Amos 5

Chapter 5

“Seek Me that You May Live”

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

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

The ^bvirgin Israel.

She lies neglected on her land;

There is ^cnone to raise her up.

³For thus says the Lord ¹God,

“The city which goes forth a thousand strong

Will have a ^ahundred left,

And the one which goes forth a hundred strong

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

⁴For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel,

“^aSeek Me ^bthat you may live.

⁵“But do not ¹resort to ^aBethel

And do not come to ^bGilgal,

Nor cross over to ^cBeersheba;

For Gilgal will certainly go into captivity

And Bethel will ²come to trouble.

⁶“^aSeek the Lord that you may live,

Or He will break forth like a ^bfire, ¹O house of Joseph,

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

⁷For those who turn ^ajustice into wormwood

And ¹cast righteousness down to the earth.”

⁸He who made the ^aPleiades and Orion

And ^bchanges deep darkness 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,

The ^eLord is His name.

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

So that ^bdestruction comes upon the fortress.

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 exact a tribute of grain from them,

Though you have built ^ahouses of well-hewn stone,

Yet you will not live in them;

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

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

You who ^adistress the righteous and accept bribes

And ¹turn aside the poor in the ²gate.

¹³Therefore at ¹such a time the prudent person ^akeeps silent, for it is an evil time.

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

And thus may the Lord God of hosts be with you,

^aJust as you have said!

^15aHate evil, love good,

And establish justice in the ¹gate!

Perhaps the Lord God of hosts

^bMay be gracious to the ^cremnant of Joseph.

¹⁶Therefore thus says the Lord 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 mourners to lamentation.

¹⁷“And in all the ^avineyards there is wailing,

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

¹⁸Alas, you who are longing for the ^aday of the Lord,

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

It will be ^bdarkness and not light;

¹⁹As when a man ^aflees from a lion

And a bear meets him,

¹Or goes home, leans his hand against the wall

And a snake bites him.

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

Even gloom with no brightness in it?

²¹“I hate, I ^areject your festivals,

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“Take away from Me the noise of your songs;

I will not even listen to the sound 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 the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.