The Daily Audio Bible
4 Hear this word, you cows on the fertile pastures of Bashan,
who grow fat and happy on the hillsides of Samaria,
Who oppress the poor and destroy the needy
while you order your husbands to do your own work.
2 The Eternal Lord has made a vow by His own holiness:
Eternal One: The day will come when your enemy will drag you away
with hooks like sides of beef—will subdue you with fishhooks, each and every one of you.
3 You’ll be forced to leave through breached walls,
each one of you taken straight out and cast into Harmon, a place of exile.
4 I dare you: Come to My shrine at Bethel and do wrong;
come, worship Me at Gilgal, and watch your sins multiply.
Go ahead, bring your ritual sacrifices there every morning
and ten percent of your earnings every three days.
5 Burn a thanksgiving offering of leavened bread,
boast about your freewill offerings, and let everyone know
because these things are what you love to do, people of Israel.
So says the Eternal Lord.
6 Eternal One: I kept your teeth clean and your stomachs empty
when famine struck all your cities and no food could be found in your towns,
But still you did not come back to Me.
7 I held back the rain from your fields
when there were still three months left until harvest.
I would send rain on one city
but not on another.
I would send rain on one field
but not on another, so the dry field withered.
8 So people from two or three towns stumbled to one
that had water to drink, but they were still thirsty.
And still you did not return to Me.
9 I struck your crops with disease and mildew.
Whatever survived in your gardens and vineyards,
Whatever remained of your fig and olive trees, the locusts devoured;
and still you did not return to Me.
10 I sent plagues on you like the plagues I unleashed upon Egypt.
I slaughtered your young men in battle,
Stole away your horses, and sent the stench
of those bodies rotting in your camps reeking into your nostrils;
And still you did not return to Me.
11 I destroyed some of you as I destroyed the ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah,
and those who survived were like a smoking branch plucked from the fire;
And still you did not return to Me.
12 So this is what I am going to do to you, Israel.
Because of what I am planning, prepare to meet your God, people of Israel!
13 Witness the One who shapes the mountains and fashions the wind,
who reveals His thoughts to human beings,
Who changes dawn to darkness
and treads upon the high places of the earth.
The Eternal God, Commander of heavenly armies, is His name.
5 Hear this message I sing about you;
it is my dirge for you, people of Israel:
2 The virgin Israel has fallen,
fallen never to rise again;
Forsaken in her land, forgotten where she lies.
No one is there to help her rise again.
3 So says the Eternal Lord:
Eternal One: The city that sent out a thousand soldiers
will see only a hundred of them survive;
And the town that sent out a hundred
will see only ten remain for the house of Israel.
4 So says the Eternal to Israel:
Eternal One: Turn back to Me and you will live. There is still time.
5 But don’t hang your hopes on Bethel,
Or travel to Gilgal or Beersheba or any other sanctuary expecting help,
because Gilgal will surely be sent into exile,
And the shrine at Bethel will come to nothing.
6 Turn back to the Eternal One, and you will live.
If you don’t, He will flame up like fire against the house of Joseph,
Burn it to the ground, and no one in Bethel will be able to put it out.
7 Listen, you who distort justice and make it taste bitter
and trample righteousness to the ground.
8 The One who set the Pleiades and Orion in the heavens,
who turns night’s shadow into morning and darkens the day with night,
Who calls forth the waters of the sea to pour down rain and flood the earth—
the Eternal One is His name,
9 Who destroys the mighty in a flash,
and crashes against the fortress with the force of a tidal wave.
10 Those of you who hold power now hate the one who judges in the courts at the gate
and detest anybody who speaks the truth.
11 So because you have climbed to success on the backs of the poor[a]
and your wealth comes from taxes you impose on their harvests,
You may well build mansions of expensively-cut stones,
but you’ll never occupy them.
You may plant beautiful vineyards,
but you’ll never enjoy their delicious wine.
12 For I know the depth of evil that you’ve done,
and I see the gravity of your sins:
You persecute those who do the right thing, you take bribes,
and you push the poor to one side in the courts at the city gates instead of helping them.
13 So the wise may decide to keep quiet just then,
because truly, it is an evil time.
14 Search for good and not for evil
so that you may live;
That way the Eternal God, the Commander of heavenly armies, will be at your side,
as you yourselves have even said.
15 Hate what is evil, and love all that is good;
apply His laws justly in the courts at the city gates,
And it may be that the Eternal God, the Commander of heavenly armies,
will have mercy on those descendants of Joseph who survived.
