Amos 5

New American Standard Bible

“Seek Me So That You May Live”

5 Hear this word which I am taking up for you as a ^(A)song of mourning, house of Israel:
²She has fallen, she will ^(B)not rise again—
The ^(C)virgin Israel.
She lies unnoticed on her land;
There is ^(D)no one to raise her up.

³For this is what the Lord ^[a]God says:

“The city which goes forth a thousand strong
Will have a ^(E)hundred left,
And the one which goes forth a hundred strong
Will have ^(F)ten left to the house of Israel.”

⁴For this is what the Lord says to the house of Israel:

“^(G)Seek Me ^(H)so that you may live.
⁵But do not ^[b]resort to ^(I)Bethel
And do not come to ^(J)Gilgal,
Nor cross over to ^(K)Beersheba;
For Gilgal will certainly go into captivity
And Bethel will ^[c]come to nothing.
⁶^(L)Seek the Lord so that you may live,
Or He will break through like a ^(M)fire, ^[d]house of Joseph,
And it will consume with no one to extinguish it for Bethel,
⁷For those who turn ^(N)justice into wormwood,
And ^[e]throw righteousness to the earth.”

⁸He who made the ^(O)Pleiades and Orion,
And ^(P)changes deep darkness into morning,
^[f]Who also ^(Q)darkens day into night,
Who ^(R)calls for the waters of the sea
And pours them out on the surface of the earth,
The ^(S)Lord is His name.
⁹It is He who ^(T)makes destruction flash upon the strong,
So that ^(U)destruction comes upon the fortress.

¹⁰They hate him who ^(V)rebukes in the ^[g]gate,
And they ^(W)despise him who speaks with integrity.
¹¹Therefore because you impose heavy ^[h]rent on the poor
And take a tribute of grain from them,
Though you have built ^(X)houses of cut stone,
Yet you will not live in them;
You have planted beautiful vineyards, yet you will ^(Y)not drink their wine.
¹²For I know your offenses are many and your sins are great,
You who are ^(Z)hostile to the righteous and accept bribes,
And ^[i]turn away the poor from justice at the ^[j]gate.
¹³Therefore at ^[k]such a time the prudent person ^(AA)keeps quiet, because it is an evil time.

¹⁴Seek good and not evil, so that you may live;
And so may the Lord God of armies be with you,
^(AB)Just as you have said!
¹⁵^(AC)Hate evil, love good,
And establish justice in the ^[l]gate!
Perhaps the Lord God of armies
^(AD)Will be gracious to the ^(AE)remnant of Joseph.

¹⁶Therefore this is what the Lord God of armies, the Lord says:

“There is ^(AF)mourning in all the public squares,
And in all the streets they say, ‘Oh no! Oh no!’
They also call the ^(AG)farmer to mourning
And ^[m]^(AH)professional mourners to mourning rites.
¹⁷And in all the ^(AI)vineyards there is mourning,
Because I will pass through the midst of you,” says the Lord.

¹⁸Woe to you who are longing for the ^(AJ)day of the Lord,
For what ^[n]purpose will the day of the Lord be to you?
It will be ^(AK)darkness and not light;
¹⁹As when a man ^(AL)flees from a lion
And a bear confronts him,
^[o]Or he goes home, leans with his hand against the wall,
And a snake bites him.
²⁰Will the day of the Lord not be ^(AM)darkness instead of light,
Even gloom with no brightness in it?

²¹“I hate, I ^(AN)reject your festivals,
Nor do I ^[p]^(AO)delight in your festive assemblies.
²²Even though you ^(AP)offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings,
I will not accept them;
And I will not even look at the ^(AQ)peace offerings of your fattened oxen.
²³Take away from Me the noise of your songs;
I will not even listen to the sound of your harps.
²⁴But let ^(AR)justice roll out like waters,
And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

²⁵“^[q]^(AS)Did you present Me with sacrifices and grain offerings in the wilderness for forty years, house of Israel? ²⁶^(AT)You also carried along ^[r]Sikkuth your king and ^[s]Kiyyun, your images, ^[t]the star of your gods which you made for yourselves. ²⁷Therefore I will make you go into exile beyond Damascus,” says the Lord, whose name is the God of armies.

