Amos 5:1-9

English Standard Version

Seek the Lord and Live

5 Hear this word that I ^(A)take up over you in lamentation, O house of Israel:

²“Fallen, no more to rise,
is ^(B)the virgin Israel;
forsaken on her land,
with none to raise her up.”

³For thus says the Lord God:

“The city that went out a thousand
    shall have a hundred left,
and that which went out a hundred
    shall have ten left
    to the house of Israel.”

⁴For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel:

^(C)“Seek me and live;
⁵    but do not seek ^(D)Bethel,
and do not enter into ^(E)Gilgal
    or cross over to ^(F)Beersheba;
for ^(G)Gilgal shall surely go into exile,
    and ^(H)Bethel shall come to nothing.”

⁶^(I)Seek the Lord and live,
    ^(J)lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph,
    and it devour, with none to quench it for ^(K)Bethel,
⁷O ^(L)you who turn justice to wormwood^[a]
    and cast down righteousness to the earth!

⁸He who made the ^(M)Pleiades and Orion,
    and turns deep darkness into the morning
    and ^(N)darkens the day into night,
who ^(O)calls for the waters of the sea
    ^(P)and pours them out on the surface of the earth,
^(Q)the Lord is his name;
⁹^(R)who makes destruction flash forth against the strong,
    so that destruction comes upon the fortress.