Amos 4-6
New American Standard Bible
“Yet You Have Not Returned to Me”
4 Hear this word, you [a]cows of (A)Bashan who are on the (B)mountain of Samaria,
Who (C)exploit the poor, who oppress the needy,
[b]And say to their [c]husbands, “Bring now, that we may (D)drink!”
2 The Lord [d]God has (E)sworn by His (F)holiness,
“For behold, the days are coming upon you
When [e]they will take you away with (G)meat hooks,
And the last of you with (H)fish hooks.
3 You will (I)go out through holes in the walls,
One in front of the other,
And you [f]will be hurled to Harmon,” declares the Lord.
4 “Enter Bethel and do wrong;
In Gilgal multiply wrongdoing!
(J)Bring your sacrifices every morning,
Your tithes every three days.
5 [g]Offer a (K)thanksgiving offering also from that which is leavened,
And proclaim (L)[h]voluntary offerings, make them known.
For so you (M)love to do, you sons of Israel,”
Declares the Lord God.
6 “But I gave you also (N)cleanness of teeth in all your cities,
And lack of bread in all your places;
Yet you have (O)not returned to Me,” declares the Lord.
7 “Furthermore, I (P)withheld the rain from you
While there were still three months until harvest.
Then I would send rain on one city,
But on (Q)another city I would not send rain;
One part would be rained on,
While the part not rained on would dry up.
8 So the people of two or three cities would stagger to another city to drink (R)water,
But would (S)not be satisfied;
Yet you have (T)not returned to Me,” declares the Lord.
9 “I (U)struck you with scorching wind and mildew;
The (V)caterpillar was devouring
Your many gardens and vineyards, fig trees and olive trees;
Yet you have (W)not returned to Me,” declares the Lord.
10 “I sent a (X)plague among you [i]as in Egypt;
I (Y)killed your young men with the sword, along with your (Z)captured horses,
And I made the (AA)stench of your camp rise up in your nostrils;
Yet you have (AB)not returned to Me,” declares the Lord.
11 “I overthrew you, as (AC)God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,
And you were like a (AD)log snatched from a fire;
Yet you have (AE)not returned to Me,” declares the Lord.
12 “Therefore so I will do to you, Israel;
Because I will do this to you,
Prepare to (AF)meet your God, Israel.”
13 For behold, He who (AG)forms mountains and (AH)creates the wind,
And (AI)declares to a person what are His thoughts,
He who (AJ)makes dawn into darkness
And (AK)treads on the high places of the earth,
(AL)The Lord God of armies is His name.
“Seek Me So That You May Live”
5 Hear this word which I am taking up for you as a (AM)song of mourning, house of Israel:
2 She has fallen, she will (AN)not rise again—
The (AO)virgin Israel.
She lies unnoticed on her land;
There is (AP)no one to raise her up.
3 For this is what the Lord [j]God says:
“The city which goes forth a thousand strong
Will have a (AQ)hundred left,
And the one which goes forth a hundred strong
Will have (AR)ten left to the house of Israel.”
4 For this is what the Lord says to the house of Israel:
“(AS)Seek Me (AT)so that you may live.
5 But do not [k]resort to (AU)Bethel
And do not come to (AV)Gilgal,
Nor cross over to (AW)Beersheba;
For Gilgal will certainly go into captivity
And Bethel will [l]come to nothing.
6 (AX)Seek the Lord so that you may live,
Or He will break through like a (AY)fire, [m]house of Joseph,
And it will consume with no one to extinguish it for Bethel,
7 For those who turn (AZ)justice into wormwood,
And [n]throw righteousness to the earth.”
8 He who made the (BA)Pleiades and Orion,
And (BB)changes deep darkness into morning,
[o]Who also (BC)darkens day into night,
Who (BD)calls for the waters of the sea
And pours them out on the surface of the earth,
The (BE)Lord is His name.
9 It is He who (BF)makes destruction flash upon the strong,
So that (BG)destruction comes upon the fortress.
10 They hate him who (BH)rebukes in the [p]gate,
And they (BI)despise him who speaks with integrity.
11 Therefore because you impose heavy [q]rent on the poor
And take a tribute of grain from them,
Though you have built (BJ)houses of cut stone,
Yet you will not live in them;
You have planted beautiful vineyards, yet you will (BK)not drink their wine.
