Amos 3-7
Christian Standard Bible
God’s Reasons for Punishing Israel
3 Listen to this message that the Lord has spoken against you, Israelites, against the entire clan that I brought from the land of Egypt:(A)
2 I have known only you(B)
out of all the clans of the earth;
therefore, I will punish you for all your iniquities.(C)
3 Can two walk together(D)
without agreeing to meet?
4 Does a lion roar(E) in the forest
when it has no prey?
Does a young lion growl from its lair
unless it has captured something?
5 Does a bird land in a trap on the ground
if there is no bait for it?
Does a trap spring from the ground
when it has caught nothing?
6 If a ram’s horn(F) is blown in a city,
aren’t people afraid?(G)
If a disaster(H) occurs in a city,
hasn’t the Lord done it?(I)
7 Indeed, the Lord God does nothing
without revealing his counsel
to his servants the prophets.(J)
8 A lion has roared;(K)
who will not fear?
The Lord God has spoken;(L)
who will not prophesy?(M)
9 Proclaim on the citadels in Ashdod(N)
and on the citadels in the land of Egypt:
Assemble on the mountains of Samaria,(O)
and see the great turmoil in the city
and the acts of oppression within it.(P)
10 The people are incapable of doing right(Q)—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
those who store up violence and destruction(R)
in their citadels.
11 Therefore, the Lord God says:
12 The Lord says:
As the shepherd snatches two legs
or a piece of an ear
from the lion’s mouth,(V)
so the Israelites who live in Samaria
will be rescued
with only the corner of a bed(W)
or the[a] cushion[b] of a couch.[c](X)
13 Listen and testify(Y) against the house of Jacob—
this is the declaration of the Lord God,
the God of Armies.
14 I will punish the altars of Bethel(Z)
on the day I punish Israel for its crimes;
the horns of the altar(AA) will be cut off
and fall to the ground.(AB)
15 I will demolish the winter house(AC)
and the summer house;(AD)
the houses inlaid with ivory(AE) will be destroyed,
and the great houses(AF) will come to an end.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
Social and Spiritual Corruption
4 Listen to this message, you cows of Bashan(AG)
who are on the hill of Samaria,
women who oppress the poor
and crush the needy,(AH)
who say to their husbands,
“Bring us something to drink.”(AI)
2 The Lord God has sworn(AJ) by his holiness:(AK)
Look, the days are coming[d]
when you will be taken away with hooks,(AL)
every last one of you with fishhooks.(AM)
3 You will go through breaches in the wall,(AN)
each woman straight ahead,
and you will be driven along toward Harmon.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
4 Come to Bethel and rebel;
rebel even more at Gilgal!(AO)
Bring your sacrifices every morning,(AP)
your tenths every three days.
5 Offer leavened bread as a thanksgiving sacrifice,(AQ)
and loudly proclaim your freewill offerings,(AR)
for that is what you Israelites love to do!(AS)
This is the declaration of the Lord God.
God’s Discipline and Israel’s Apostasy
6 I gave you absolutely nothing to eat[e](AT) in all your cities,
a shortage of food in all your communities,
yet you did not return to me.(AU)
This is the Lord’s declaration.
7 I also withheld the rain from you(AV)
while there were still three months until harvest.
I sent rain on one city
but no rain on another.(AW)
One field received rain
while a field with no rain withered.(AX)
8 Two or three cities staggered
to another city to drink water(AY)
but were not satisfied,(AZ)
yet you did not return(BA) to me.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
9 I struck you with blight and mildew;(BB)
the locust devoured(BC)
your many gardens and vineyards,
your fig trees and olive trees,(BD)
yet you did not return to me.(BE)
This is the Lord’s declaration.
10 I sent plagues like those of Egypt;(BF)
I killed your young men with the sword,(BG)
along with your captured horses.(BH)
I caused the stench of your camp
to fill your nostrils,(BI)
yet you did not return to me.(BJ)
This is the Lord’s declaration.
11 I overthrew some of you
as I[f] overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,(BK)
and you were like a burning stick
snatched from a fire,(BL)
yet you did not return to me(BM)—
This is the Lord’s declaration.
12 Therefore, Israel, that is what I will do to you,
and since I will do that to you,
Israel, prepare to meet your God!(BN)
13 He is here:
the one who forms the mountains,(BO)
creates the wind,(BP)
and reveals his thoughts to man,(BQ)
the one who makes the dawn out of darkness
and strides on the heights of the earth.(BR)
The Lord, the God of Armies, is his name.(BS)
Lamentation for Israel
5 Listen to this message that I am singing for you, a lament,(BT) house of Israel:
2 She has fallen;
Virgin Israel(BU) will never rise again.(BV)
She lies abandoned on her land
with no one to raise her up.(BW)
3 For the Lord God says:
The city that marches out a thousand strong
will have only a hundred left,(BX)
and the one that marches out a hundred strong
will have only ten left(BY) in the house of Israel.
