Amos 4–6

Israel Has Not Returned to the Lord

4Listen to the Lord’s message,

you women who live on the hill of Samaria.

You treat poor people badly.

You crush those who are in need.

You say to your husbands,

“Bring us some drinks!”

But you are already as fat

as the cows in Bashan.

²The Lord and King has taken an oath

in his own holy name.

He says, “You can be sure

that the time will come

when your enemies will put hooks in your faces.

They will lead every one of you away with fishhooks.

³Each of you will go straight out

through a gap in the wall.

You will be thrown out of the city

on the hill where you crush others,”

announces the Lord.

⁴“People of Samaria, go to Bethel and sin!

Go to Gilgal! Sin there even more!

Bring your sacrifices every morning.

Every third year, bring a tenth

of everything you produce.

⁵Bake some bread with yeast.

Burn it as a thank offering.

Brag about the offerings you freely give.

That is what you Israelites love to do,”

announces the Lord and King.

⁶“I made sure your stomachs were empty in every city.

You did not have enough bread in any of your towns.

In spite of that, you still have not returned to me,”

announces the Lord.

⁷“I also held rain back from you.

The time to harvest crops

was still three months away.

I sent rain on one town.

But I held it back from another.

One field had rain.

Another did not. So it dried up.

⁸People wandered from town to town to look for water.

But they did not get enough to drink.

In spite of that, you still have not returned to me,”

announces the Lord.

⁹“Many times I struck your gardens and vineyards.

I sent hot winds to dry them up completely.

Locusts ate up your fig and olive trees.

In spite of that, you still have not returned to me,”

announces the Lord.

¹⁰“I sent plagues on you,

just as I did on Egypt.

I killed your young men with swords.

I also let the horses you had captured be killed.

I filled your noses with the bad smell of your camps.

In spite of that, you still have not returned to me,”

announces the Lord.

¹¹“I destroyed some of you,

just as I did Sodom and Gomorrah.

You were like a burning stick that was pulled out of the fire.

In spite of that, you still have not returned to me,”

announces the Lord.

¹²“People of Israel, I will punish you.

Because I will do that to you,

prepare to meet your God!”

¹³The Lord forms the mountains.

He creates the wind.

He makes his thoughts known to human beings.

He turns sunrise into darkness.

He rules over the highest places on earth.

His name is The Lord God Who Rules Over All.

Look to the Lord and Live

5People of Israel, listen to the Lord’s message. Hear my song of sadness about you. I say,

²“The people of Israel have fallen.

They will never get up again.

They are deserted in their own land.

No one can lift them up.”

³The Lord and King says,

“A thousand soldiers will march out from a city in Israel.

But only a hundred will return.

A hundred soldiers will march out from a town.

But only ten will come back.”

⁴The Lord speaks to the people of Israel. He says,

“Look to me and live.

⁵Do not look to Bethel.

Do not go to Gilgal.

Do not travel to Beersheba.

The people of Gilgal will be taken away as prisoners.

Nothing will be left of Bethel.”

⁶Israel, look to the Lord and live.

If you don’t, he will sweep through

the people of Joseph like a fire.

It will burn everything up.

And Bethel won’t have anyone to put it out.

⁷You turn what is fair into something bitter.

What is right you throw down to the ground.

⁸The Lord made the Pleiades and Orion.

He turns darkness into sunrise.

He makes the day fade into night.

He sends for the waters in the clouds.

Then he pours them out on the surface of the land.

His name is The Lord.

⁹He destroys places of safety.

He tears down cities

that have high walls around them.

¹⁰Israel, you hate those who do what is right in court.

You can’t stand those who tell the truth.

¹¹You walk all over poor people.

You make them give you grain.

You have built stone houses.

But you won’t live in them.

You have planted fruitful vineyards.

But you won’t drink the wine they produce.

¹²I know how many crimes you have committed.

You have sinned far too much.

You crush those who do what is right.

You accept money from people who want special favors.

You take away the rights of poor people in the courts.

¹³So those who are wise keep quiet in times like these.