12 For I know your offenses are many and your sins are great,
You who are (BL)hostile to the righteous and accept bribes,
And [r]turn away the poor from justice at the [s]gate.
13 Therefore at [t]such a time the prudent person (BM)keeps quiet, because it is an evil time.
14 Seek good and not evil, so that you may live;
And so may the Lord God of armies be with you,
(BN)Just as you have said!
15 (BO)Hate evil, love good,
And establish justice in the [u]gate!
Perhaps the Lord God of armies
(BP)Will be gracious to the (BQ)remnant of Joseph.
16 Therefore this is what the Lord God of armies, the Lord says:
“There is (BR)mourning in all the public squares,
And in all the streets they say, ‘Oh no! Oh no!’
They also call the (BS)farmer to mourning
And [v](BT)professional mourners to mourning rites.
17 And in all the (BU)vineyards there is mourning,
Because I will pass through the midst of you,” says the Lord.
18 Woe to you who are longing for the (BV)day of the Lord,
For what [w]purpose will the day of the Lord be to you?
It will be (BW)darkness and not light;
19 As when a man (BX)flees from a lion
And a bear confronts him,
[x]Or he goes home, leans with his hand against the wall,
And a snake bites him.
20 Will the day of the Lord not be (BY)darkness instead of light,
Even gloom with no brightness in it?
21 “I hate, I (BZ)reject your festivals,
Nor do I [y](CA)delight in your festive assemblies.
22 Even though you (CB)offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings,
I will not accept them;
And I will not even look at the (CC)peace offerings of your fattened oxen.
23 Take away from Me the noise of your songs;
I will not even listen to the sound of your harps.
24 But let (CD)justice roll out like waters,
And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
25 “[z](CE)Did you present Me with sacrifices and grain offerings in the wilderness for forty years, house of Israel? 26 (CF)You also carried along [aa]Sikkuth your king and [ab]Kiyyun, your images, [ac]the star of your gods which you made for yourselves. 27 Therefore I will make you go into exile beyond Damascus,” says the Lord, whose name is the God of armies.
“Carefree in Zion”
6 (CG)Woe to those who are carefree in Zion,
And to those who feel secure on the mountain of Samaria,
The (CH)dignitaries of the foremost of nations,
To whom the house of Israel comes.
2 Go over to (CI)Calneh and look,
And go from there to (CJ)Hamath the great,
Then go down to (CK)Gath of the Philistines.
Are [ad]they better than these kingdoms,
Or is their territory greater than yours?
3 Are you (CL)postponing the day of disaster,
And would you (CM)bring near the seat of violence?
4 Those who lie on beds of ivory,
And lounge around on their (CN)couches,
And (CO)eat lambs from the flock,
And calves from the midst of the fattened cattle,
5 Who improvise to the sound of the harp,
And like David have [ae]composed (CP)songs for themselves,
6 Who (CQ)drink wine from sacred bowls
While they anoint themselves with the finest of oils—
Yet they have not (CR)grieved over the collapse of Joseph.
7 Therefore, they will now (CS)go into exile at the head of the exiles,
And the revelry of those who (CT)lounge around will come to an end.
8 The Lord [af]God has (CU)sworn by Himself, the Lord God of armies has declared:
“I (CV)loathe the arrogance of Jacob,
And [ag]detest his (CW)citadels;
Therefore I will (CX)give up the city and [ah]all it contains.”
9 And it will be, if (CY)ten men are left in one house, they will die. 10 Then one’s [ai]uncle, or his (CZ)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 [aj]answer, “(DA)Keep quiet! For [ak]the name of the Lord is (DB)not to be mentioned.” 11 For behold, the Lord is going to (DC)command that the (DD)great house be smashed to pieces, and the small house to rubble.
12 Do horses run on rocks?
Or does one [al]plow them with oxen?
Yet you have turned (DE)justice into poison,
And the fruit of righteousness into [am]wormwood,
13 You who rejoice in [an](DF)Lodebar,
[ao]And say, “Have we not (DG)by our own strength taken [ap]Karnaim for ourselves?”
14 “For behold, (DH)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 (DI)entrance of Hamath
To the (DJ)brook of the Arabah.”
