Lamentation for Israel
Virgin Israel will never rise again.
She lies abandoned on her land,
with no one to raise her up.
3 For the Lord God says:
will have only a hundred left,
and the one that marches out a hundred strong
will have only ten left in the house of Israel.
Seek God and Live
4 For the Lord says to the house of Israel:
5 Do not seek Bethel
or go to Gilgal
or journey to Beer-sheba,
for Gilgal will certainly go into exile,
and Bethel will come to nothing.
6 Seek Yahweh and live,
or He will spread like fire
throughout the house of Joseph;
it will consume everything,
with no one at Bethel to extinguish it.
7 Those who turn justice into wormwood
throw righteousness to the ground.
who turns darkness[a] into dawn
and darkens day into night,
who summons the waters of the sea
and pours them out over the face of the earth—
Yahweh is His name.
9 He brings destruction[b] on the strong,[c]
and it falls on the stronghold.
at the city gate
and despise the one who speaks with integrity.
11 Therefore, because you trample on the poor
and exact a grain tax from him,
you will never live in the houses of cut stone
you have built;
you will never drink the wine
from the lush vineyards
you have planted.
12 For I know your crimes are many
and your sins innumerable.
They oppress the righteous, take a bribe,
and deprive the poor of justice at the gates.
13 Therefore, the wise person will keep silent[d]
at such a time,
for the days are evil.
so that you may live,
and the Lord, the God of Hosts,
will be with you,
as you have claimed.
15 Hate evil and love good;
establish justice in the gate.
Perhaps the Lord, the God of Hosts, will be gracious
to the remnant of Joseph.
16 Therefore Yahweh, the God of Hosts, the Lord, says:
they will cry out in anguish[e] in all the streets.
The farmer will be called on to mourn,
and professional mourners[f] to wail.
17 There will be wailing in all the vineyards,
for I will pass among you.
The Lord has spoken.
The Day of the Lord
18 Woe to you who long for the Day of the Lord!
What will the Day of the Lord be for you?
It will be darkness and not light.
19 It will be like a man who flees from a lion
only to have a bear confront him.
He goes home and rests his hand against the wall
only to have a snake bite him.
20 Won’t the Day of the Lord
be darkness rather than light,
even gloom without any brightness in it?
21 I hate, I despise your feasts!
I can’t stand the stench
of your solemn assemblies.
22 Even if you offer Me
your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them;
I will have no regard
for your fellowship offerings of fattened cattle.
23 Take away from Me the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.
24 But let justice flow like water,
and righteousness, like an unfailing stream.
25 “House of Israel, was it sacrifices and grain offerings that you presented to Me during the 40 years in the wilderness? 26 But you have taken up[g] Sakkuth[h][i] your king[j] and Kaiwan[k] your star god, images you have made for yourselves. 27 So I will send you into exile beyond Damascus.” Yahweh, the God of Hosts, is His name. He has spoken.
Footnotes
- Amos 5:8 Or turns the shadow of death
- Amos 5:9 Hb obscure
- Amos 5:9 Or stronghold
- Amos 5:13 Or the prudent will perish
- Amos 5:16 Lit will say, “Alas! Alas!”
- Amos 5:16 Lit and those skilled in lamentation
- Amos 5:26 Or you will lift up
- Amos 5:26 LXX, Sym, Syr, Vg read the tent; Ac 7:43
- Amos 5:26 Probably a Mesopotamian war god also called Adar or Ninurta
- Amos 5:26 LXX reads up the tent of Molech and Rephan; Ac 7:43
- Amos 5:26 Probably a Mesopotamian god identified with Saturn