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

Matthew 6:19-34

New American Standard Bible

¹⁹“^(A)Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰But store up for yourselves ^(B)treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; ²¹for ^(C)where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

²²“^(D)The eye is the lamp of the body; so then, if your eye is ^[a]clear, your whole body will be full of light. ²³But if ^(E)your eye is ^[b]bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. So if the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

²⁴“^(F)No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and ^[c]^(G)wealth.

The Cure for Anxiety

²⁵“^(H)For this reason I say to you, ^[d]do not be ^(I)worried about your ^[e]life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is life not more than food, and the body more than clothing? ²⁶^(J)Look at the birds of the sky, that they do not sow, nor reap, nor gather crops into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more important than they? ²⁷And which of you by ^(K)worrying can ^(L)add a single ^[f]day to his ^[g]life’s span? ²⁸And why are you ^(M)worried about clothing? Notice how the lilies of the field grow; they do not labor nor do they spin thread for cloth, ²⁹yet I say to you that not even ^(N)Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. ³⁰But if God so clothes the ^(O)grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? ^(P)You of little faith! ³¹Do not ^(Q)worry then, saying, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear for clothing?’ ³²For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for ^(R)your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³But ^[h]seek first ^[i]His kingdom and His righteousness, and ^(S)all these things will be ^[j]provided to you.

³⁴“So do not ^(T)worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will ^[k]worry about itself. ^[l]Each day has enough trouble of its own.

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Footnotes

Matthew 6:22 Or healthy; or sincere
Matthew 6:23 Or evil
Matthew 6:24 Gr mamonas, for Aramaic mamon (mammon); i.e., wealth etc. personified as an object of worship
Matthew 6:25 Or stop being worried
Matthew 6:25 Lit soul
Matthew 6:27 Lit cubit (about 18 in. or 45 cm)
Matthew 6:27 Or height
Matthew 6:33 Or continually seek
Matthew 6:33 Or the kingdom
Matthew 6:33 Or added
Matthew 6:34 Or look after itself
Matthew 6:34 Lit Sufficient for the day is its evil

Amos 6

New American Standard Bible

“Carefree in Zion”

6 ^(A)Woe to those who are carefree in Zion,
And to those who feel secure on the mountain of Samaria,
The ^(B)dignitaries of the foremost of nations,
To whom the house of Israel comes.
²Go over to ^(C)Calneh and look,
And go from there to ^(D)Hamath the great,
Then go down to ^(E)Gath of the Philistines.
Are ^[a]they better than these kingdoms,
Or is their territory greater than yours?
³Are you ^(F)postponing the day of disaster,
And would you ^(G)bring near the seat of violence?

⁴Those who lie on beds of ivory,
And lounge around on their ^(H)couches,
And ^(I)eat lambs from the flock,
And calves from the midst of the fattened cattle,
⁵Who improvise to the sound of the harp,
And like David have ^[b]composed ^(J)songs for themselves,
⁶Who ^(K)drink wine from sacred bowls
While they anoint themselves with the finest of oils—
Yet they have not ^(L)grieved over the collapse of Joseph.
⁷Therefore, they will now ^(M)go into exile at the head of the exiles,
And the revelry of those who ^(N)lounge around will come to an end.

⁸The Lord ^[c]God has ^(O)sworn by Himself, the Lord God of armies has declared:
“I ^(P)loathe the arrogance of Jacob,
And ^[d]detest his ^(Q)citadels;
Therefore I will ^(R)give up the city and ^[e]all it contains.”

⁹And it will be, if ^(S)ten men are left in one house, they will die. ¹⁰Then one’s ^[f]uncle, or his ^(T)undertaker, will lift him up to carry out his bones from the house, and he will say to the one who is in the innermost part of the house, “Is anyone else with you?” And that one will say, “No one.” Then he will ^[g]answer, “^(U)Keep quiet! For ^[h]the name of the Lord is ^(V)not to be mentioned.” ¹¹For behold, the Lord is going to ^(W)command that the ^(X)great house be smashed to pieces, and the small house to rubble.

¹²Do horses run on rocks?
Or does one ^[i]plow them with oxen?
Yet you have turned ^(Y)justice into poison,
And the fruit of righteousness into ^[j]wormwood,
¹³You who rejoice in ^[k]^(Z)Lodebar,
^[l]And say, “Have we not ^(AA)by our own strength taken ^[m]Karnaim for ourselves?”
¹⁴“For behold, ^(AB)I am going to raise up a nation against you,
House of Israel,” declares the Lord God of armies,
“And they will torment you from the ^(AC)entrance of Hamath
To the ^(AD)brook of the Arabah.”

Footnotes

Amos 6:2 Or you
Amos 6:5 Or invented musical instruments
Amos 6:8 Heb YHWH, usually rendered Lord
Amos 6:8 Lit hate
Amos 6:8 Lit its fullness
Amos 6:10 Or beloved one
Amos 6:10 Lit say
Amos 6:10 Lit not to make mention in the name of
Amos 6:12 Another reading is plow the sea with oxen
Amos 6:12 I.e., bitterness
Amos 6:13 Lit nothing
Amos 6:13 Lit Who say
Amos 6:13 Lit a pair of horns

1 Thessalonians 5:12-28

New American Standard Bible

Christian Conduct

¹²But we ask you, brothers and sisters, to ^(A)recognize those ^(B)who diligently labor among you and ^[a]^(C)are in leadership over you in the Lord, and give you ^[b]instruction, ¹³and that you regard them very highly in love because of their work. ^(D)Live in peace with one another. ¹⁴We urge you, brothers and sisters, admonish ^(E)the ^[c]unruly, encourage ^(F)the fainthearted, help ^(G)the weak, be ^(H)patient with everyone. ¹⁵See that ^(I)no one repays another with evil for evil, but always ^(J)seek what is good for one another and for all people. ¹⁶^(K)Rejoice always, ¹⁷^(L)pray without ceasing, ¹⁸in everything ^(M)give thanks; for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus. ¹⁹^(N)Do not quench the Spirit, ²⁰do not utterly reject ^[d]^(O)prophecies, ²¹but ^(P)examine everything; ^(Q)hold firmly to that which is good, ²²abstain from every ^[e]form of evil.

²³Now ^(R)may the God of peace ^(S)Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your ^(T)spirit and soul and body be kept complete, ^(U)without blame at ^(V)the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴^(W)Faithful is He who ^(X)calls you, and He also will do it.

²⁵Brothers and sisters, ^(Y)pray for us^[f].

²⁶^(Z)Greet all the brothers and sisters with a holy kiss. ²⁷I put you under oath by the Lord to ^(AA)have this letter read to all the ^(AB)brothers and sisters.

²⁸^(AC)May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

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