Amos 4–6

Social and Spiritual Corruption

4Hear this word, you cows of Bashan who live on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the powerless, who crush the poor, who say to their husbands, “Bring something so that we may drink!” ²My Lord Yahweh has sworn by his holiness that, “Behold, the days are coming upon you when they^a will take you away with hooks, even the last of you with fishing hooks. ³And you shall leave through breaches in the wall, each one in front of her. You will be dragged off toward Harmon,”^b declares^c Yahweh. ⁴“Come to Bethel and transgress; to Gilgal and multiply transgression!^d Bring your sacrifices in the morning and your tithes on the third day.^{e 5}And bring a thank offering of leavened bread, and proclaim freewill offerings, pronounce them, for so you love to do, O people^f of Israel,” is the declaration of my Lord Yahweh. ⁶“And I^g in turn gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities and lack of bread in all your places. Yet you did not return to me,” is the declaration of Yahweh. ⁷“And I also withheld the rain from you when there were still three months to the harvest. And I would send rain on one city and send no rain on another city. One tract of land will be rained on, and the tract of land on which it does not rain^h will dry up. ⁸So two or three cities wandered to one city to drink water and they were not satisfied, yet you did not return to me,” is the declaration of Yahweh. ⁹“I struck you with blight and with mildew. Frequently the cutting locust devoured your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees, yet you did not return to me,” is the declaration of Yahweh. ¹⁰“I sent among you a plague in the manner of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword, along with the captivity of your horses. And I made the stench of your camps go up into your nostrils, yet you did not return to me,” is the declaration of Yahweh. ¹¹“I overthrew some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a stick snatched from the fire, and yet you did not return to me,” is the declaration of Yahweh. ¹²“Therefore, thus I will do to you, O Israel. Because I will do this to you, O Israel, prepare to meet your God! ¹³Yes, here is the one who forms the mountains, and the one who creates the wind, and the one who reveals to humankind what his thoughts are, the one who turns dawn into darkness, and the one who treads on the heights of the earth; Yahweh, the God of hosts, is his name!”

A Lament and Call to Repentance

5Hear this word that I am going to intone over you as a lament, O house of Israel! ²Virgin Israel has fallen and will not rise again. She is deserted on her land; there is no one to raise her up. ³For thus says my Lord Yahweh, “The city that marches out with a thousand will only have a hundred left. And the one that marches out with a hundred will only have ten left for the house of Israel.” ⁴For thus says Yahweh to the house of Israel, “Seek me so that you may live.” ⁵But do not seek Bethel or go to Gilgal or cross over to Beersheba, for Gilgal will certainly go into exile and Bethel will come to disaster.” ⁶Seek Yahweh so that you may live, so that he will not break out like a fire against the house of Joseph! And it will devour, with none to quench^a it for Bethel. ⁷Ah, you who turn justice into wormwood and hurl righteousness to the ground! ⁸The one who made the Pleiades and Orion and who turns deep darkness into the morning and darkens day into night, the one who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the surface of the earth, Yahweh is his name! ⁹The one who makes destruction flash upon the fierce, so that^b destruction comes upon the fortification. ¹⁰They hate the one who reproves in the gate and they abhor the one who speaks honestly. ¹¹Therefore, because you trample on the poor and you take a grain tax from them, you built houses of dressed stone, but you will not live in them. You built vineyards of delightfulness, but you will not drink their wine. ¹²For I know your transgressions are many and your sins are numerous, you foes of the righteous, those who take a bribe, and those who^c push aside the poor ones in the gate! ¹³Therefore, whoever has insight will keep silent in that time, for it is a time of evil. ¹⁴Seek good and not bad in order that you may live, and so Yahweh, the God of hosts, will be with you, as you have said. ¹⁵Hate evil and love good and establish justice in the gate; perhaps Yahweh, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. ¹⁶Therefore, thus says Yahweh, the God of hosts, my Lord, “In all of the public squares there will be wailing, and in all of the streets they will say, ‘Alas, alas!’ They shall call the farmers to mourning and to wailing, to those who are skilled in lamentation. ¹⁷And in all of the vineyards there will be wailing, because I will pass in your midst,” says Yahweh.

The Day of Yahweh

¹⁸Alas, those who desire the day of Yahweh, why is this for you the day of Yahweh? It will be darkness and not light! ¹⁹It will be as if a man fled from a lion and a bear met him; or he went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall and a snake bit him. ²⁰Is not the day of Yahweh darkness and not light, and pitch dark with no brightness in it? ²¹“I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your assemblies. ²²Yes, even if you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them, and I will not look at the fellowship offerings of your fattened animals. ²³Remove from me the noise of your songs, and I do not want to hear the melody of your harps! ²⁴But let justice roll on like the water, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. ²⁵Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings those forty years in the desert, O house of Israel? ²⁶And you will take up Sikkuth, your king, and Kaiwan, your images, the star of your gods which you made for yourselves. ²⁷And I will deport you beyond Damascus,” says Yahweh—the God of hosts is his name.

Woe to the Complacent

6Alas for those being at ease in Zion, and those who feel secure on Mount Samaria, the notables of the best of the nations! The house of Israel resorts to them. ²Cross over to Calneh and see, and go from there to Hamath Rabbah and go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are you better than these kingdoms, or is their territory greater than your territory? ³You that put off the day of disaster and bring near a reign of violence! ⁴Alas for those who lie on beds of ivory and lounge on their couches, and those eating young rams from the sheep and goats, and bull-calves from the middle of the animal stall. ⁵Alas for those who sing to the tune of the harp; like David they improvise on instruments of music. ⁶Alas for those who drink from sprinkling bowls of wine and anoint themselves with the best of olive oils and are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph. ⁷Therefore, they shall now go into exile at the head of the exiles and the feast of lounging shall pass away.

Yahweh Abhors Israel’s Pride

⁸My Lord Yahweh has sworn by himself, declares^a Yahweh, the God of hosts: “I abhor the pride of Jacob and I hate his citadel fortresses and I will deliver the city and its fullness!” ⁹And then if ten people remain in one house, they too will die. ¹⁰And if one’s relative, who burns the body, lifts it up and brings the body out of the house and he will say to someone in the innermost part of the house, “Are there any more with you?” and he will say, “None,” then he will say, “Silence,” because we must not invoke the name of Yahweh. ¹¹Look, Yahweh is going to command and the great house will be destroyed to bits and the little house to pieces. ¹²Do horses run on rocks, or does one plow the sea with oxen?^b But you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood! ¹³You who rejoice over Lo-Debar, who say, “Have we not taken Karnaim for ourselves by our strength?” ¹⁴Indeed, I am going to raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, declares^c Yahweh, the God of hosts. And they shall oppress you from Lebo-hamath up to the wadi of the Arabah.