Amos 5:16-27

New Living Translation

¹⁶Therefore, 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.
¹⁷There will be wailing in every vineyard,
    for I will destroy them all,”
    says the Lord.

Warning of Coming Judgment

¹⁸What 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.
¹⁹In 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.
²⁰Yes, 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.
²²I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings.
    I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings.
²³Away with your noisy hymns of praise!
    I will not listen to the music of your harps.
²⁴Instead, 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? ²⁶No, you served your pagan gods—Sakkuth your king god and Kaiwan your star god—the images you made for yourselves. ²⁷So I will send you into exile, to a land east of Damascus,^[a]” says the Lord, whose name is the God of Heaven’s Armies.

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Footnotes

5:26-27 Greek version reads No, you carried your pagan gods—the shrine of Molech, the star of your god Rephan, and the images you made for yourselves. So I will send you into exile, to a land east of Damascus. Compare Acts 7:43.