Amos 5-9
Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition
A Lament for Israel’s Sin
5 Hear this word which I take up over you in lamentation, O house of Israel:
2 “Fallen, no more to rise,
is the virgin Israel;
forsaken on her land,
with none to raise her up.”
3 For thus says the Lord God:
“The city that went forth a thousand
shall have a hundred left,
and that which went forth a hundred
shall have ten left
to the house of Israel.”
4 For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel:
“Seek me and live;
5 but do not seek Bethel,
and do not enter into Gilgal
or cross over to Beer-sheba;
for Gilgal shall surely go into exile,
and Bethel shall come to nought.”
6 Seek the Lord and live,
lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph,
and it devour, with none to quench it for Bethel,
7 O you who turn justice to wormwood,
and cast down righteousness to the earth!
8 He who made the Pleiades and Orion,
and turns deep darkness into the morning,
and darkens the day into night,
who calls for the waters of the sea,
and pours them out upon the surface of the earth,
the Lord is his name,
9 who makes destruction flash forth against the strong,
so that destruction comes upon the fortress.
10 They hate him who reproves in the gate,
and they abhor him who speaks the truth.
11 Therefore because you trample upon the poor
and take from him exactions 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 their wine.
12 For I know how many are your transgressions,
and how great are your sins—
you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe,
and turn aside the needy in the gate.
13 Therefore he who is prudent will keep silent in such a time;
for it is an evil time.
14 Seek good, and not evil,
that you may live;
and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you,
as you have said.
15 Hate evil, and love good,
and establish justice in the gate;
it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts,
will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.
16 Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord:
“In all the squares there shall be wailing;
and in all the streets they shall say, ‘Alas! alas!’
They shall call the farmers to mourning
and to wailing those who are skilled in lamentation,
17 and in all vineyards there shall be wailing,
for I will pass through the midst of you,”
says the Lord.
The Day of the Lord a Dark Day
18 Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord!
Why would you have the day of the Lord?
It 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 with his hand against the wall,
and a serpent bit him.
20 Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light,
and gloom with no brightness in it?
21 “I hate, I despise your feasts,
and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
22 Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and cereal offerings,
I will not accept them,
and the peace offerings of your fatted beasts
I will not look upon.
23 Take away from me the noise of your songs;
to the melody of your harps I will not listen.
24 But let justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like an everflowing stream.
25 “Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? 26 You shall take up Sakkuth your king, and Kaiwan your star-god, your images,[a] which you made for yourselves; 27 therefore I will take you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.
Complacent Self-Indulgence Will Be Punished
6 “Woe to those who are at ease in Zion,
and to those who feel secure on the mountain of Samar′ia,
the notable men of the first of the nations,
to whom the house of Israel come!
2 Pass over to Calneh, and see;
and thence go to Hamath the great;
then go down to Gath of the Philistines.
Are they better than these kingdoms?
Or is their territory greater than your territory,
3 O you who put far away the evil day,
and bring near the seat of violence?
4 “Woe to those who lie upon beds of ivory,
and stretch themselves upon their couches,
and eat lambs from the flock,
and calves from the midst of the stall;
5 who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp,
and like David invent for themselves instruments of music;
6 who drink wine in bowls,
and anoint themselves with the finest oils,
but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!
7 Therefore they shall now be the first of those to go into exile,
and the revelry of those who stretch themselves shall pass away.”
8 The Lord God has sworn by himself (says the Lord, the God of hosts):
“I abhor the pride of Jacob,
and hate his strongholds;
and I will deliver up the city and all that is in it.”
9 And if ten men remain in one house, they shall die. 10 And when a man’s kinsman, he who burns him,[b] shall take him up to bring the bones out of the house, and shall say to him who is in the innermost parts of the house, “Is there still any one with you?” he shall say, “No”; and he shall say, “Hush! We must not mention the name of the Lord.”
11 For behold, the Lord commands,
and the great house shall be smitten into fragments,
and the little house into bits.
12 Do horses run upon rocks?
Does one plow the sea with oxen?
But you have turned justice into poison
and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood—
13 you who rejoice in Lo-debar,[c]
who say, “Have we not by our own strength
taken Karnaim[d] for ourselves?”
14 “For behold, I will raise up against you a nation,
O house of Israel,” says the Lord, the God of hosts;
“and they shall oppress you from the entrance of Hamath
to the Brook of the Arabah.”
