Amos 5:6–12

⁶So seek God and live! You don’t want to end up

with nothing to show for your life

But a pile of ashes, a house burned to the ground.

For God will send just such a fire,

and the firefighters will show up too late.

Raw Truth Is Never Popular

^7–9Woe to you who turn justice to vinegar

and stomp righteousness into the mud.

Do you realize where you are? You’re in a cosmos

star-flung with constellations by God,

A world God wakes up each morning

and puts to bed each night.

God dips water from the ocean

and gives the land a drink.

God, God-revealed, does all this.

And he can destroy it as easily as make it.

He can turn this vast wonder into total waste.

^10–12People hate this kind of talk.

Raw truth is never popular.

But here it is, bluntly spoken:

Because you run roughshod over the poor

and take the bread right out of their mouths,

You’re never going to move into

the luxury homes you have built.

You’re never going to drink wine

from the expensive vineyards you’ve planted.

I know precisely the extent of your violations,

the enormity of your sins. Appalling!

You bully right-living people,

taking bribes right and left and kicking the poor when they’re down.