Amos 5
Holman Christian Standard Bible
Lamentation for Israel
5 Listen to this message that I am singing for you, a lament,(A) house of Israel:
2 She has fallen;
Virgin Israel(B) will never rise again.(C)
She lies abandoned on her land,
with no one to raise her up.(D)
3 For the Lord God says:
The city that marches out a thousand strong
will have only a hundred left,(E)
and the one that marches out a hundred strong
will have only ten left(F) in the house of Israel.
Seek God and Live
4 For the Lord says to the house of Israel:
Seek Me and live!(G)
5 Do not seek Bethel(H)
or go to Gilgal(I)
or journey to Beer-sheba,(J)
for Gilgal will certainly go into exile,
and Bethel will come to nothing.
6 Seek Yahweh(K) and live,
or He will spread like fire(L)
throughout the house of Joseph;
it will consume everything,
with no one at Bethel to extinguish it.(M)
7 Those who turn justice into wormwood(N)
throw righteousness to the ground.
8 The One who made the Pleiades and Orion,(O)
who turns darkness[a] into dawn(P)
and darkens day into night,(Q)
who summons the waters of the sea(R)
and pours them out over the face of the earth(S)—
Yahweh is His name.(T)
9 He brings destruction[b] on the strong,[c](U)
and it falls on the stronghold.(V)
10 They hate the one who convicts the guilty(W)
at the city gate
and despise(X) the one who speaks with integrity.
11 Therefore, because you trample on the poor(Y)
and exact a grain tax from him,
you will never live in the houses of cut stone(Z)
you have built;
you will never drink the wine
from the lush vineyards
you have planted.(AA)
12 For I know your crimes are many
and your sins innumerable.
They oppress the righteous,(AB) take a bribe,
and deprive the poor of justice(AC) at the gates.
13 Therefore, the wise person will keep silent[d](AD)
at such a time,
for the days are evil.
14 Seek good and not evil
so that you may live,
and the Lord, the God of Hosts,
will be with you,
as you have claimed.(AE)
15 Hate evil and love good;(AF)
establish justice in the gate.(AG)
Perhaps the Lord, the God of Hosts, will be gracious(AH)
to the remnant of Joseph.(AI)
16 Therefore Yahweh, the God of Hosts, the Lord, says:
There will be wailing in all the public squares;(AJ)
they will cry out in anguish[e] in all the streets.
The farmer will be called on to mourn,(AK)
and professional mourners[f](AL) to wail.
17 There will be wailing in all the vineyards,(AM)
for I will pass among you.(AN)
The Lord has spoken.
The Day of the Lord
18 Woe to you who long for the Day of the Lord!(AO)
What will the Day of the Lord be for you?
It will be darkness and not light.(AP)
19 It will be like a man who flees from a lion(AQ)
only to have a bear confront him.
He goes home and rests his hand against the wall
only to have a snake bite him.
20 Won’t the Day of the Lord
be darkness rather than light,(AR)
even gloom without any brightness in it?(AS)
21 I hate, I despise your feasts!(AT)
I can’t stand the stench
of your solemn assemblies.(AU)
22 Even if you offer Me
your burnt offerings and grain offerings,(AV)
I will not accept them;(AW)
I will have no regard
for your fellowship offerings of fattened cattle.(AX)
23 Take away from Me the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.(AY)
24 But let justice flow like water,
and righteousness, like an unfailing stream.(AZ)
25 “House of Israel, was it sacrifices and grain offerings that you presented to Me during the 40 years in the wilderness?(BA) 26 But you have taken up[g] Sakkuth[h][i] your king[j] and Kaiwan[k] your star god, images you have made for yourselves.(BB) 27 So I will send you into exile beyond Damascus.”(BC) Yahweh, the God of Hosts, is His name.(BD) He has spoken.
Footnotes
- Amos 5:8 Or turns the shadow of death
- Amos 5:9 Hb obscure
- Amos 5:9 Or stronghold
- Amos 5:13 Or the prudent will perish
- Amos 5:16 Lit will say, “Alas! Alas!”
- Amos 5:16 Lit and those skilled in lamentation
- Amos 5:26 Or you will lift up
- Amos 5:26 LXX, Sym, Syr, Vg read the tent; Ac 7:43
- Amos 5:26 Probably a Mesopotamian war god also called Adar or Ninurta
- Amos 5:26 LXX reads up the tent of Molech and Rephan; Ac 7:43
- Amos 5:26 Probably a Mesopotamian god identified with Saturn
Amos 5
New Century Version
Israel Needs to Repent
5 Listen to this funeral song that I sing about you, people of Israel.
2 “The young girl Israel has fallen,
and she will not rise up again.
She was left alone in her own land,
and there is no one to help her up.”
3 This is what the Lord God says:
“If a thousand soldiers leave a city,
only a hundred will return;
if a hundred soldiers leave a city,
only ten will return.”
4 This is what the Lord says to the nation of Israel:
“Come to me and live.
5 But do not look in Bethel
or go to Gilgal,
and do not go down to Beersheba.
The people of Gilgal will be taken away as captives,
and Bethel will become nothing.”
6 Come to the Lord and live,
or he will move like fire against the descendants of Joseph.
The fire will burn Bethel,
and there will be no one to put it out.
7 You turn justice upside down,
and you throw on the ground what is right.
8 God is the one who made the star groups Pleiades and Orion;
he changes darkness into the morning light,
and the day into dark night.
He calls for the waters of the sea
to pour out on the earth.
The Lord is his name.
9 He destroys the protected city;
he ruins the strong, walled city.
10 You hate those who speak in court against evil,
and you can’t stand those who tell the truth.
11 You walk on poor people,
forcing them to give you grain.
You have built fancy houses of cut stone,
but you will not live in them.
You have planted beautiful vineyards,
but you will not drink the wine from them.
12 I know your many crimes,
your terrible sins.
You hurt people who do right,
you take money to do wrong,
and you keep the poor from getting justice in court.
13 In such times the wise person will keep quiet,
because it is a bad time.
14 Try to do good, not evil,
so that you will live,
and the Lord God All-Powerful will be with you
just as you say he is.
15 Hate evil and love good;
be fair in the courts.
Maybe the Lord God All-Powerful will be kind
to the people of Joseph who are left alive.
16 This is what the Lord, the Lord God All-Powerful, says:
“People will be crying in all the streets;
they will be saying, ‘Oh, no!’ in the public places.
They will call the farmers to come and weep
and will pay people to cry out loud for them.
17 People will be crying in all the vineyards,
because I will pass among you to punish you,” says the Lord.
The Lord’s Day of Judging
18 How terrible it will be for you who want
the Lord’s day of judging to come.
Why do you want that day to come?
It will bring darkness for you, not light.
19 It will be like someone who runs from a lion
and meets a bear,
or like someone who goes into his house
and puts his hand on the wall,
and then is bitten by a snake.
20 So the Lord’s day of judging will bring darkness, not light;
it will be very dark, not light at all.
21 The Lord says, “I hate and reject your feasts;
I cannot stand your religious meetings.
22 If you offer me burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I won’t accept them.
You bring your best fellowship offerings of fattened cattle,
but I will ignore them.
23 Take the noise of your songs away from me!
I won’t listen to the music of your harps.
24 But let justice flow like a river,
and let goodness flow like a never-ending stream.
25 “People of Israel, you did not bring me sacrifices and offerings
while you traveled in the desert for forty years.
26 You have carried with you
your king, the god Sakkuth,
and Kaiwan your idol,
and the star gods you have made.
27 So I will send you away as captives beyond Damascus,”
says the Lord, whose name is the God All-Powerful.
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The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
