Amos 5

CHAPTER 5

Seek Me That You May Live

¹Hear this word which I take up for you as a funeral ^alament, O house of Israel:

²She has fallen; she will ^anot rise again—

The ^bvirgin Israel.

She lies abandoned on her land;

There is ^cnone to raise her up.

³For thus says Lord Yahweh,

“The city which goes forth one thousand strong

Will have one ^ahundred left,

And the one which goes forth one hundred strong

Will have ^bten left to the house of Israel.”

⁴For thus says Yahweh to the house of Israel,

“^aSeek Me ^bthat you may live.

⁵“But do not seek ^aBethel,

And do not come to ^bGilgal,

Nor cross over to ^cBeersheba;

For Gilgal will certainly go into ¹exile,

And Bethel will become ²evil.

⁶“^aSeek Yahweh that you may live,

Lest He come mightily like a ^bfire, ¹O house of Joseph,

And it will consume with none to quench it for Bethel,

⁷For those who overturn ^ajustice into wormwood

And put righteousness down to the earth.”

⁸He who made the ^aPleiades and Orion

And ^boverturns the shadow of death into morning,

¹Who also ^cdarkens day into night,

Who ^dcalls for the waters of the sea

And pours them out on the surface of the earth,

^eYahweh is His name.

⁹It is He who ^aflashes forth with devastation upon the strong

So that ^bdevastation comes upon the fortification.

¹⁰They hate him who ^areproves in the ¹gate,

And they ^babhor him who speaks with integrity.

¹¹Therefore because you ¹impose heavy rent on the poor

And take a tribute of grain from them,

Though you have built ^ahouses of cut stone,

Yet you will not live in them;

You have planted desirable vineyards, yet you will ^bnot drink their wine.

¹²For I know your transgressions are many and your sins are mighty,

You who ^adistress the righteous and take bribes

And ¹turn aside the needy in the ²gate.

¹³Therefore at ¹such a time the one with insight ^akeeps silent, for it is an evil time.

¹⁴Seek good and not evil, in order that you may live;

And thus may Yahweh God of hosts be with you,

^aJust as you have said!

^15aHate evil, love good,

And set justice at the ¹gate!

Perhaps Yahweh God of hosts

^bMay be gracious to the ^cremnant of Joseph.

¹⁶Therefore thus says Yahweh God of hosts, the Lord,

“There is ^awailing in all the plazas,

And in all the streets they say, ‘Alas! Alas!’

They also call the ^bfarmer to mourning

And ^1cprofessional weepers to wailing.

¹⁷“And in all the ^avineyards there is wailing

Because I will pass through the midst of you,” says Yahweh.

¹⁸Woe, you who are longing for the ^aday of Yahweh,

For what purpose will the day of Yahweh be to you?

It will be ^bdarkness and not light;

¹⁹As when a man ^aflees from a lion

And a bear meets him;

¹Or he goes home, leans his hand against the wall,

And a snake bites him.

²⁰Will not the day of Yahweh be ^adarkness instead of light,

Even thick darkness with no brightness in it?

²¹“I hate, I ^areject your feasts,

Nor do I ^1bdelight in your solemn assemblies.

²²“Even though you ^aoffer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings,

I will not accept them;

And I will not even look at the ^bpeace offerings of your fatlings.

²³“Remove from Me the tumult of your songs;

I will not even listen to the melody of your harps.

²⁴“But let ^ajustice roll down like waters

And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

²⁵“^1aDid you present Me with sacrifices and grain offerings in the wilderness for forty years, O house of Israel?

²⁶“^aYou also carried along ¹Sikkuth your king and ²Kiyyun, your images, ³the star of your gods which you made for yourselves.

²⁷“Therefore, I will make you go into exile beyond Damascus,” says Yahweh, whose name is the God of hosts.