Amos — Chapter 5

¹Hear you this word which I take up for a lamentation over you, O house of Israel.

²The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is cast down on her land; there is none to raise her up.

³For thus says the Lord Yahweh: The city that went forth a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went forth one hundred shall have ten left, to the house of Israel.

⁴For thus says Yahweh to the house of Israel, Seek you me, and you shall live;

⁵but don`t seek Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and don`t pass to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nothing.

⁶Seek Yahweh, and you shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, and there be none to quench it in Bethel.

⁷You who turn justice to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth,

⁸[seek him] who makes the Pleiades and Orion, and turns the shadow of death into the morning, and makes the day dark with night; who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the surface of the earth (Yahweh is his name);

⁹who brings sudden destruction on the strong, so that destruction comes on the fortress.

¹⁰They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks blamelessly.

¹¹Forasmuch therefore as you trample on the poor, and take taxes from him of wheat: you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not dwell in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink the wine of it.

¹²For I know how manifold are your transgressions, and how mighty are your sins-you who afflict the just, who take a bribe, and who turn aside the needy in the gate [from their right].

¹³Therefore he who is prudent shall keep silence in such a time; for it is an evil time.

¹⁴Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so Yahweh, the God of hosts, will be with you, as you say.

¹⁵Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish justice in the gate: it may be that Yahweh, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

¹⁶Therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of hosts, the Lord: Wailing shall be in all the broad ways; and they shall say in all the streets, Alas! Alas! and they shall call the farmer to mourning, and such as are skillful in lamentation to wailing.

¹⁷In all vineyards shall be wailing; for I will pass through the midst of you, says Yahweh.

¹⁸Woe to you who desire the day of Yahweh! Why would you have the day of Yahweh? It is darkness, and not light.

¹⁹As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.

²⁰Shall the day of Yahweh not be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?

²¹I hate, I despise your feasts, and I will take no delight in your solemn assemblies.

²²Yes, though you offer me your burnt offerings and meal-offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace-offerings of your fat animals.

²³Take away from me the noise of your songs; for I will not hear the melody of your viols.

²⁴But let justice roll down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.

²⁵Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, house of Israel?

²⁶Yes, you have borne the tent of your king and the shrine of your images, the star of your god, which you made to yourselves.

²⁷Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, says Yahweh, whose name is the God of hosts.