Amos looks into the future to a day when God’s judgment will fall on His people. But judgment and destruction are not intended to be the end. The last word belongs to God, and it is a word of mercy on His covenant people. Sin, of course, must be dealt with; it must be punished decisively. But in God’s grace, some will survive the onslaught. These survivors the prophets call “the remnant.” They are the ones God destines to be restored and to carry on His name. Centuries later, the remnant will refound Israel and extend the covenant blessings to every family on the face of the earth.
16 So says the Eternal God, Commander of heavenly armies, the Lord of all:
Eternal One: Get ready to hear wailing from every street,
people crying out in pain and sorrow along every highway.
The farmers will be pulled away from their fields to mourn,
and those who are trained to grieve will wail with them.
17 In every vineyard, there will be mourning
because I will pass through the middle of you.
Says the Eternal One.
Most people think they are OK with God; it’s the other fellow who should be worried. Some apparently think that they will fare well in the day of the Eternal One, a day when God will judge sin and defeat His enemies. Ironically, God’s own people have become His enemies. So Amos warns that the day of the Eternal One will bring a big surprise to those who think they are in good standing with God. It will be a day of darkness, not light—a day of gloom from which there will be no escape.
18 How horrible for you who look forward to the day of the Eternal One!
Why do you want it to come?
For you, its arrival will mean darkness, not light.
19 It will be as if you were to escape from a lion
only to run headlong into a bear,
As if you ran into a house to hide, leaned against the wall to rest,
and a poisonous snake latched onto your hand.
20 Will not the day of the Eternal One be darkness instead of light,
pitch black, without even a hint of brightness?
21 Eternal One: I hate—I totally reject—your religious ceremonies
and have nothing to do with your solemn gatherings.
22 You can offer Me whole burnt offerings and grain offerings,
but I will not accept them.
You can sacrifice your finest, fattest young animals as a peace offering,
but I will not even look up.
23 And stop making that music for Me—it’s just noise.
I will not listen to the melodies you play on the harp.
24 Here’s what I want: Let justice thunder down like a waterfall;
let righteousness flow like a mighty river that never runs dry.
25 Did you offer Me sacrifices or give Me offerings during the 40 years I guided you in the wilderness, people of Israel? 26 But now you place your trust in false gods; you pray to the idols Sikkuth (your king) and Kiyyun (the star god), those detestable images that you’ve made for yourselves. 27 Because of your worship offered to man-made images, you must go away—beyond Damascus.[b]
So says the Eternal God, the Commander of heavenly armies.
Didn’t God institute the festivals? Didn’t He instruct His people to sacrifice? Didn’t He inspire the singers and songwriters to praise His name? Yes. Even the most beautiful ceremony can become empty ritual, and a sacred time should not be mixed with activities that displease God. He wants more than pious exercises; He wants His people to follow His instructions, to do what is right, and to honor Him because they recognize that He is the one all-powerful God.
6 Grief is coming to those who live comfortably in Zion
and those who feel secure on the mountain of Samaria;
The noteworthy of this nation
and those respected by the people of Israel have much to dread.
2 Go over to Calneh and look at what happened there,
then cross over to the great city of Hamath in Aram,
Then go down to Gath, the city of the Philistines.
Are you any more powerful than these fallen kingdoms were?
Are your lands any larger than theirs?
3 You try to hold off the evil day,
but your actions bring the reign of violence ever nearer.
4 Grief is coming to those who lounge on beds inlaid with ivory,
who stretch out on their luxurious sofas,
And who feast on lambs from their flocks
and stall-fattened calves anytime, not just during festivals.
5 Grief is coming to those who sing foolish songs to the sounds of the harp,
who think they can play like David;
6 Who guzzle fine wine by the gallon from elegant bowls;
who apply expensive oils to their bodies, when cheaper ones will do,
But they are not grieved by the awful state of Joseph’s people.
7 That is why they will be the first ones carried off into exile,
and their lives of leisure and feasting will disappear.
8 The Eternal Lord has sworn by His own holiness,
and the Eternal God, the Commander of heavenly armies,
Promises this:
Eternal One: I detest the pride of Israel, descendants of My servant Jacob,
and I hate their fortresses,
And I will hand over the city and all its wealth to their enemies.
9 If there are only 10 people left in one house, they will all die. 10 If a man arrives to take his relative’s remains out of the house for burial and he calls back into the darkened house, “Is anyone else with you?” the only survivor will respond, “No.” The relative will cut the survivor off: “Quiet! Not another word! We mustn’t mention the name of the Eternal One.”
11 Look: the Eternal gives the order,
and the great house is smashed to pieces, and the little house crumbles.
12 Do horses gallop over big boulders?
Does a person plow such rocks with a team of oxen?
