Amos 5-7
New King James Version
A Lament for Israel
5 Hear this word which I (A)take up against you, a lamentation, O house of Israel:
2 The virgin of Israel has fallen;
She will rise no more.
She lies forsaken on her land;
There is no one to raise her up.
3 For thus says the Lord God:
“The city that goes out by a thousand
Shall have a hundred left,
And that which goes out by a hundred
Shall have ten left to the house of Israel.”
A Call to Repentance
4 For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel:
(B)“Seek Me (C)and live;
5 But do not seek (D)Bethel,
Nor enter Gilgal,
Nor pass over to (E)Beersheba;
For Gilgal shall surely go into captivity,
And (F)Bethel shall come to nothing.
6 (G)Seek the Lord and live,
Lest He break out like fire in the house of Joseph,
And devour it,
With no one to quench it in Bethel—
7 You who (H)turn justice to wormwood,
And lay righteousness to rest in the earth!”
8 He made the (I)Pleiades and Orion;
He turns the shadow of death into morning
(J)And makes the day dark as night;
He (K)calls for the waters of the sea
And pours them out on the face of the earth;
(L)The Lord is His name.
9 He [a]rains ruin upon the strong,
So that fury comes upon the fortress.
10 (M)They hate the one who rebukes in the gate,
And they (N)abhor the one who speaks uprightly.
11 (O)Therefore, because you [b]tread down the poor
And take grain [c]taxes from him,
Though (P)you have built houses of hewn stone,
Yet you shall not dwell in them;
You have planted [d]pleasant vineyards,
But you shall not drink wine from them.
12 For I (Q)know your manifold transgressions
And your mighty sins:
(R)Afflicting the just and taking bribes;
(S)Diverting the poor from justice at the gate.
13 Therefore (T)the prudent keep silent at that time,
For it is an evil time.
14 Seek good and not evil,
That you may live;
So the Lord God of hosts will be with you,
(U)As you have spoken.
15 (V)Hate evil, love good;
Establish justice in the gate.
(W)It may be that the Lord God of hosts
Will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.
The Day of the Lord
16 Therefore the Lord God of hosts, the Lord, says this:
“There shall be wailing in all streets,
And they shall say in all the highways,
‘Alas! Alas!’
They shall call the farmer to mourning,
(X)And skillful lamenters to wailing.
17 In all vineyards there shall be wailing,
For (Y)I will pass through you,”
Says the Lord.
18 (Z)Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord!
For what good is (AA)the day of the Lord to you?
It will be darkness, and not light.
19 It will be (AB)as though a man fled from a lion,
And a bear met him!
Or as though he went into the house,
Leaned his hand on the wall,
And a serpent bit him!
20 Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light?
Is it not very dark, with no brightness in it?
21 “I(AC) hate, I despise your feast days,
And (AD)I do not savor your sacred assemblies.
22 (AE)Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings,
I will not accept them,
Nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings.
23 Take away from Me the noise of your songs,
For I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments.
24 (AF)But let justice run down like water,
And righteousness like a mighty stream.
25 “Did(AG) you offer Me sacrifices and offerings
In the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?
26 You also carried [e]Sikkuth[f] (AH)your king
And Chiun, your idols,
The star of your gods,
Which you made for yourselves.
27 Therefore I will send you into captivity (AI)beyond Damascus,”
Says the Lord, (AJ)whose name is the God of hosts.
Warnings to Zion and Samaria
6 Woe (AK)to you who are at (AL)ease in Zion,
And (AM)trust in Mount Samaria,
Notable persons in the (AN)chief nation,
To whom the house of Israel comes!
2 (AO)Go over to (AP)Calneh and see;
And from there go to (AQ)Hamath the great;
Then go down to Gath of the Philistines.
(AR)Are you better than these kingdoms?
Or is their territory greater than your territory?
3 Woe to you who (AS)put far off the day of (AT)doom,
(AU)Who cause (AV)the seat of violence to come near;
4 Who lie on beds of ivory,
Stretch out on your couches,
Eat lambs from the flock
And calves from the midst of the stall;
5 (AW)Who sing idly to the sound of stringed instruments,
And invent for yourselves (AX)musical instruments (AY)like David;
6 Who (AZ)drink wine from bowls,
And anoint yourselves with the best ointments,
(BA)But are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.
7 Therefore they shall now go (BB)captive as the first of the captives,
And those who recline at banquets shall be removed.