Locusts, Fire, and a Plumb Line
7 Thus the Lord God showed me: behold, he was forming locusts in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and lo, it was the latter growth after the king’s mowings. 2 When they had finished eating the grass of the land, I said,
“O Lord God, forgive, I beseech thee!
How can Jacob stand?
He is so small!”
3 The Lord repented concerning this;
“It shall not be,” said the Lord.
4 Thus the Lord God showed me: behold, the Lord God was calling for a judgment by fire, and it devoured the great deep and was eating up the land. 5 Then I said,
“O Lord God, cease, I beseech thee!
How can Jacob stand?
He is so small!”
6 The Lord repented concerning this;
“This also shall not be,” said the Lord God.
7 He showed me: behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. 8 And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said,
“Behold, I am setting a plumb line
in the midst of my people Israel;
I will never again pass by them;
9 the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate,
and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste,
and I will rise against the house of Jerobo′am with the sword.”
Amaziah Complains to the King
10 Then Amazi′ah the priest of Bethel sent to Jerobo′am king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words. 11 For thus Amos has said,
‘Jerobo′am shall die by the sword,
and Israel must go into exile
away from his land.’”
12 And Amazi′ah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there; 13 but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.”
14 Then Amos answered Amazi′ah, “I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son;[e] but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, 15 and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ 16 “Now therefore hear the word of the Lord.
You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel,
and do not preach against the house of Isaac.’
17 Therefore thus says the Lord:
‘Your wife shall be a harlot in the city,
and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword,
and your land shall be parceled out by line;
you yourself shall die in an unclean land,
and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.’”
The Basket of Fruit
8 Thus the Lord God showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit.[f] 2 And he said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.”[g] Then the Lord said to me,
“The end[h] has come upon my people Israel;
I will never again pass by them.
3 The songs of the temple[i] shall become wailings in that day,”
says the Lord God;
“the dead bodies shall be many;
in every place they shall be cast out in silence.”[j]
4 Hear this, you who trample upon the needy,
and bring the poor of the land to an end,
5 saying, “When will the new moon be over,
that we may sell grain?
And the sabbath,
that we may offer wheat for sale,
that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great,
and deal deceitfully with false balances,
6 that we may buy the poor for silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals,
and sell the refuse of the wheat?”
7 The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
“Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.
8 Shall not the land tremble on this account,
and every one mourn who dwells in it,
and all of it rise like the Nile,
and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?”
9 “And on that day,” says the Lord God,
“I will make the sun go down at noon,
and darken the earth in broad daylight.
10 I will turn your feasts into mourning,
and all your songs into lamentation;
I will bring sackcloth upon all loins,
and baldness on every head;
I will make it like the mourning for an only son,
and the end of it like a bitter day.
11 “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord God,
“when I will send a famine on the land;
not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of the Lord.
12 They shall wander from sea to sea,
and from north to east;
they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord,
but they shall not find it.
13 “In that day the fair virgins and the young men
shall faint for thirst.
14 Those who swear by Ash′imah of Samar′ia,
and say, ‘As thy god lives, O Dan,’
and, ‘As the way of Beer-sheba lives,’
they shall fall, and never rise again.”
The Destruction of Israel
9 I saw the Lord standing beside[k] the altar, and he said:
“Smite the capitals until the thresholds shake,
and shatter them on the heads of all the people;[l]
and what are left of them I will slay with the sword;
not one of them shall flee away,
not one of them shall escape.
2 “Though they dig into Sheol,
from there shall my hand take them;
though they climb up to heaven,
from there I will bring them down.
3 Though they hide themselves on the top of Carmel,
from there I will search out and take them;
and though they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea,
there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them.
4 And though they go into captivity before their enemies,
there I will command the sword, and it shall slay them;
and I will set my eyes upon them
for evil and not for good.”
5 The Lord, God of hosts,
he who touches the earth and it melts,
and all who dwell in it mourn,
and all of it rises like the Nile,
and sinks again, like the Nile of Egypt;
6 who builds his upper chambers in the heavens,
and founds his vault upon the earth;
who calls for the waters of the sea,
and pours them out upon the surface of the earth—
the Lord is his name.
7 “Are you not like the Ethiopians to me,
O people of Israel?” says the Lord.
“Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt,
and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Syrians from Kir?
8 Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom,
and I will destroy it from the surface of the ground;
except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,”
says the Lord.
9 “For lo, I will command,
and shake the house of Israel among all the nations
as one shakes with a sieve,
but no pebble shall fall upon the earth.