Seek God and Live
4 For the Lord says to the house of Israel:
Seek me and live!(BZ)
5 Do not seek Bethel(CA)
or go to Gilgal(CB)
or journey to Beer-sheba,(CC)
for Gilgal will certainly go into exile,
and Bethel will come to nothing.
6 Seek the Lord(CD) and live,
or he will spread like fire(CE)
throughout the house of Joseph;
it will consume everything
with no one at Bethel to extinguish it.(CF)
7 Those who turn justice into wormwood(CG)
also throw righteousness to the ground.
8 The one who made the Pleiades and Orion,(CH)
who turns darkness[g] into dawn(CI)
and darkens day into night,(CJ)
who summons the water of the sea(CK)
and pours it out over the surface of the earth(CL)—
the Lord is his name.(CM)
9 He brings destruction[h] on the strong,[i](CN)
and it falls on the fortress.(CO)
10 They hate the one who convicts the guilty(CP)
at the city gate,
and they despise(CQ) the one who speaks with integrity.
11 Therefore, because you trample on the poor(CR)
and exact a grain tax from him,
you will never live in the houses of cut stone(CS)
you have built;
you will never drink the wine
from the lush vineyards
you have planted.(CT)
12 For I know your crimes are many
and your sins innumerable.
They oppress the righteous,(CU) take a bribe,
and deprive the poor of justice(CV) at the city gates.
13 Therefore, those who have insight will keep silent[j](CW)
at such a time,
for the days are evil.
14 Pursue good and not evil
so that you may live,
and the Lord, the God of Armies,
will be with you
as you have claimed.(CX)
15 Hate evil and love good;(CY)
establish justice at the city gate.(CZ)
Perhaps the Lord, the God of Armies, will be gracious(DA)
to the remnant of Joseph.(DB)
16 Therefore the Lord, the God of Armies, the Lord, says:
There will be wailing in all the public squares;(DC)
they will cry out in anguish[k] in all the streets.
The farmer will be called on to mourn,(DD)
and professional mourners[l](DE) to wail.
17 There will be wailing in all the vineyards,(DF)
for I will pass among you.(DG)
The Lord has spoken.
The Day of the Lord
18 Woe to you who long for the day of the Lord!(DH)
What will the day of the Lord be for you?
It will be darkness and not light.(DI)
19 It will be like a man who flees from a lion(DJ)
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,(DK)
even gloom without any brightness in it?(DL)
21 I hate, I despise, your feasts!(DM)
I can’t stand the stench
of your solemn assemblies.(DN)
22 Even if you offer me
your burnt offerings and grain offerings,(DO)
I will not accept them;(DP)
I will have no regard
for your fellowship offerings of fattened cattle.(DQ)
23 Take away from me the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.(DR)
24 But let justice flow like water,
and righteousness, like an unfailing stream.(DS)
25 “House of Israel, was it sacrifices and grain offerings that you presented to me during the forty years in the wilderness?(DT) 26 But you have taken up[m] Sakkuth your king and Kaiwan your star god,[n] images you have made for yourselves.(DU) 27 So I will send you into exile beyond Damascus.”(DV) The Lord, the God of Armies, is his name.(DW) He has spoken.
Woe to the Complacent
6 Woe to those who are at ease in Zion(DX)
and to those who feel secure on the hill of Samaria—
the notable people in this first of the nations,
those the house of Israel comes to.
2 Cross over to Calneh(DY) and see;
go from there to great Hamath;(DZ)
then go down to Gath(EA) of the Philistines.
Are you better than these kingdoms?
Is their territory larger than yours?
3 You dismiss any thought of the evil day(EB)
and bring in a reign of violence.(EC)
4 They lie on beds inlaid with ivory,(ED)
sprawled out on their couches,(EE)
and dine on lambs from the flock(EF)
and calves from the stall.
5 They improvise songs[o] to the sound of the harp(EG)
and invent[p] their own musical instruments like David.(EH)
6 They drink wine by the bowlful(EI)
and anoint themselves with the finest oils
but do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph.(EJ)
7 Therefore, they will now go into exile
as the first of the captives,(EK)
and the feasting(EL) of those who sprawl out
will come to an end.
Israel’s Pride Judged
8 The Lord God has sworn by himself(EM)—this is the declaration of the Lord, the God of Armies:
I loathe Jacob’s pride(EN)
and hate his citadels,(EO)
so I will hand over the city(EP) and everything in it.
