Amos 5

¹Hear this word that I am lifting up over you, a dirge, O house of Israel.

²She has fallen, she will rise no more— the virgin of Israel! She lies forsaken upon her land, with none to raise her up.

³For thus says the Lord GOD: the city that goes out a thousand shall have a hundred remaining, / and the one that goes out a hundred shall have ten remaining to the house of Israel.

⁴For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel: Seek me, and live.

⁵And do not seek Bethel, / and to Gilgal do not come, / and to Beersheba do not cross over; / for Gilgal shall surely go into exile, / and Bethel shall become wickedness.

⁶Seek the LORD and live, lest he break out like fire on the house of Joseph and it devour, with none to quench it for Bethel.

⁷You who turn justice into wormwood and cast righteousness to the ground—

⁸He who makes the Pleiades and Orion, / and turns deep darkness into morning and darkens day into night, / who calls to the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the face of the earth — / the LORD is his name.

⁹who flashes destruction upon the strong, and destruction comes upon the fortified city.

¹⁰They hate the one who reproves in the gate, / and the one who speaks with integrity they abhor.

¹¹Therefore, because you trample upon the poor and take a levy of grain from him, houses of dressed stone you have built, but you will not dwell in them; choice vineyards you have planted, but you will not drink their wine.

¹²For I know your transgressions are many and your sins are great — / oppressors of the righteous, takers of a bribe, / and those who turn aside the needy in the gate.

¹³Therefore the prudent keeps silent in that time, for it is a time of evil.

¹⁴Seek good and not evil, that you may live, / and so may the LORD God of hosts be with you, / just as you have said.

¹⁵Hate evil and love good, and establish justice in the gate; perhaps the LORD, God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

¹⁶Therefore, thus says the LORD, God of hosts, the Sovereign One: In all the squares, mourning; and in all the streets they will say, 'Alas! Alas!' And they will call the farmer to mourning and lamentation to those skilled in wailing.

¹⁷And in all the vineyards there shall be wailing, / for I will pass through your midst, / says the LORD.

¹⁸Woe to those who crave the day of the LORD! / Why is this day of the LORD to you? / It is darkness and not light.

¹⁹As when a man flees from a lion and a bear meets him, or enters the house and leans his hand against the wall and a serpent bites him—

²⁰Is not the day of the LORD darkness, and not light, and gloom, with no brightness in it?

²¹I hate, I despise your festivals, / and I will not smell your solemn assemblies.

²²For even if you offer me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fatlings I will not look upon.

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

²⁴But let justice roll like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

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

²⁶And you shall carry Sikkuth the king of you all, and Kiyyun the images of you all — the star of the god of you all, which you made for yourselves.

²⁷And I will exile you beyond Damascus, says the LORD — God of hosts is his name.