Amos 5:16-27

New American Standard Bible

¹⁶Therefore this is what the Lord God of armies, the Lord says:

“There is ^(A)mourning in all the public squares,
And in all the streets they say, ‘Oh no! Oh no!’
They also call the ^(B)farmer to mourning
And ^[a]^(C)professional mourners to mourning rites.
¹⁷And in all the ^(D)vineyards there is mourning,
Because I will pass through the midst of you,” says the Lord.

¹⁸Woe to you who are longing for the ^(E)day of the Lord,
For what ^[b]purpose will the day of the Lord be to you?
It will be ^(F)darkness and not light;
¹⁹As when a man ^(G)flees from a lion
And a bear confronts him,
^[c]Or he goes home, leans with his hand against the wall,
And a snake bites him.
²⁰Will the day of the Lord not be ^(H)darkness instead of light,
Even gloom with no brightness in it?

²¹“I hate, I ^(I)reject your festivals,
Nor do I ^[d]^(J)delight in your festive assemblies.
²²Even though you ^(K)offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings,
I will not accept them;
And I will not even look at the ^(L)peace offerings of your fattened oxen.
²³Take away from Me the noise of your songs;
I will not even listen to the sound of your harps.
²⁴But let ^(M)justice roll out like waters,
And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

²⁵“^[e]^(N)Did you present Me with sacrifices and grain offerings in the wilderness for forty years, house of Israel? ²⁶^(O)You also carried along ^[f]Sikkuth your king and ^[g]Kiyyun, your images, ^[h]the star of your gods which you made for yourselves. ²⁷Therefore I will make you go into exile beyond Damascus,” says the Lord, whose name is the God of armies.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

Amos 5:16 Lit those who know mourning
Amos 5:18 Lit will this be to you, the day
Amos 5:19 Or Then
Amos 5:21 Lit like to smell your
Amos 5:25 Or You presented Me with the sacrifices and a grain offering
Amos 5:26 Or Sakkuth (Saturn), or the tabernacle of your Moloch
Amos 5:26 Or Kaiwan (Saturn), or stands of
Amos 5:26 Or your star gods

Matthew 24:29-44

New American Standard Bible

The Glorious Return

²⁹“But immediately after the ^(A)tribulation of those days ^(B)the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and ^(C)the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. ³⁰And then ^(D)the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see ^(E)the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. ³¹And ^(F)He will send forth His angels with ^(G)a great trumpet blast, and they will gather together His ^[a]^(H)elect from ^(I)the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.

Parable of the Fig Tree

³²“Now learn the parable from the fig tree: as soon as its branch has become tender and sprouts its leaves, you know that summer is near; ³³so you too, when you see all these things, ^[b]recognize that ^[c]He is near, right ^(J)at the ^[d]door. ³⁴Truly I say to you, ^(K)this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. ³⁵^(L)Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.

³⁶“But ^(M)about that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. ³⁷For ^[e]the ^(N)coming of the Son of Man will be ^(O)just like the days of Noah. ³⁸For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, ^(P)marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that ^(Q)Noah entered the ark, ³⁹and they did not ^[f]understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the ^(R)coming of the Son of Man be. ⁴⁰At that time there will be two men in the field; one ^[g]will be taken and one ^[h]will be left. ⁴¹^(S)Two women will be grinding at the ^[i]^(T)mill; one ^[j]will be taken and one ^[k]will be left.

Be Ready for His Coming

⁴²“Therefore ^(U)be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming. ⁴³But ^[l]be sure of this, that ^(V)if the head of the house had known ^(W)at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. ⁴⁴For this reason ^(X)you must be ready as well; for ^(Y)the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.