Amos 5:18-6:14

New King James Version

¹⁸^(A)Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord!
For what good is ^(B)the day of the Lord to you?
It will be darkness, and not light.
¹⁹It will be ^(C)as though a man fled from a lion,
And a bear met him!
Or as though he went into the house,
Leaned his hand on the wall,
And a serpent bit him!
²⁰Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light?
Is it not very dark, with no brightness in it?

²¹“I^(D) hate, I despise your feast days,
And ^(E)I do not savor your sacred assemblies.
²²^(F)Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings,
I will not accept them,
Nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings.
²³Take away from Me the noise of your songs,
For I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments.
²⁴^(G)But let justice run down like water,
And righteousness like a mighty stream.

²⁵“Did^(H) you offer Me sacrifices and offerings
In the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?
²⁶You also carried ^[a]Sikkuth^[b] ^(I)your king
And Chiun, your idols,
The star of your gods,
Which you made for yourselves.
²⁷Therefore I will send you into captivity ^(J)beyond Damascus,”
Says the Lord, ^(K)whose name is the God of hosts.

Warnings to Zion and Samaria

6 Woe ^(L)to you who are at ^(M)ease in Zion,
And ^(N)trust in Mount Samaria,
Notable persons in the ^(O)chief nation,
To whom the house of Israel comes!
²^(P)Go over to ^(Q)Calneh and see;
And from there go to ^(R)Hamath the great;
Then go down to Gath of the Philistines.
^(S)Are you better than these kingdoms?
Or is their territory greater than your territory?

³Woe to you who ^(T)put far off the day of ^(U)doom,
^(V)Who cause ^(W)the seat of violence to come near;
⁴Who lie on beds of ivory,
Stretch out on your couches,
Eat lambs from the flock
And calves from the midst of the stall;
⁵^(X)Who sing idly to the sound of stringed instruments,
And invent for yourselves ^(Y)musical instruments ^(Z)like David;
⁶Who ^(AA)drink wine from bowls,
And anoint yourselves with the best ointments,
^(AB)But are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.
⁷Therefore they shall now go ^(AC)captive as the first of the captives,
And those who recline at banquets shall be removed.

⁸^(AD)The Lord God has sworn by Himself,
The Lord God of hosts says:
“I abhor ^(AE)the pride of Jacob,
And hate his palaces;
Therefore I will deliver up the city
And all that is in it.”

⁹Then it shall come to pass, that if ten men remain in one house, they shall die. ¹⁰And when ^[c]a relative of the dead, with one who will burn the bodies, picks up the ^[d]bodies to take them out of the house, he will say to one inside the house, “Are there any more with you?”

Then someone will say, “None.”

And he will say, ^(AF)“Hold your tongue! ^(AG)For we dare not mention the name of the Lord.”

¹¹For behold, ^(AH)the Lord gives a command:
^(AI)He will break the great house into bits,
And the little house into pieces.

¹²Do horses run on rocks?
Does one plow there with oxen?
Yet ^(AJ)you have turned justice into gall,
And the fruit of righteousness into wormwood,
¹³You who rejoice over ^[e]Lo Debar,
Who say, “Have we not taken ^[f]Karnaim for ourselves
By our own strength?”

¹⁴“But, behold, ^(AK)I will raise up a nation against you,
O house of Israel,”
Says the Lord God of hosts;
“And they will afflict you from the ^(AL)entrance of Hamath
To the Valley of the Arabah.”