Amos 4:6-7:17

English Standard Version

Israel Has Not Returned to the Lord

⁶“I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities,
and ^(A)lack of bread in all your places,
^(B)yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.

⁷“I also ^(C)withheld the rain from you
    when there were yet three months to the harvest;
^(D)I would send rain on one city,
    and send no rain on another city;
one field would have rain,
    and the field on which it did not rain would wither;
⁸so two or three cities ^(E)would wander to another city
    to drink water, and would not be satisfied;
^(F)yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.

⁹^(G)“I struck you with blight and mildew;
your many gardens and your vineyards,
your fig trees and your olive trees ^(H)the locust devoured;
^(I)yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.

¹⁰“I sent among you a pestilence ^(J)after the manner of Egypt;
I killed your young men with the sword,
and ^(K)carried away your horses,^[a]
and ^(L)I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils;
^(M)yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.

¹¹“I overthrew some of you,
^(N)as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,
and you were ^(O)as a brand^[b] plucked out of the burning;
^(P)yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.

¹²“Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel;
because I will do this to you,
prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”

¹³For behold, ^(Q)he who forms the mountains and creates the wind,
    and ^(R)declares to man what is his thought,
^(S)who makes the morning darkness,
    and ^(T)treads on the heights of the earth—
    ^(U)the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name!

Seek the Lord and Live

5 Hear this word that I ^(V)take up over you in lamentation, O house of Israel:

²“Fallen, no more to rise,
is ^(W)the virgin Israel;
forsaken on her land,
with none to raise her up.”

³For thus says the Lord God:

“The city that went out a thousand
    shall have a hundred left,
and that which went out a hundred
    shall have ten left
    to the house of Israel.”

⁴For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel:

^(X)“Seek me and live;
⁵    but do not seek ^(Y)Bethel,
and do not enter into ^(Z)Gilgal
    or cross over to ^(AA)Beersheba;
for ^(AB)Gilgal shall surely go into exile,
    and ^(AC)Bethel shall come to nothing.”

⁶^(AD)Seek the Lord and live,
    ^(AE)lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph,
    and it devour, with none to quench it for ^(AF)Bethel,
⁷O ^(AG)you who turn justice to wormwood^[c]
    and cast down righteousness to the earth!

⁸He who made the ^(AH)Pleiades and Orion,
    and turns deep darkness into the morning
    and ^(AI)darkens the day into night,
who ^(AJ)calls for the waters of the sea
    ^(AK)and pours them out on the surface of the earth,
^(AL)the Lord is his name;
⁹^(AM)who makes destruction flash forth against the strong,
    so that destruction comes upon the fortress.

¹⁰^(AN)They hate him who reproves ^(AO)in the gate,
    and they ^(AP)abhor him who speaks the truth.
¹¹Therefore because you ^(AQ)trample on^[d] the poor
    and you exact taxes of grain from him,
^(AR)you have built houses of hewn stone,
    but you shall not dwell in them;
^(AS)you have planted pleasant vineyards,
    but you shall not drink their wine.
¹²For I know how many are your transgressions
    and how great are your sins—
you who afflict the righteous, who ^(AT)take a bribe,
    and ^(AU)turn aside the needy ^(AV)in the gate.
¹³Therefore he who is prudent will ^(AW)keep silent in such a time,
    ^(AX)for it is an evil time.

¹⁴^(AY)Seek good, and not evil,
    that you may live;
and so the Lord, ^(AZ)the God of hosts, will be with you,
    as you have said.
¹⁵^(BA)Hate evil, and love good,
    and establish justice ^(BB)in the gate;
^(BC)it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts,
    will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

¹⁶Therefore thus says the Lord, ^(BD)the God of hosts, the Lord:

“In all the squares ^(BE)there shall be wailing,
    and in all the streets they shall say, ‘Alas! Alas!’
They shall call the farmers to mourning
    and ^(BF)to wailing those who are skilled in lamentation,
¹⁷and in all vineyards there shall be wailing,
    for ^(BG)I will pass through your midst,”
says the Lord.

Let Justice Roll Down

¹⁸Woe to you who desire ^(BH)the day of the Lord!
    Why would you have the day of the Lord?
^(BI)It is darkness, and not light,
¹⁹    ^(BJ)as if a man fled from a lion,
    and a bear met him,
or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall,
    and a serpent bit him.
²⁰^(BK)Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light,
    and gloom with no brightness in it?

²¹^(BL)“I hate, I despise your feasts,
    and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
²²^(BM)Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
    I will not accept them;
and the peace offerings of your fattened animals,
    I will not look upon them.
²³Take away from me the noise of your songs;
    to ^(BN)the melody of your harps I will not listen.
²⁴But let justice roll down like waters,
    and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

²⁵^(BO)“Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? ²⁶^(BP)You ^(BQ)shall take up Sikkuth your king, and Kiyyun your star-god—your images that you made for yourselves, ²⁷^(BR)and I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the Lord, whose name is ^(BS)the God of hosts.