9 And if there are ten men left in one house, they will die.(EQ) 10 A close relative[q] and burner[r](ER) will remove his corpse[s] from the house. He will call to someone in the inner recesses of the house, “Any more with you?”
That person will reply, “None.”
Then he will say, “Silence, because the Lord’s name must not be invoked.”(ES)
11 For the Lord commands:
The large house will be smashed to pieces,
and the small house to rubble.(ET)
12 Do horses gallop on the cliffs?
Does anyone plow there with oxen?[t]
Yet you have turned justice into poison(EU)
and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood(EV)—
13 you who rejoice over Lo-debar(EW)
and say, “Didn’t we capture Karnaim
for ourselves by our own strength?” (EX)
14 But look, I am raising up a nation
against you, house of Israel(EY)—
this is the declaration of the Lord,
the God of Armies—
and they will oppress you
from the entrance of Hamath[u](EZ)
to the Brook of the Arabah.[v]
First Vision: Locusts
7 The Lord God showed me this: He was forming a swarm of locusts(FA) at the time the spring crop first began to sprout—after the cutting of the king’s hay. 2 When the locusts finished eating the vegetation of the land,(FB) I said, “Lord God, please forgive!(FC) How will Jacob survive since he is so small?” (FD)
3 The Lord relented concerning this.(FE) “It will not happen,” he said.
Second Vision: Fire
4 The Lord God showed me this: The Lord God was calling for a judgment by fire.(FF) It consumed the great deep and devoured the land. 5 Then I said, “Lord God, please stop!(FG) How will Jacob survive since he is so small?”
6 The Lord relented concerning this.(FH) “This will not happen either,” said the Lord God.
Third Vision: A Plumb Line
7 He showed me this: The Lord was standing there by a vertical wall with a plumb line in his hand. 8 The Lord asked me, “What do you see, Amos?” (FI)
I replied, “A plumb line.”
Then the Lord said, “I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel;(FJ) I will no longer spare them:(FK)
9 Isaac’s high places(FL) will be deserted,
and Israel’s sanctuaries will be in ruins;(FM)
I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam
with a sword.”
Amaziah’s Opposition
10 Amaziah the priest(FN) of Bethel sent word to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you(FO) right here in the house of Israel. The land cannot endure all his words, 11 for Amos has said this: ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will certainly go into exile from its homeland.’”(FP)
12 Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Go away, you seer!(FQ) Flee to the land of Judah. Earn your living[w] and give your prophecies there, 13 but don’t ever prophesy(FR) at Bethel again, for it is the king’s sanctuary(FS) and a royal temple.”
14 So Amos answered Amaziah, “I was[x] not a prophet or the son of a prophet;[y](FT) rather, I was[z] a herdsman,(FU) and I took care of sycamore figs. 15 But the Lord took me from following the flock(FV) and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’”(FW)
16 Now hear the word of the Lord. You say:
17 Therefore, this is what the Lord says:
Your wife will be a prostitute in the city,(FZ)
your sons and daughters will fall by the sword,(GA)
and your land will be divided up
with a measuring line.
You yourself will die on pagan[aa] soil,(GB)
and Israel will certainly go into exile(GC)
from its homeland.
Footnotes
- 3:12 Or Israelites will be rescued, those who sit in Samaria on a corner of a bed or a
- 3:12 Hb obscure
- 3:12 LXX, Aq, Sym, Theod, Syr, Tg, Vg read or in Damascus
- 4:2 Lit coming on you
- 4:6 Lit you cleanness of teeth
- 4:11 Lit God
- 5:8 Or turns the shadow of death
- 5:9 Hb obscure
- 5:9 Or stronghold
- 5:13 Or who are prudent will perish
- 5:16 Lit will say, “Alas! Alas!”
- 5:16 Lit and those skilled in lamentation
- 5:26 Or you will lift up
- 5:26 LXX reads taken up the tent of Molech and the star of your god Rephan; Ac 7:43
- 6:5 Hb obscure
- 6:5 Or compose on
- 6:10 Lit His uncle
- 6:10 A burner of incense, a memorial fire, or a body; Hb obscure
- 6:10 Lit remove bones
- 6:12 Some emend to plow the sea
- 6:14 Or from Lebo-hamath
- 6:14 Probably the Valley of Zared at the southeast end of the Dead Sea
- 7:12 Lit Eat bread
- 7:14 Or am
- 7:14 = a prophet’s disciple or a member of a prophetic guild
- 7:14 Or am
- 7:17 Lit unclean
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