10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword,
who say, ‘Evil shall not overtake or meet us.’
The Restoration of David’s Kingdom
11 “In that day I will raise up
the booth of David that is fallen
and repair its breaches,
and raise up its ruins,
and rebuild it as in the days of old;
12 that they may possess the remnant of Edom
and all the nations who are called by my name,”
says the Lord who does this.
13 “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord,
“when the plowman shall overtake the reaper
and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed;
the mountains shall drip sweet wine,
and all the hills shall flow with it.
14 I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel,
and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them;
they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine,
and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit.
15 I will plant them upon their land,
and they shall never again be plucked up
out of the land which I have given them,”
says the Lord your God.
Footnotes
- Amos 5:26 Heb your images, your star-god
- Amos 6:10 Or who makes a burning for him
- Amos 6:13 Or a thing of nought
- Amos 6:13 Or horns
- Amos 7:14 Or one of the sons of the prophets
- Amos 8:1 Heb qayits
- Amos 8:2 Heb qayits
- Amos 8:2 Heb qets
- Amos 8:3 Or palace
- Amos 8:3 Or be silent!
- Amos 9:1 Or upon
- Amos 9:1 Heb all of them
Sirach 45:1-14
Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition
Moses
45 From his descendants the Lord[a] brought forth a man of mercy,
who found favor in the sight of all flesh
and was beloved by God and man,
Moses, whose memory is blessed.
2 He made him equal in glory to the holy ones,
and made him great in the fears of his enemies.
3 By his words he caused signs to cease;
the Lord[b] glorified him in the presence of kings.
He gave him commands for his people,
and showed him part of his glory.
4 He sanctified him through faithfulness and meekness;
he chose him out of all mankind.
5 He made him hear his voice,
and led him into the thick darkness,
and gave him the commandments face to face,
the law of life and knowledge,
to teach Jacob the covenant,
and Israel his judgments.
Aaron
6 He exalted Aaron, the brother of Moses,[c]
a holy man like him, of the tribe of Levi.
7 He made an everlasting covenant with him,
and gave him the priesthood of the people.
He blessed him with splendid vestments,
and put a glorious robe upon him.
8 He clothed him with superb perfection,
and strengthened him with the symbols of authority,
the linen breeches, the long robe, and the ephod.
9 And he encircled him with pomegranates,
with very many golden bells round about,
to send forth a sound as he walked,
to make their ringing heard in the temple
as a reminder to the sons of his people;
10 with a holy garment, of gold and blue
and purple, the work of an embroiderer;
with the oracle of judgment, Urim and Thummim;
11 with twisted scarlet, the work of a craftsman;
with precious stones engraved like signets,
in a setting of gold, the work of a jeweler,
for a reminder, in engraved letters,
according to the number of the tribes of Israel;
12 with a gold crown upon his turban,
inscribed like a signet with “Holiness,”
a distinction to be prized, the work of an expert,
the delight of the eyes, richly adorned.
13 Before his time there never were such beautiful things.
No outsider ever put them on,
but only his sons
and his descendants perpetually.
14 His sacrifices shall be wholly burned
twice every day continually.
Footnotes
- Sirach 45:1 Gk he
- Sirach 45:3 Gk he
- Sirach 45:6 Gk him
Revelation 22
Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition
The River of Life
22 Then he showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life[a] with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 There shall no more be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall worship him; 4 they shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads. 5 And night shall be no more; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they shall reign for ever and ever.
6 And he said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place. 7 And behold, I am coming soon.”
Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.
Epilogue and Benediction
8 I John am he who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me; 9 but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brethren the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.”
10 And he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. 11 Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.”
12 “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense, to repay every one for what he has done. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
14 Blessed are those who wash their robes,[b] that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. 15 Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers and idolaters, and every one who loves and practices falsehood.
16 “I Jesus have sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright morning star.”
17 The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let him who hears say, “Come.” And let him who is thirsty come, let him who desires take the water of life without price.
18 I warn every one who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if any one adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, 19 and if any one takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.
20 He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints.[c] Amen.
Footnotes
- Revelation 22:2 Or the Lamb. In the midst of the street of the city, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, etc.
- Revelation 22:14 Other ancient authorities read do his commandments
- Revelation 22:21 Other ancient authorities omit all; others omit the saints
The Revised Standard Version of the Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1965, 1966 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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