Amos 5:11-24

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!