Amos 5:10–24

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.