But you have somehow managed to make justice poisonous
and turned the sweet fruits of righteousness into bitterness—
13 You, who celebrate taking back worthless Lo-debar
and ask, “Haven’t we captured Karnaim with our own strong armies?”
14 Eternal One: You will see—I am raising up a strong nation against you, people of Israel,
and they will hound you from Hamath pass in the north
To the Great Rift Valley at Arabah in the south.
So says the Eternal God, the Commander of heavenly armies.
Letter to Thyatira
18 Write down My words, and send them to the messenger of the church in Thyatira. “These are the words of the Son of God, the One whose eyes blaze like flames of fire and whose feet gleam like brightly polished bronze:
19 “I know your deeds, love, faithfulness, service, and endurance. Your labors greatly increase in quality as you travel along this journey.
20 “However, I have this against you: you have tolerated that woman Jezebel, who is a self-anointed prophetess and who misleads My followers to commit immoral sexual acts and to eat food prepared for idol worship. 21 I have provided her enough time to turn away[a] from her indecency, but she refuses to turn from these immoral acts. 22 Watch; I will throw her back into her sickbed with those who committed adultery with her, and I will make them a bed of great affliction if they do not abandon her indiscretions and turn[b] to follow Me. 23 I will punish her by striking her children dead. Through this all the churches will know I am the One who relentlessly explores the mind and heart, and I will deal with each of you as you deserve according to your acts.
24 “I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, those who have not held to the teachings of Jezebel and who remain ignorant of the real meaning of what is called the deep things of Satan, I will not burden you with anything more. 25 Just keep on task, and keep the faith until I return.
26 “And as for those who conquer through faithfulness even unto death and continue to labor with Me until the close of the final curtain,
I will give them authority over the nations.
27 And they will rule the nations with an iron scepter,
as fragile clay jars are shattered to pieces.[c]
As I received this authority from My Father, 28 I will bestow the morning star to the victor.
29 “Let the person who is able to hear, listen to and follow what the Spirit proclaims to all the churches.”
For centuries many Jews had been scattered throughout the known world, exiled to the lands east of the Jordan River from the promised land by powerful invading nations. After Jerusalem fell in a.d. 70, even more Jews left Judea, this time crossing the Mediterranean looking for some place far from Roman cruelty. That’s why, as John writes these letters to churches in Asia Minor, he recalls some of the most infamous characters from Israel’s past—Balaam, Balak, and Jezebel. The ordeals facing John’s churches are not all that different from those Israel faced hundreds of years before. Many of the same struggles plague churches in the West to this day. The names may change, but the problems confronting God’s faithful do not.
Letter to Sardis
3 The One: Write down My words, and send them to the messenger of the church in Sardis. “These are the words of the One who has the seven Spirits of God, the Perfect Spirit, and the One who holds the seven stars:
“I know the things you do—you’ve claimed a reputation of life, but you are actually dead. 2 Wake up from your death-sleep, and strengthen what remains of the life you have been given that is in danger of death. I have judged your deeds as far from complete in the sight of My God. 3 Therefore, remember what you have received and heard; it’s time to keep these instructions and turn back from your ways.[d] If you do not wake up from this sleep, I will come in judgment. I will creep up on you like a thief—you will have no way of knowing when I will come. 4 But there are a few in Sardis who don’t have the stain of evil works on their clothes. They will walk alongside Me in white, spotless garments because they have been proven worthy.
5 “The one who conquers through faithfulness even unto death will be clothed in white garments, and I will certainly not erase that person’s name from the book of life. I will acknowledge this person’s name before My Father and before His heavenly messengers.
6 “Let the person who is able to hear, listen to and follow what the Spirit proclaims to all the churches.”
Psalm 130
A song for those journeying to worship.
1 From the depths of disaster I appeal to You, O Eternal One:
2 Lord, hear my cry!
Attune Your ears to my humble prayer!
3 If You, Eternal One, recorded each offense,
Lord, who on earth could stand innocent?
4 But with You forgiveness exists;
that’s why true respect of You might flow.
5 So I wait for the Eternal—my soul awaits rescue—
and I put my hope in His transforming word.
6 My soul waits for the Lord to break into the world
more than night watchmen expect the break of day,
even more than night watchmen expect the break of day.
7 O Israel, ground your hope in the Eternal.
For in the Eternal lives the most loyal love,
and with Him comes the most abundant redemption.
8 He will ransom Israel
from all the sinful acts that stole you away.
21 If you indulge your servant from early in life,
in the end it won’t go well for either of you.
22 A hot-head provokes quarrels,
and one mastered by anger commits all kinds of sins.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.