Footnotes
- Amos 4:1 I.e., haughty, prominent women
- Amos 4:1 Lit Who
- Amos 4:1 Lit lords
- Amos 4:2 Heb YHWH, usually rendered Lord, and so throughout the ch
- Amos 4:2 Lit he
- Amos 4:3 As in LXX; MT will hurl
- Amos 4:5 Lit Offer up in smoke
- Amos 4:5 Or freewill offerings
- Amos 4:10 Lit in the way of Egypt
- 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
- 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
Amos 4-6
New Living Translation
Israel’s Failure to Learn
4 Listen to me, you fat cows[a]
living in Samaria,
you women who oppress the poor
and crush the needy,
and who are always calling to your husbands,
“Bring us another drink!”
2 The Sovereign Lord has sworn this by his holiness:
“The time will come when you will be led away
with hooks in your noses.
Every last one of you will be dragged away
like a fish on a hook!
3 You will be led out through the ruins of the wall;
you will be thrown from your fortresses,[b]”
says the Lord.
4 “Go ahead and offer sacrifices to the idols at Bethel.
Keep on disobeying at Gilgal.
Offer sacrifices each morning,
and bring your tithes every three days.
5 Present your bread made with yeast
as an offering of thanksgiving.
Then give your extra voluntary offerings
so you can brag about it everywhere!
This is the kind of thing you Israelites love to do,”
says the Sovereign Lord.
6 “I brought hunger to every city
and famine to every town.
But still you would not return to me,”
says the Lord.
7 “I kept the rain from falling
when your crops needed it the most.
I sent rain on one town
but withheld it from another.
Rain fell on one field,
while another field withered away.
8 People staggered from town to town looking for water,
but there was never enough.
But still you would not return to me,”
says the Lord.
9 “I struck your farms and vineyards with blight and mildew.
Locusts devoured all your fig and olive trees.
But still you would not return to me,”
says the Lord.
10 “I sent plagues on you
like the plagues I sent on Egypt long ago.
I killed your young men in war
and led all your horses away.[c]
The stench of death filled the air!
But still you would not return to me,”
says the Lord.
11 “I destroyed some of your cities,
as I destroyed[d] Sodom and Gomorrah.
Those of you who survived
were like charred sticks pulled from a fire.
But still you would not return to me,”
says the Lord.
12 “Therefore, I will bring upon you all the disasters I have announced.
Prepare to meet your God in judgment, you people of Israel!”
13 For the Lord is the one who shaped the mountains,
stirs up the winds, and reveals his thoughts to mankind.
He turns the light of dawn into darkness
and treads on the heights of the earth.
The Lord God of Heaven’s Armies is his name!
A Call to Repentance
5 Listen, you people of Israel! Listen to this funeral song I am singing:
2 “The virgin Israel has fallen,
never to rise again!
She lies abandoned on the ground,
with no one to help her up.”
3 The Sovereign Lord says:
“When a city sends a thousand men to battle,
only a hundred will return.
When a town sends a hundred,
only ten will come back alive.”
4 Now this is what the Lord says to the family of Israel:
“Come back to me and live!
5 Don’t worship at the pagan altars at Bethel;
don’t go to the shrines at Gilgal or Beersheba.
For the people of Gilgal will be dragged off into exile,
and the people of Bethel will be reduced to nothing.”
6 Come back to the Lord and live!
Otherwise, he will roar through Israel[e] like a fire,
devouring you completely.
Your gods in Bethel
won’t be able to quench the flames.
7 You twist justice, making it a bitter pill for the oppressed.
You treat the righteous like dirt.
8 It is the Lord who created the stars,
the Pleiades and Orion.
He turns darkness into morning
and day into night.
He draws up water from the oceans
and pours it down as rain on the land.
The Lord is his name!
9 With blinding speed and power he destroys the strong,
crushing all their defenses.
10 How you hate honest judges!
How you despise people who tell the truth!
11 You trample the poor,
stealing their grain through taxes and unfair rent.
Therefore, though you build beautiful stone houses,
you will never live in them.
Though you plant lush vineyards,
you will never drink wine from them.
12 For I know the vast number of your sins
and the depth of your rebellions.
You oppress good people by taking bribes
and deprive the poor of justice in the courts.
13 So those who are smart keep their mouths shut,
for it is an evil time.
14 Do what is good and run from evil
so that you may live!
