Amos 5

Revised Geneva Translation

5 Hear this Word which I lift up upon you; a lamentation of the House of Israel.

² The virgin Israel has fallen and shall rise no more. She is left upon her land, and there is none to raise her up.

³ For thus says the LORD God: “The city which went out by a thousand, shall leave a hundred. And that which went forth by a hundred, shall leave ten to the House of Israel.”

⁴ For thus says the LORD to the House of Israel: “Seek Me, and you shall live.”

⁵ But do not seek Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal. And do not go to Beersheba. For Gilgal shall go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to naught.

⁶ Seek the LORD, and you shall live, lest He break out like fire in the House of Joseph and devour it; and there are none to quench it in Bethel.

⁷ They turn judgment to wormwood and leave off righteousness in the Earth.

⁸ He makes Pleiades and Orion; and He turns the shadow of death into the morning; and He makes the day dark as night. He calls the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the open earth. The LORD is His Name.

⁹ He strengthens the destroyer against the mighty. And the destroyer shall come against the fortress.

¹⁰ They have hated him who rebukes in the gate. And they abhorred him who speaks uprightly.

¹¹ Forasmuch, then, as your treading is upon the poor—and you take from him burdens 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 wine from them.

¹² For I know your manifold transgressions, and your mighty sins. They afflict the just. They take rewards. And they oppress the poor in the gate.

¹³ Therefore, the prudent shall keep silence in that time. For it is an evil time.

¹⁴ Seek good, and not evil, that you may live. And the LORD God of Hosts shall be with you, as you have spoken.

¹⁵ Hate the evil and love the good. And establish judgment in the gate. It may be that the LORD God of Hosts will be merciful to the remnant of Joseph.

¹⁶ Therefore, the LORD God of Hosts, the LORD, says this, “Mourning shall be in all streets. And they shall say in all the high ways, ‘Alas, alas.’ And they shall call the farmer to lamentation; and such as can mourn, to mourning.

¹⁷ “And in all the vines shall be lamentation. For I will pass through you,” says the LORD.

¹⁸ Woe to you who desire the Day of the LORD! What have you to do with it? The Day of the LORD is darkness and not light.

¹⁹ As if a man fled 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.

²⁰ Shall not the Day of the LORD be darkness, and not light; even darkness and no light in it?

²¹ “I hate and abhor your feast days. And I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.

²² “Though you offer Me burnt offerings and meat offerings, I will not accept them. Nor will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.

²³ “Take away from Me the multitude of your songs (for I will not hear the melody of your viols.)

²⁴ “And let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty river.

²⁵ “Have you offered to Me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O House of Israel?

²⁶ “But you have born Sikkuth, your king, and Chiun, your images, and the star of your gods which you made to yourselves.

²⁷ “Therefore, will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus,” says the LORD, whose Name is the God of Hosts. Against the princes of Israel living in pleasure.