Amos 5
Legacy Standard Bible
Seek Me That You May Live
5 Hear this word which I take up for you as a funeral (A)lament, O house of Israel:
2 She has fallen; she will (B)not rise again—
The (C)virgin Israel.
She lies abandoned on her land;
There is (D)none to raise her up.
3 For thus says Lord Yahweh,
“The city which goes forth one thousand strong
Will have one (E)hundred left,
And the one which goes forth one hundred strong
Will have (F)ten left to the house of Israel.”
4 For thus says Yahweh to the house of Israel,
“(G)Seek Me (H)that you may live.
5 But do not seek (I)Bethel,
And do not come to (J)Gilgal,
Nor cross over to (K)Beersheba;
For Gilgal will certainly go into [a]exile,
And Bethel will become [b]evil.
6 (L)Seek Yahweh that you may live,
Lest He come mightily like a (M)fire, [c]O house of Joseph,
And it will consume with none to quench it for Bethel,
7 For those who overturn (N)justice into wormwood
And put righteousness down to the earth.”
8 He who made the (O)Pleiades and Orion
And (P)overturns the shadow of death into morning,
[d]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,
(S)Yahweh is His name.
9 It is He who (T)flashes forth with devastation upon the strong
So that (U)devastation comes upon the fortification.
10 They hate him who (V)reproves in the [e]gate,
And they (W)abhor him who speaks with integrity.
11 Therefore because you [f]impose heavy 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 desirable vineyards, yet you will (Y)not drink their wine.
12 For I know your transgressions are many and your sins are mighty,
You who (Z)distress the righteous and take bribes
And [g]turn aside the needy in the [h]gate.
13 Therefore at [i]such a time the one with insight (AA)keeps silent, for it is an evil time.
14 Seek good and not evil, in order that you may live;
And thus may Yahweh God of hosts be with you,
(AB)Just as you have said!
15 (AC)Hate evil, love good,
And set justice at the [j]gate!
Perhaps Yahweh God of hosts
(AD)May be gracious to the (AE)remnant of Joseph.
16 Therefore thus says Yahweh God of hosts, the Lord,
“There is (AF)wailing in all the plazas,
And in all the streets they say, ‘Alas! Alas!’
They also call the (AG)farmer to mourning
And [k](AH)professional weepers to wailing.
17 And in all the (AI)vineyards there is wailing
Because I will pass through the midst of you,” says Yahweh.
18 Woe, you who are longing for the (AJ)day of Yahweh,
For what purpose will the day of Yahweh be to you?
It will be (AK)darkness and not light;
19 As when a man (AL)flees from a lion
And a bear meets him;
[l]Or he goes home, leans his hand against the wall,
And a snake bites him.
20 Will not the day of Yahweh be (AM)darkness instead of light,
Even thick darkness with no brightness in it?
21 “I hate, I (AN)reject your feasts,
Nor do I [m](AO)delight in your solemn assemblies.
22 Even 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 fatlings.
23 Remove from Me the tumult of your songs;
I will not even listen to the melody of your harps.
24 But let (AR)justice roll down like waters
And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
25 “[n](AS)Did you present Me with sacrifices and grain offerings in the wilderness for forty years, O house of Israel? 26 (AT)You also carried along [o]Sikkuth your king and [p]Kiyyun, your images, [q]the star of your gods which you made for yourselves. 27 Therefore, I will make you go into exile beyond Damascus,” says Yahweh, whose name is the God of hosts.
Footnotes
- Amos 5:5 Gilgal sounds like Heb root galah, which means to go into exile
- Amos 5:5 Or Beth Aven, cf. Hos 4:15; 5:8; 10:5
- Amos 5:6 Or in the house
- Amos 5:8 Lit And He darkened
- Amos 5:10 The place where court was held
- Amos 5:11 Or trample upon
- Amos 5:12 Lit they turn
- Amos 5:12 The place where court was held
- Amos 5:13 Lit that time
- Amos 5:15 The place where court was held
- Amos 5:16 Lit those who know lamentation
- Amos 5:19 Or Then
- Amos 5:21 Lit like to smell
- Amos 5:25 Or You presented Me with the sacrifices and a grain offering
- Amos 5:26 Or Sakkuth (Saturn), shrine of your Moloch
- Amos 5:26 Or Kaiwan (Saturn), stands of
- Amos 5:26 Or your star gods
Amos 5
New Living Translation
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[a] 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.[b]
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,[c]” says the Lord, whose name is the God of Heaven’s Armies.
Footnotes
Legacy Standard Bible Copyright ©2021 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org For Permission to Quote Information visit https://www.LSBible.org.
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.