Then the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies will be your helper,
just as you have claimed.
15 Hate evil and love what is good;
turn your courts into true halls of justice.
Perhaps even yet the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies
will have mercy on the remnant of his people.[f]
16 Therefore, this is what the Lord, the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, says:
“There will be crying in all the public squares
and mourning in every street.
Call for the farmers to weep with you,
and summon professional mourners to wail.
17 There will be wailing in every vineyard,
for I will destroy them all,”
says the Lord.
Warning of Coming Judgment
18 What sorrow awaits you who say,
“If only the day of the Lord were here!”
You have no idea what you are wishing for.
That day will bring darkness, not light.
19 In that day you will be like a man who runs from a lion—
only to meet a bear.
Escaping from the bear, he leans his hand against a wall in his house—
and he’s bitten by a snake.
20 Yes, the day of the Lord will be dark and hopeless,
without a ray of joy or hope.
21 “I hate all your show and pretense—
the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies.
22 I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings.
I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings.
23 Away with your noisy hymns of praise!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.
24 Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice,
an endless river of righteous living.
25 “Was it to me you were bringing sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, Israel? 26 No, you served your pagan gods—Sakkuth your king god and Kaiwan your star god—the images you made for yourselves. 27 So I will send you into exile, to a land east of Damascus,[g]” says the Lord, whose name is the God of Heaven’s Armies.
6 What sorrow awaits you who lounge in luxury in Jerusalem,[h]
and you who feel secure in Samaria!
You are famous and popular in Israel,
and people go to you for help.
2 But go over to Calneh
and see what happened there.
Then go to the great city of Hamath
and down to the Philistine city of Gath.
You are no better than they were,
and look at how they were destroyed.
3 You push away every thought of coming disaster,
but your actions only bring the day of judgment closer.
4 How terrible for you who sprawl on ivory beds
and lounge on your couches,
eating the meat of tender lambs from the flock
and of choice calves fattened in the stall.
5 You sing trivial songs to the sound of the harp
and fancy yourselves to be great musicians like David.
6 You drink wine by the bowlful
and perfume yourselves with fragrant lotions.
You care nothing about the ruin of your nation.[i]
7 Therefore, you will be the first to be led away as captives.
Suddenly, all your parties will end.
8 The Sovereign Lord has sworn by his own name, and this is what he, the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, says:
“I despise the arrogance of Israel,[j]
and I hate their fortresses.
I will give this city
and everything in it to their enemies.”
9 (If there are ten men left in one house, they will all die. 10 And when a relative who is responsible to dispose of the dead[k] goes into the house to carry out the bodies, he will ask the last survivor, “Is anyone else with you?” When the person begins to swear, “No, by . . . ,” he will interrupt and say, “Stop! Don’t even mention the name of the Lord.”)
11 When the Lord gives the command,
homes both great and small will be smashed to pieces.
12 Can horses gallop over boulders?
Can oxen be used to plow them?
But that’s how foolish you are when you turn justice into poison
and the sweet fruit of righteousness into bitterness.
13 And you brag about your conquest of Lo-debar.[l]
You boast, “Didn’t we take Karnaim[m] by our own strength?”
14 “O people of Israel, I am about to bring an enemy nation against you,”
says the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies.
“They will oppress you throughout your land—
from Lebo-hamath in the north
to the Arabah Valley in the south.”
Footnotes
- 4:1 Hebrew you cows of Bashan.
- 4:3 Or thrown out toward Harmon, possibly a reference to Mount Hermon.
- 4:10 Or and slaughtered your captured horses.
- 4:11 Hebrew as when God destroyed.
- 5:6 Hebrew the house of Joseph.
- 5:15 Hebrew the remnant of Joseph.
- 5:26-27 Greek version reads No, you carried your pagan gods—the shrine of Molech, the star of your god Rephan, and the images you made for yourselves. So I will send you into exile, to a land east of Damascus. Compare Acts 7:43.
- 6:1 Hebrew in Zion.
- 6:6 Hebrew of Joseph.
- 6:8 Hebrew Jacob. See note on 3:13.
- 6:10 Or to burn the dead. The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
- 6:13a Lo-debar means “nothing.”
- 6:13b Karnaim means “horns,” a term that symbolizes strength.
New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
