of the mouth of the lion qtwo legs, or qa piece of an ear;

So shall the children of Israel be taken out

That dwell in mSamaria rin the corner of a bed, and ||rrin Damascus in a couch.

13  aHear ye, and testify sin the house of Jacob,

Saith the Lord God, ssthe God of hosts,

14  That in the day that I shall ||visit the transgressions of Israel upon him

I will also ||visit tthe altars of uBeth-el:

And vthe horns of the altar shall be cut off,

And vfall to the ground.

15  And I wwill smite xthe winter house with ythe summer house;

And zthe houses of ivory shall perish,

And the great houses shall have an end, saith the Lord.

4 aHear this word, bye kine of Bashan, that are in bbthe mountain of cSamaria,

Which doppress the poor, which dcrush the needy,

Which say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink.

2  The Lord God ehath sworn by his holiness,

That, lo, the days shall come upon you,

That fhe will take you away with hooks,

And your gposterity with fishhooks.

3  And hye shall go out at the breaches, every cow iat that which is before her;

And ||ye shall cast them into the palace, saith the Lord.

4  kCome to lBeth-el, and lltransgress;

mAt Gilgal multiply transgression;

And nbring your sacrifices every morning,

And oyour tithes after †three years:

5  And †offer pa sacrifice of thanksgiving qwith leaven,

And proclaim and publish qqthe free offerings:

For †this liketh you, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord God.

6  And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities,

And rwant of bread in all your places:

sYet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.

7  And also tI have withholden the rain from you,

uWhen there were yet three months to the harvest:

And I vcaused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city:

One piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered.

8  So two or three cities vvwandered unto one city, to drink water;

But they were not satisfied:

sYet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.

9  wI have smitten you with blasting and mildew:

||When your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased,

xThe palmerworm xxdevoured them:

sYet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.

10  I have sent among you the pestilence ||yafter the manner of Egypt:

Your young men have I slain with the sword, †and zhave taken away your horses;

And I have made athe stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils:

sYet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.

11  I have overthrown some of you, bas God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,

And ye were as cda firebrand ceplucked out of the burning:

sYet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.

12  Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel:

And because I will do this unto thee,

fPrepare to meet thy God, O Israel.

13  For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the ||wind,

And gdeclareth unto man what is his thought,

hThat maketh the morning idarkness,

And ktreadeth klupon the high places of the earth,

mThe Lord, nThe God of hosts, is his name.

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

Even ba lamentation, O house of Israel.

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

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

3  For 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.

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

gSeek ye me, and hye shall live:

5  But 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.

6  gSeek 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.

7  nYe who turn judgment to owormwood,

And pleave off righteousness in the earth,

8  Seek 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:

9  That strengtheneth the †spoiled against the strong,

So that the †spoiled shall come against the fortress.

10  xThey hate yhim that zrebuketh zzin the gate,

And athey abhor him that speaketh uprightly.

11  Forasmuch 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.

12  For 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.

13  Therefore the prudent fshall keep silence in that time;

gFor it is an evil time.

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

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

15  lHate 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.

16  Therefore 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.

17  And in all vineyards shall be wailing:

For pI will pass through thee, saith the Lord.

18  qWoe 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.

19  tAs 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.

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

vEven very dark, and no brightness in it?

21  wI hate, I despise your feast days,

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

22  wThough 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.

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

For bI will not hear the melody of thy cviols.

24  dBut let judgment †run down as waters,

And righteousness as ea mighty stream.

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

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

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

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

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

6 aWoe to them that ||are bat ease in Zion,

And trust in athe mountain of Samaria,

Which are cnamed ||d…