Woe to Those at Ease in Zion

6 ^(BT)“Woe to those who are at ease in Zion,
    and to those who feel secure on ^(BU)the mountain of Samaria,
^(BV)the notable men of ^(BW)the first of the nations,
    to whom the house of Israel comes!
²Pass over to ^(BX)Calneh, and see,
    and from there go to ^(BY)Hamath the great;
    then go down to ^(BZ)Gath of the Philistines.
^(CA)Are you better than these kingdoms?
    Or is their territory greater than your territory,
³^(CB)O you who put far away the day of disaster
    ^(CC)and bring near the seat of violence?

⁴“Woe to those ^(CD)who lie on ^(CE)beds of ivory
    ^(CF)and stretch themselves out on their couches,
and eat lambs from the flock
    ^(CG)and calves from the midst of the stall,
⁵^(CH)who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp
    and like David ^(CI)invent for themselves instruments of music,
⁶^(CJ)who drink wine in bowls
    and ^(CK)anoint themselves with the finest oils,
    but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!
⁷^(CL)Therefore they shall now be the first of those who go into exile,
    and the revelry of those who stretch themselves out shall pass away.”

⁸^(CM)The Lord God has sworn by himself, declares the Lord, the God of hosts:

“I abhor ^(CN)the pride of Jacob
and hate his strongholds,
^(CO)and I will deliver up the city and all that is in it.”

⁹And ^(CP)if ten men remain in one house, they shall die. ¹⁰And when one's relative, ^(CQ)the one who anoints him for burial, 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 anyone with you?” he shall say, “No”; and he shall say, ^(CR)“Silence! We must not mention the name of the Lord.”

¹¹For behold, the Lord commands,
    and ^(CS)the great house shall be struck down into fragments,
    and the little house into bits.
¹²Do horses run on rocks?
    Does one plow there^[e] with oxen?
^(CT)But you have turned justice into ^(CU)poison
    ^(CV)and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood^[f]—
¹³you who rejoice in Lo-debar,^[g]
    who say, ^(CW)“Have we not by our own strength
    captured Karnaim^[h] for ourselves?”
¹⁴“For behold, ^(CX)I will raise up against you a nation,
    O house of Israel,” declares the Lord, the God of hosts;
“and they shall oppress you from ^(CY)Lebo-hamath
    to the Brook of ^(CZ)the Arabah.”

Warning Visions

7 ^(DA)This is what the Lord God showed me: behold, ^(DB)he was forming locusts when the latter growth was just beginning to sprout, and behold, it was the latter growth after the king's mowings. ²When they had finished eating the grass of the land, I said,

“O Lord God, please forgive!
    ^(DC)How can Jacob stand?
    He is so small!”
³^(DD)The Lord relented concerning this:
    “It shall not be,” said the Lord.

⁴^(DE)This is what the Lord God showed me: behold, the Lord God was calling ^(DF)for a judgment by fire, and it devoured the great deep and was eating up the land. ⁵Then I said,

“O Lord God, please cease!
    ^(DG)How can Jacob stand?
    He is so small!”
⁶^(DH)The Lord relented concerning this:
    “This also shall not be,” said the Lord God.

⁷^(DI)This is what he showed me: behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall built with ^(DJ)a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. ⁸And the Lord said to me, ^(DK)“Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said,

“Behold, I am setting ^(DL)a plumb line
    in the midst of my people Israel;
    ^(DM)I will never again pass by them;
⁹^(DN)the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate,
    and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste,
    and I will rise against ^(DO)the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”

Amos Accused

¹⁰Then Amaziah ^(DP)the priest of Bethel sent to ^(DQ)Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has ^(DR)conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. ¹¹For thus Amos has said,

“‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword,
and ^(DS)Israel must go into exile
away from his land.’”

¹²And Amaziah said to Amos, ^(DT)“O seer, go, flee away ^(DU)to the land of Judah, and ^(DV)eat bread there, and prophesy there, ¹³but ^(DW)never again prophesy at Bethel, for ^(DX)it is the king's sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.”

¹⁴Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, ^(DY)“I was^[i] no prophet, nor a prophet's son, but ^(DZ)I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. ¹⁵^(EA)But the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ ¹⁶^(EB)Now therefore hear the word of the Lord.

“You say, ^(EC)‘Do not prophesy against Israel,
and ^(ED)do not preach against the house of ^(EE)Isaac.’

¹⁷^(EF)Therefore thus says the Lord:

“‘Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city,
    and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword,
    and your land ^(EG)shall be divided up with a measuring line;
you yourself shall die in an unclean land,
    and ^(EH)Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.’”