Footnotes

Amos 5:3 Heb YHWH, usually rendered Lord, and so throughout the ch
Amos 5:5 Lit seek
Amos 5:5 Lit be
Amos 5:6 Or in the house
Amos 5:7 Lit they have thrown
Amos 5:8 Lit And He darkened
Amos 5:10 I.e., the place where court was held
Amos 5:11 Or tax
Amos 5:12 Lit they turn
Amos 5:12 I.e., the place where court was held
Amos 5:13 Lit that time
Amos 5:15 I.e., the place where court was held
Amos 5:16 Lit those who know mourning
Amos 5:18 Lit will this be to you, the day
Amos 5:19 Or Then
Amos 5:21 Lit like to smell your
Amos 5:25 Or You presented Me with the sacrifices and a grain offering
Amos 5:26 Or Sakkuth (Saturn), or the tabernacle of your Moloch
Amos 5:26 Or Kaiwan (Saturn), or stands of
Amos 5:26 Or your star gods

Psalm 35:9-21

New American Standard Bible

⁹So my soul shall ^(A)rejoice in the Lord;
It shall ^(B)rejoice in His salvation.
¹⁰All my ^(C)bones will say, “Lord, ^(D)who is like You,
Who rescues the afflicted from one ^(E)who is too strong for him,
And ^(F)the afflicted and the poor from one who robs him?”
¹¹^(G)Malicious witnesses rise up;
They ask me things that I do not know.
¹²They ^(H)repay me evil for good,
To the bereavement of my soul.
¹³But as for me, ^(I)when they were sick, my ^(J)clothing was sackcloth;
I ^(K)humbled my soul with fasting,
But my ^(L)prayer kept returning to ^[a]me.
¹⁴I went about as though it were my friend or brother;
I ^(M)bowed down ^[b]in mourning, like one who mourns for a mother.
¹⁵But ^(N)at my ^[c]stumbling they rejoiced and gathered themselves together;
The ^[d]^(O)afflicted people whom I did not know gathered together against me,
They ^[e]^(P)slandered me without ceasing.
¹⁶Like godless jesters at a feast,
They ^(Q)gnashed at me with their teeth.

¹⁷Lord, ^(R)how long will You look on?
Rescue my soul ^(S)from their ravages,
My ^(T)only life from the lions.
¹⁸I will ^(U)give You thanks in the great congregation;
I will ^(V)praise You among a mighty people.
¹⁹^(W)Do not let those who are wrongfully ^(X)my enemies rejoice over me;
Nor let those ^(Y)who hate me for no reason ^[f]^(Z)wink maliciously.
²⁰For they do not speak peace,
But they devise ^(AA)deceitful words against those who are quiet in the land.
²¹They ^(AB)opened their mouth wide against me;
They said, “^(AC)Aha, aha! Our eyes have seen it!”

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Footnotes

Psalm 35:13 Lit my chest
Psalm 35:14 Or dressed for mourning
Psalm 35:15 Or limping
Psalm 35:15 Or struck ones
Psalm 35:15 Lit tore
Psalm 35:19 Or wink the eye

Matthew 17:14-27

New American Standard Bible

The Demon-possessed Boy

¹⁴^(A)When they came to the crowd, a man came up to ^[a]Jesus, falling on his knees before Him and saying, ¹⁵“^[b]Lord, have mercy on my son, because he ^(B)has seizures and suffers terribly; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. ¹⁶And I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him.” ¹⁷And Jesus answered and said, “You unbelieving and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me.” ¹⁸And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was healed ^[c]at once.

¹⁹Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” ²⁰And He *said to them, “Because of your meager faith; for truly I say to you, ^(C)if you have faith ^[d]the size of ^(D)a mustard seed, you will say to ^(E)this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and ^(F)nothing will be impossible for you.^[e]”

²²^(G)And while they were gathering together in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be ^[f]handed over to men; ²³and ^(H)they will kill Him, and He will be raised on the third day.” And they were deeply grieved.

The Temple Tax

²⁴Now when they came to Capernaum, those who collected ^(I)the ^[g]two-drachma tax came to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay ^(J)the ^[h]two-drachma tax?” ²⁵He *said, “Yes.” And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth collect ^(K)customs or ^[i]^(L)poll-tax, from their sons or from strangers?” ²⁶When Peter said, “From strangers,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are ^[j]exempt. ²⁷However, so that we do not ^(M)offend them, go to the sea and throw in a hook, and take the first fish that comes up; and when you open its mouth, you will find a ^[k]stater. Take that and give it to them for you and Me.”

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Footnotes

Matthew 17:14 Lit Him
Matthew 17:15 Or Sir
Matthew 17:18 Lit from that hour
Matthew 17:20 Lit like
Matthew 17:20 Late mss add (traditionally v 21): But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting
Matthew 17:22 Or betrayed
Matthew 17:24 Equivalent to about two denarii or two days’ wages for a laborer, paid as a temple tax
Matthew 17:24 Equivalent to about two denarii or two days’ wages for a laborer, paid as a temple tax
Matthew 17:25 I.e., a tax on each person in the census
Matthew 17:26 Lit free
Matthew 17:27 A silver four-drachma Greek coin