Amos 4-5
Common English Bible
Judgment on Israel’s elite
4 Hear this word, you cows of Bashan,
who are on Mount Samaria,
who cheat the weak,
who crush the needy,
who say to their husbands, “Bring drinks, so we can get drunk!”
2 The Lord God has solemnly promised by his holiness:
The days are surely coming upon you,
when they will take you away with hooks,
even the last one of you with fishhooks.
3 You will go out through the broken wall,
each one after another;
and you will be flung out into Harmon,
says the Lord.
A divine taunt
4 Come to Bethel—and commit a crime;
multiply crimes at Gilgal.
Bring your sacrifices every morning,
your tenth-part gifts every three days.
5 Offer a thanksgiving sacrifice of leavened bread,
and publicize your gifts to the Lord;
for so you love to do, people of Israel!
says the Lord God.
Israel’s stubbornness
6 I have sent a famine in all your cities,
and not provided enough bread in all your places,
yet you didn’t return to me,
says the Lord.
7 I also withheld rain from you
when there were still three months to the harvest.
I allowed rain to fall on one city,
no rain to fall on another city.
One field was rained on,
and the field dried up where it didn’t rain.
8 So two or three thirsty towns went to one city to drink water, and weren’t satisfied;
yet you didn’t return to me,
says the Lord.
9 I struck you with disease and mildew.
I destroyed your gardens and your vineyards.
The locust devoured your fig trees and your olive trees;
yet you didn’t return to me,
says the Lord.
10 I sent a plague against you like the one in Egypt.
I killed your young men with the sword.
I carried away your horses.
I made the stink of your camp go up into your nostrils;
yet you didn’t return to me,
says the Lord.
11 I destroyed some of you,
as when God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.
You were like a burning coal plucked out of the fire;
yet you didn’t return to me,
says the Lord.
12 Truly, Israel,
I will act in this way toward you;
therefore, I will do this to you.
Prepare to meet your God, Israel!
13 The one who forms the mountains, creates the wind,
makes known his thoughts to humankind,
makes the morning darkness,
and moves over the heights of the earth—
the Lord, the God of heavenly forces is his name!
A song of lament
5 Hear this word—a funeral song—that I am lifting up against you, house of Israel:
2 Fallen, no more to rise,
is virgin Israel,
deserted on her land,
with no one to raise her up.
3 The Lord God proclaims:
The city that marched out one thousand people
will have one hundred left,
and the city that marched out one hundred will have ten left in the house of Israel.
Words of encouragement
4 The Lord proclaims to the house of Israel:
Seek me and live.
5 But don’t seek Bethel,
don’t enter into Gilgal,
or cross over to Beer-sheba;
for Gilgal will go into exile,
and Bethel will come to nothing.
6 Seek the Lord and live,
or else God might rush like a fire against the house of Joseph.
The fire will burn up Bethel, with no one to put it out.
Words of doom
7 Doom to you who turn justice into poison,
and throw righteousness to the ground!
8 The one who made the Pleiades and Orion,
and turns deep darkness into the morning,
and darkens the day into night;
who summons the waters of the sea,
and pours them out on the surface of the earth—
this one’s name is the Lord—
9 who causes destruction to flash out against the strong,
so that destruction comes upon the fortress.
10 They hate the one who judges at the city gate,
and they reject the one who speaks the truth.
11 Truly, because you crush the weak,
and because you tax their grain,
you have built houses of carved stone,
but you won’t live in them;
you have planted pleasant vineyards,
but you won’t drink their wine.
12 I know how many are your crimes,
and how numerous are your sins—
afflicting the righteous,
taking money on the side,
turning away the poor who seek help.
13 Therefore, the one who is wise will keep silent in that time;
it is an evil time.
Words of inspiration
14 Seek good and not evil,
that you may live;
and so the Lord, the God of heavenly forces,
will be with you just as you have said.
15 Hate evil, love good,
and establish justice at the city gate.
Perhaps the Lord God of heavenly forces
will be gracious to what is left of Joseph.
Divine wrath anticipated
16 Truly, the Lord proclaims,
the God of heavenly forces, the Lord:
Crying will be heard in all the squares.
In all the streets they will say, “Oh no! Oh no!”
They will call upon the farmers to wail,
and those skilled in mourning to lament.
17 In all the vineyards there will be bitter crying because
I will pass through your midst,
says the Lord.
A statement of divine disgust
18 Doom to those who desire the day of the Lord!
Why do you want the day of the Lord?
It is darkness, not light;
19 as if someone fled from a lion,
and was met by a bear;
or sought refuge in a house,
rested a hand against the wall,
and was bitten by a snake.
20 Isn’t the day of the Lord darkness, not light;
all dark with no brightness in it?
21 I hate, I reject your festivals;
I don’t enjoy your joyous assemblies.
22 If you bring me your entirely burned offerings and gifts of food—
I won’t be pleased;
I won’t even look at your offerings of well-fed animals.
23 Take away the noise of your songs;
I won’t listen to the melody of your harps.
24 But let justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
25 Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings
during the forty years in the wilderness, house of Israel?
26 You will take up Sakkuth your king,
and Kaiwan your star-god,
your images, which you made for yourselves.
27 Therefore, I will take you away
beyond Damascus, says the Lord,
whose name is the God of heavenly forces.
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible
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