Amos 5:4-15

International Children’s Bible

“Come to me and live.
⁵     But do not look in Bethel.
Do not 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.
    If you don’t, he will destroy the descendants of Joseph as a fire would.
The fire will burn.
    But there will be no one to put it out for Bethel.
⁷ You change the justice of the courts into something unfair.
    You reject what is right.

⁸ God is the one who made the star groups Pleiades and Orion.
    He changes darkness into the morning light.
    And he changes the day into the 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.
    And he ruins the strong, walled city.

¹⁰ You hate those who speak in court against evil.
    And you hate those who tell the truth.
¹¹ You walk on poor people.
    You force 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 It is because I know your many crimes.
    I know your terrible sins.
You hurt people who do right.
    You accept money to do wrong.
    You keep the poor from getting justice in court.
¹³ In such times the wise man will keep quiet,
    because it is a bad time.

¹⁴ Try to do good, not evil.
    Then you will live.
And the Lord God of heaven’s armies 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 of heaven’s armies will be kind
    to the people of Joseph who are left alive.