The Bible

27 verses

Amos Chapter 5

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

²"The virgin of Israel has fallen; She shall rise no more. She is cast down on her land; there is no one to raise her up." ³For thus says the Lord ForeverOne: "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 ForeverOne to the house of Israel: "Seek me, and you will 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 ForeverOne, and you will live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, and there be no one to quench it in Bethel.

⁷You who turn justice to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth: ⁸seek him who made 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, ForeverOne 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 cut stone, but you will not dwell in them. You have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine.

¹²For I know how many your offenses, and how great are your sins - you who afflict the just, who take a bribe, and who turn aside the needy in the courts.

¹³Therefore a prudent person keeps silent in such a time, for it is an evil time.

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

¹⁵Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the courts. It may be that ForeverOne, the God of Armies, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph." ¹⁶Therefore thus says ForeverOne, the God of Armies, the Lord: "Wailing will be in all the broad ways; and they will say in all the streets, 'Alas! Alas!' and they will call the farmer to mourning, and those who are skillful in lamentation to wailing.

¹⁷In all vineyards there will be wailing; for I will pass through the midst of you," says ForeverOne.

¹⁸"Woe to you who desire the day of ForeverOne! Why do you long for the day of ForeverOne? It is darkness, and not light.

¹⁹As if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him; Or he went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a snake bit him.

²⁰Won't the day of ForeverOne be darkness, and not light? Even very dark, and no brightness in it?

²¹I hate, I despise your feasts, and I can't stand 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! I will not listen to the music of your harps.

²⁴But let justice roll on like rivers, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

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

²⁶You also carried the tent of your king and the shrine of your images, the star of your gods, which you made for yourselves.

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