Amos 4–6

⁴Hear this word, you cows of Bashan

who are on Mount Samaria,

who oppress the poor, who crush the needy,

who say to their husbands, “Bring something to drink!”^*

²The Lord God has sworn by his holiness:

The time is surely coming upon you

when they shall take you away with hooks,

even the last of you with fishhooks.^*

³Through breaches in the wall you shall leave,

each one straight ahead,

and you shall be flung out into Harmon,^p

says the Lord.

⁴Come to Bethel—and transgress;

to Gilgal—and multiply transgression;

bring your sacrifices every morning,

your tithes every three days;^*

⁵bring a thank offering of leavened bread

and proclaim freewill offerings, publish them;

for so you love to do, O people of Israel!

says the Lord God.^*

Israel Rejects Correction

⁶I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities

and lack of bread in all your places;

yet you did not return to me,

says the Lord.^*

⁷And I also withheld the rain from you

when there were still three months to the harvest;

I would send rain on one city

and send no rain on another city;

one field would be rained upon,

and the field on which it did not rain withered;

⁸so two or three towns wandered to one town

to drink water and were not satisfied;

yet you did not return to me,

says the Lord.^*

⁹I struck you with blight and mildew;

I laid waste^q your gardens and your vineyards;

the locust devoured your fig trees and your olive trees;

yet you did not return to me,

says the Lord.^*

¹⁰I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt;

I killed your young men with the sword;

I carried away your horses;^r

and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils;

yet you did not return to me,

says the Lord.^*

¹¹I overthrew some of you

as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,

and you were like a brand snatched from the fire;

yet you did not return to me,

says the Lord.^*

¹²Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel;

because I will do this to you,

prepare to meet your God, O Israel!^*

¹³For the one who forms the mountains, creates the wind,

reveals his thoughts to mortals,

makes the morning darkness,

and treads on the heights of the earth—

the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name!^*

A Lament for Israel’s Sin

⁵Hear this word that I take up over you in lamentation, O house of Israel:^*

²Fallen, no more to rise,

is maiden Israel;

forsaken on her land,

with no one to raise her up.^*

³For thus says the Lord God:

The city that marched out a thousand

shall have a hundred left,

and that which marched out a hundred

shall have ten left.^s*

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

Seek me and live,^*

⁵but do not seek Bethel,

and do not enter into Gilgal

or cross over to Beer-sheba,

for Gilgal shall surely go into exile,

and Bethel shall come to nothing.^*

⁶Seek the Lord and live,

or he will break out against the house of Joseph like fire,

and it will devour Bethel, with no one to quench it.^*

⁷Ah, you who turn justice to wormwood

and bring righteousness to the ground!

⁸The one who made the Pleiades and Orion

and turns deep darkness into the morning

and darkens the day into night,

who calls for the water of the sea

and pours it out on the surface of the earth,

the Lord is his name,^*

⁹who makes destruction flash out against the strong,

so that destruction comes upon the fortress.

¹⁰They hate the one who reproves in the gate,

and they abhor the one who speaks the truth.^*

¹¹Therefore because you trample on the poor

and take from them levies of grain,

you have built houses of hewn stone,

but you shall not live in them;

you have planted pleasant vineyards,

but you shall not drink their wine.^*

¹²For I know how many are your transgressions

and how great are your sins—

you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe

and push aside the needy in the gate.^*

¹³Therefore the prudent will keep silent in such a time,

for it is an evil time.

¹⁴Seek good and not evil,

that you may live,

and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you,

just as you have said.^*

¹⁵Hate evil and love good,

and establish justice in the gate;

it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts,

will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.^*

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

In all the squares there shall be wailing,

and in all the streets they shall say, “Alas! Alas!”

They shall call the farmers to mourning

and those skilled in lamentation to wailing;^*

¹⁷in all the vineyards there shall be wailing,

for I will pass through the midst of you,

says the Lord.^*

The Day of the Lord a Dark Day

¹⁸Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord!

Why do you want the day of the Lord?

It is darkness, not light,^*

¹⁹as if someone fled from a lion

and was met by a bear

or went into the house and rested a hand against the wall

and was bitten by a snake.^*

²⁰Is not the day of the Lord darkness, not light,

and gloom with no brightness in it?^*

²¹I hate, I despise your festivals,

and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.^*

²²Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,

I will not accept them,

and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals

I will not look upon.^*

²³Take away from me the noise of your songs;

I will not listen to the melody of your harps.

²⁴But let justice roll down like water

and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.^*

²⁵Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?^{* 26}You shall take up Sakkuth your king and Kaiwan your star god, your images,^t which you made for yourselves; ²⁷therefore I will take you into exile beyond Damascus, says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.^*

Complacent Self-Indulgence Will Be Punished

⁶Woe to those who are at ease in Zion

and for those who feel secure on Mount Samaria,

the notables of the first of the nations,

to whom the house of Israel resorts!^*

²Cross over to Calneh and see;

from there go to Hamath the great;

then go down to Gath of the Philistines.

Are you better^u than these kingdoms?

Or is your^v territory greater than their^w territory,^*

³you who put far away the evil day

and bring near a reign of violence?^*

⁴Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory

and lounge on their couches

and eat lambs from the flock

and calves from the stall,^*

⁵who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp

and like David improvise on instruments of music,^*

⁶who drink wine from bowls

and anoint themselves with the finest oils

but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!^*

⁷Therefore they shall now be the first to go into exile,

and the revelry of the loungers shall pass away.^*

⁸The Lord God has sworn by himself

(says the Lord, the God of hosts):

I abhor the pride of Jacob

and hate his strongholds,

and I will deliver up the city and all that is in it.^*

⁹If ten people remain in one house, they shall die. ¹⁰And if a relative, one who burns it,^x takes up the body to bring it out of the house and says to someone in the innermost parts of the house, “Is anyone else with you?” the answer will come, “No.” Then the relative^y shall say, “Hush! We must not mention the name of the Lord.”

¹¹For the Lord commands,

and he will shatter the great house to bits

and the little house to pieces.^*

¹²Do horses run on rocky crags?

Does one plow the sea with oxen?^z

But you have turned justice into poison

and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood,^*

¹³you who rejoice in Lo-debar,^a

who say, “Have we not by our own strength

taken Karnaim^b for ourselves?”

¹⁴Indeed, I am raising up against you a nation,

O house of Israel, says the Lord, the God of hosts,

and they shall oppress you from Lebo-hamath

to the Wadi Arabah.^*