That’s because the times are evil.

¹⁴Look to what is good, not to what is evil.

Then you will live.

And the Lord God who rules over all

will be with you,

just as you say he is.

¹⁵Hate what is evil. Love what is good.

Do what is fair in the courts.

Perhaps the Lord God who rules over all

will show you his favor.

After all, you are the only ones left

in the family line of Joseph.

¹⁶The Lord God rules over all. The Lord says,

“People will sob in all of the streets.

They will be very sad in every market place.

Even farmers will be told to cry loudly.

People will sob over the dead.

¹⁷Workers will cry in all of the vineyards.

That is because I will punish you,”

says the Lord.

The Day of the Lord Is Coming

¹⁸How terrible it will be for you

who long for the day of the Lord!

Why do you want it to come?

That day will be dark, not light.

¹⁹It will be like a man running away from a lion

only to meet a bear.

He enters his house and rests his hand on a wall

only to be bitten by a snake.

²⁰The day of the Lord will be dark, not light.

It will be very black.

There won’t be a ray of sunlight anywhere.

²¹The Lord says,

“I hate your holy feasts.

I can’t stand them.

I hate it when you gather together.

²²You bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings.

But I will not accept them.

You bring your best friendship offerings.

But I will not even look at them.

²³Take the noise of your songs away!

I will not listen to the music of your harps.

²⁴I want you to treat others fairly.

So let fair treatment roll on

just as a river does!

Always do what is right.

Let right living flow along

like a stream that never runs dry!

²⁵“People of Israel, did you bring me sacrifices and offerings

for 40 years in the desert?

²⁶Yes. But you have honored the place

where your king worshiped other gods.

You have carried the stands

the statues of your gods were on.

You have lifted up the banners

of the stars you worship as gods.

You made all of those things for yourselves.

²⁷So I will send you away

as prisoners beyond Damascus,”

says the Lord.

His name is God Who Rules Over All.

The Lord Judges Israel’s Pride

6How terrible it will be for you men

who are so contented on Mount Zion!

How terrible for you who feel secure

on the hill of Samaria!

You are famous men from the greatest nation.

The people of Israel come to you

for help and advice.

²Go to the city of Calneh. Look at it.

Go from there to the great city of Hamath.

Then go down to Gath in Philistia.

Are those places better off than your two kingdoms?

Is their land larger than yours?

³You are trying to avoid the time

when trouble will come.

But you are only bringing closer

the Assyrian rule of terror.

⁴You lie down on beds

that are decorated with ivory.

You rest on your couches.

You eat the best lambs

and the fattest calves.

⁵You pluck away on your harps as David did.

You play new songs on musical instruments.

⁶You drink wine by the bowlful.

You use the finest lotions.

But Joseph’s people will soon be destroyed.

And you aren’t even sad about it.

⁷So you will be among the first

to be taken away as prisoners.

You won’t be able to enjoy good food.

You won’t lie around on couches anymore.

⁸The Lord and King has taken an oath in his own name. He is the Lord God who rules over all. He announces,

“I hate the pride of Jacob’s people.

I can’t stand their forts.

I will hand the city of Samaria

and everything in it over to their enemies.”

⁹Ten men might be left in one house. If they are, they will die there. ¹⁰Relatives might come to burn the dead bodies. If they do, they’ll have to carry them out of the house first. They might ask someone still hiding there, “Is anyone here with you?” If the answer is no, the relatives will say, “Be quiet! We must not pray in the Lord’s name.”

¹¹The Lord has already given an order.

He will smash large houses to pieces.

He will crush small houses to bits.

¹²Horses don’t run on rocky ground.

People don’t plow there with oxen.

But you have turned fair treatment into poison.

You have turned the fruit of right living into bitterness.

¹³You are happy because you captured the town of Lo Debar.

You say, “We were strong enough to take Karnaim too.”

¹⁴But the Lord God rules over all. He announces, “People of Israel,

I will stir up a nation against you.

They will crush you from Lebo Hamath

all the way down to the Arabah Valley.”