Amos 4:1-5:24

Israel Has Not Returned to God 1Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy and say to your husbands, “Bring us some drinks!”

2The Sovereign LORD has sworn by his holiness: “The time will surely come when you will be taken away with hooks, the last of you with fishhooks. Or away in baskets, / the last of you in fish baskets

3You will each go straight out through breaches in the wall, and you will be cast out toward Harmon, Masoretic Text; with a different word division of the Hebrew (see Septuagint) out, you mountain of oppression ” declares the LORD .

4“Go to Bethel and sin; go to Gilgal and sin yet more. Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three years. Or days

5Burn leavened bread as a thank offering and brag about your freewill offerings— boast about them, you Israelites, for this is what you love to do,” declares the Sovereign LORD .

6“I gave you empty stomachs in every city and lack of bread in every town, yet you have not returned to me,” declares the LORD .

7“I also withheld rain from you when the harvest was still three months away. I sent rain on one town, but withheld it from another. One field had rain; another had none and dried up.

8People staggered from town to town for water but did not get enough to drink, yet you have not returned to me,” declares the LORD .

9“Many times I struck your gardens and vineyards, destroying them with blight and mildew. Locusts devoured your fig and olive trees, yet you have not returned to me,” declares the LORD .

10“I sent plagues among you as I did to Egypt. I killed your young men with the sword, along with your captured horses. I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps, yet you have not returned to me,” declares the LORD .

11“I overthrew some of you as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. You were like a burning stick snatched from the fire, yet you have not returned to me,” declares the LORD .

12“Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel, and because I will do this to you, Israel, prepare to meet your God.” 13He who forms the mountains, who creates the wind, and who reveals his thoughts to mankind, who turns dawn to darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth— the LORD God Almighty is his name.

A Lament and Call to Repentance 1Hear this word, Israel, this lament I take up concerning you:

2“Fallen is Virgin Israel, never to rise again, deserted in her own land, with no one to lift her up.”

3This is what the Sovereign LORD says to Israel: “Your city that marches out a thousand strong will have only a hundred left; your town that marches out a hundred strong will have only ten left.”

4This is what the LORD says to Israel: “Seek me and live;

5do not seek Bethel, do not go to Gilgal, do not journey to Beersheba. For Gilgal will surely go into exile, and Bethel will be reduced to nothing. Hebrew aven, a reference to Beth Aven (a derogatory name for Bethel); see Hosea 4:15. ”

6Seek the LORD and live, or he will sweep through the tribes of Joseph like a fire; it will devour them, and Bethel will have no one to quench it.

7There are those who turn justice into bitterness and cast righteousness to the ground.

8He who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns midnight into dawn and darkens day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the land— the LORD is his name.

9With a blinding flash he destroys the stronghold and brings the fortified city to ruin.

10There are those who hate the one who upholds justice in court and detest the one who tells the truth.

11You levy a straw tax on the poor and impose a tax on their grain. Therefore, though you have built stone mansions, you will not live in them; though you have planted lush vineyards, you will not drink their wine.

12For I know how many are your offenses and how great your sins. There are those who oppress the innocent and take bribes and deprive the poor of justice in the courts.

13Therefore the prudent keep quiet in such times, for the times are evil.

14Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the LORD God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is.

15Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the LORD God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph.

16Therefore this is what the Lord, the LORD God Almighty, says: “There will be wailing in all the streets and cries of anguish in every public square. The farmers will be summoned to weep and the mourners to wail.

17There will be wailing in all the vineyards, for I will pass through your midst,” says the LORD .

The Day of the LORD 18Woe to you who long for the day of the LORD ! Why do you long for the day of the LORD ? That day will be darkness, not light.

19It will be as though a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear, as though he entered his house and rested his hand on the wall only to have a snake bite him.

20Will not the day of the LORD be darkness, not light— pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness?

21“I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me.

22Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them.

23Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.

24But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!