8 (BC)The Lord God has sworn by Himself,
The Lord God of hosts says:
“I abhor (BD)the pride of Jacob,
And hate his palaces;
Therefore I will deliver up the city
And all that is in it.”
9 Then it shall come to pass, that if ten men remain in one house, they shall die. 10 And when [g]a relative of the dead, with one who will burn the bodies, picks up the [h]bodies to take them out of the house, he will say to one inside the house, “Are there any more with you?”
Then someone will say, “None.”
And he will say, (BE)“Hold your tongue! (BF)For we dare not mention the name of the Lord.”
11 For behold, (BG)the Lord gives a command:
(BH)He will break the great house into bits,
And the little house into pieces.
12 Do horses run on rocks?
Does one plow there with oxen?
Yet (BI)you have turned justice into gall,
And the fruit of righteousness into wormwood,
13 You who rejoice over [i]Lo Debar,
Who say, “Have we not taken [j]Karnaim for ourselves
By our own strength?”
14 “But, behold, (BJ)I will raise up a nation against you,
O house of Israel,”
Says the Lord God of hosts;
“And they will afflict you from the (BK)entrance of Hamath
To the Valley of the Arabah.”
Vision of the Locusts
7 Thus the Lord God showed me: Behold, He formed locust swarms at the [k]beginning of the late crop; indeed it was the late crop after the king’s mowings. 2 And so it was, when they had finished eating the grass of the land, that I said:
“O Lord God, forgive, I pray!
(BL)Oh,[l] that Jacob may stand,
For he is small!”
3 So (BM)the Lord relented concerning this.
“It shall not be,” said the Lord.
Vision of the Fire
4 Thus the Lord God showed me: Behold, the Lord God called [m]for conflict by fire, and it consumed the great deep and devoured the [n]territory. 5 Then I said:
“O Lord God, cease, I pray!
(BN)Oh, that Jacob may stand,
For he is small!”
6 So the Lord relented concerning this.
“This also shall not be,” said the Lord God.
Vision of the Plumb Line
7 Thus He showed me: Behold, the Lord stood on a wall made 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, (BO)I am setting a plumb line
In the midst of My people Israel;
(BP)I will not pass by them anymore.
9 (BQ)The [o]high places of Isaac shall be desolate,
And the [p]sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste.
(BR)I will rise with the sword against the house of Jeroboam.”
Amaziah’s Complaint
10 Then Amaziah the (BS)priest of (BT)Bethel sent to (BU)Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to [q]bear all his words. 11 For thus Amos has said:
‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword,
And Israel shall surely be led away (BV)captive
From their own land.’ ”
12 Then Amaziah said to Amos:
“Go, you seer!
Flee to the land of Judah.
There eat bread,
And there prophesy.
13 But (BW)never again prophesy at Bethel,
(BX)For it is the king’s [r]sanctuary,
And it is the royal [s]residence.”
14 Then Amos answered, and said to Amaziah:
“I was no prophet,
Nor was I (BY)a son of a prophet,
But I was a (BZ)sheepbreeder
And a tender of sycamore fruit.
15 Then the Lord took me [t]as I followed the flock,
And the Lord said to me,
‘Go, (CA)prophesy to My people Israel.’
16 Now therefore, hear the word of the Lord:
You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel,
And (CB)do not [u]spout against the house of Isaac.’
17 “Therefore(CC) thus says the Lord:
(CD)‘Your wife shall be a harlot in the city;
Your sons and daughters shall fall by the sword;
Your land shall be divided by survey line;
You shall die in a (CE)defiled land;
And Israel shall surely be led away captive
From his own land.’ ”
Footnotes
- Amos 5:9 Or flashes forth destruction
- Amos 5:11 trample
- Amos 5:11 Or tribute
- Amos 5:11 desirable
- Amos 5:26 LXX, Vg. tabernacle of Moloch
- Amos 5:26 A pagan deity
- Amos 6:10 Lit. his loved one or uncle
- Amos 6:10 Lit. bones
- Amos 6:13 Lit. Nothing
- Amos 6:13 Lit. Horns, a symbol of strength
- Amos 7:1 Lit. beginning of the sprouting of
- Amos 7:2 Or How shall Jacob stand
- Amos 7:4 to contend
- Amos 7:4 Lit. portion
- Amos 7:9 Places of pagan worship
- Amos 7:9 Or holy places
- Amos 7:10 Or endure
- Amos 7:13 Or holy place
- Amos 7:13 Lit. house
- Amos 7:15 Lit. from behind
- Amos 7:16 Lit. drip
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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