Amos 5:1-3
New International Version - UK
A lament and call to repentance
5 Hear this word, Israel, this lament I take up concerning you:
2 ‘Fallen is Virgin Israel,
never to rise again,
deserted in her own land,
with no one to lift her up.’
3 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to Israel:
‘Your city that marches out a thousand strong
will have only a hundred left;
your town that marches out a hundred strong
will have only ten left.’
Amos 5:16-27
New International Version - UK
16 Therefore this is what the Lord, the Lord God Almighty, says:
‘There will be wailing in all the streets
and cries of anguish in every public square.
The farmers will be summoned to weep
and the mourners to wail.
17 There will be wailing in all the vineyards,
for I will pass through your midst,’
says the Lord.
The day of the Lord
18 Woe to you who long
for the day of the Lord!
Why do you long for the day of the Lord?
That day will be darkness, not light.
19 It will be as though a man fled from a lion
only to meet a bear,
as though he entered his house
and rested his hand on the wall
only to have a snake bite him.
20 Will not the day of the Lord be darkness, not light –
pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness?
21 ‘I hate, I despise your religious festivals;
your assemblies are a stench to me.
22 Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them.
Though you bring choice fellowship offerings,
I will have no regard for them.
23 Away with the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.
24 But let justice roll on like a river,
righteousness like a never-failing stream!
25 ‘Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings
for forty years in the wilderness, people of Israel?
26 You have lifted up the shrine of your king,
the pedestal of your idols,
the star of your god[a] –
which you made for yourselves.
27 Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,’
says the Lord, whose name is God Almighty.
Footnotes
- Amos 5:26 Or lifted up Sakkuth your king / and Kaiwan your idols, / your star-gods; Septuagint lifted up the shrine of Molek / and the star of your god Rephan, / their idols
Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.