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Amos 5:7-24
The Message
Amos 5:7-24
The Message
Raw Truth Is Never Popular
7-9 Woe to you who turn justice to vinegar
and stomp righteousness into the mud.
Do you realize where you are? You’re in a cosmos
star-flung with constellations by God,
A world God wakes up each morning
and puts to bed each night.
God dips water from the ocean
and gives the land a drink.
God, God-revealed, does all this.
And he can destroy it as easily as make it.
He can turn this vast wonder into total waste.
10-12 People hate this kind of talk.
Raw truth is never popular.
But here it is, bluntly spoken:
Because you run roughshod over the poor
and take the bread right out of their mouths,
You’re never going to move into
the luxury homes you have built.
You’re never going to drink wine
from the expensive vineyards you’ve planted.
I know precisely the extent of your violations,
the enormity of your sins. Appalling!
You bully right-living people,
taking bribes right and left and kicking the poor when they’re down.
13 Justice is a lost cause. Evil is epidemic.
Decent people throw up their hands.
Protest and rebuke are useless,
a waste of breath.
14 Seek good and not evil—
and live!
You talk about God, the God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
being your best friend.
Well, live like it,
and maybe it will happen.
15 Hate evil and love good,
then work it out in the public square.
Maybe God, the God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
will notice your remnant and be gracious.
16-17 Now again, my Master’s Message, God, God-of-the-Angel-Armies:
“Go out into the streets and lament loudly!
Fill the malls and shops with cries of doom!
Weep loudly, ‘Not me! Not us, Not now!’
Empty offices, stores, factories, workplaces.
Enlist everyone in the general lament.
I want to hear it loud and clear when I make my visit.”
God’s Decree.
Time to Face Hard Reality, Not Fantasy
18-20 Woe to all of you who want God’s Judgment Day!
Why would you want to see God, want him to come?
When God comes, it will be bad news before it’s good news,
the worst of times, not the best of times.
Here’s what it’s like: A man runs from a lion
right into the jaws of a bear.
A woman goes home after a hard day’s work
and is raped by a neighbor.
At God’s coming we face hard reality, not fantasy—
a black cloud with no silver lining.
21-24 “I can’t stand your religious meetings.
I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions.
I want nothing to do with your religion projects,
your pretentious slogans and goals.
I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes,
your public relations and image making.
I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music.
When was the last time you sang to me?
Do you know what I want?
I want justice—oceans of it.
I want fairness—rivers of it.
That’s what I want. That’s all I want.
Amos 5:7-24
New International Version
Amos 5:7-24
New International Version
8 He who made the Pleiades and Orion,(D)
who turns midnight into dawn(E)
and darkens day into night,(F)
who calls for the waters of the sea
and pours them out over the face of the land—
the Lord is his name.(G)
9 With a blinding flash he destroys the stronghold
and brings the fortified city to ruin.(H)
10 There are those who hate the one who upholds justice in court(I)
and detest the one who tells the truth.(J)
11 You levy a straw tax on the poor(K)
and impose a tax on their grain.
Therefore, though you have built stone mansions,(L)
you will not live in them;(M)
though you have planted lush vineyards,
you will not drink their wine.(N)
12 For I know how many are your offenses
and how great your sins.(O)
There are those who oppress the innocent and take bribes(P)
and deprive the poor(Q) of justice in the courts.(R)
13 Therefore the prudent keep quiet(S) in such times,
for the times are evil.(T)
14 Seek good, not evil,
that you may live.(U)
Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you,
just as you say he is.
15 Hate evil,(V) love good;(W)
maintain justice in the courts.(X)
Perhaps(Y) the Lord God Almighty will have mercy(Z)
on the remnant(AA) of Joseph.
16 Therefore this is what the Lord, the Lord God Almighty, says:
“There will be wailing(AB) in all the streets(AC)
and cries of anguish in every public square.
The farmers(AD) will be summoned to weep
and the mourners to wail.
17 There will be wailing(AE) in all the vineyards,
for I will pass through(AF) your midst,”
says the Lord.(AG)
The Day of the Lord
18 Woe to you who long
for the day of the Lord!(AH)
Why do you long for the day of the Lord?(AI)
That day will be darkness,(AJ) not light.(AK)
19 It will be as though a man fled from a lion
only to meet a bear,(AL)
as though he entered his house
and rested his hand on the wall
only to have a snake bite him.(AM)
20 Will not the day of the Lord be darkness,(AN) not light—
pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness?(AO)
21 “I hate,(AP) I despise your religious festivals;(AQ)
your assemblies(AR) are a stench to me.
22 Even though you bring me burnt offerings(AS) and grain offerings,
I will not accept them.(AT)
Though you bring choice fellowship offerings,
I will have no regard for them.(AU)
23 Away with the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.(AV)
24 But let justice(AW) roll on like a river,
righteousness(AX) like a never-failing stream!(AY)
The Message (MSG)
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson
New International Version (NIV) 
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.