Amos 5:10–24

¹⁰You hate those who speak in court against evil,

and you can’t stand those who tell the truth.

¹¹You walk on poor people,

forcing them to give you grain.

You have built fancy houses of cut stone,

but you will not live in them.

You have planted beautiful vineyards,

but you will not drink the wine from them.

¹²I know your many crimes,

your terrible sins.

You hurt people who do right,

you take money to do wrong,

and you keep the poor from getting justice in court.

¹³In such times the wise person will keep quiet,

because it is a bad time.

¹⁴Try to do good, not evil,

so that you will live,

and the Lord God All-Powerful will be with you

just as you say he is.

¹⁵Hate evil and love good;

be fair in the courts.

Maybe the Lord God All-Powerful will be kind

to the people of Joseph who are left alive.

¹⁶This is what the Lord, the Lord God All-Powerful, says:

“People will be crying in all the streets;

they will be saying, ‘Oh, no!’ in the public places.

They will call the farmers to come and weep

and will pay people to cry out loud for them.

¹⁷People will be crying in all the vineyards,

because I will pass among you to punish you,” says the Lord.

The Lord’s Day of Judging

¹⁸How terrible it will be for you who want

the Lord’s day of judging to come.

Why do you want that day to come?

It will bring darkness for you, not light.

¹⁹It will be like someone who runs from a lion

and meets a bear,

or like someone who goes into his house

and puts his hand on the wall,

and then is bitten by a snake.

²⁰So the Lord’s day of judging will bring darkness, not light;

it will be very dark, not light at all.

²¹The Lord says, “I hate and reject your feasts;

I cannot stand your religious meetings.

²²If you offer me burnt offerings and grain offerings,

I won’t accept them.

You bring your best fellowship offerings of fattened cattle,

but I will ignore them.

²³Take the noise of your songs away from me!

I won’t listen to the music of your harps.

²⁴But let justice flow like a river,

and let goodness flow like a never-ending stream.