Amos 5
1Hear ye this word which I take up against you, 1 Even a lamentation, O house of Israel. 1
2The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: 1 She is forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up. 1
3For thus saith the Lord God; 1 The city that went out by a thousand shall leave an hundred, 1 And that which went forth by an hundred shall leave ten, 1 To the house of Israel. 1
4For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, 1 Seek ye me, and ye shall live: 1
5But seek not Beth-el, nor enter into Gilgal, 1 And pass not to Beer-sheba: 1 For Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, 1 And Beth-el shall come to nought. 1
6Seek the Lord, and ye shall live; 1 Lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, 1 And devour it, and there be none to quench it in Beth-el. 1
7Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, 1 And leave off righteousness in the earth, 1
8Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, 1 And turneth the shadow of death into the morning, 1 And maketh the day dark with night: 1 That calleth for the waters of the sea, 1 And poureth them out upon the face of the earth: 1 The Lord is his name: 1
9That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, 1 So that the spoiled shall come against the fortress. 1
10They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, 1 And they abhor him that speaketh uprightly. 1
11Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, 1 And ye take from him burdens of wheat: 1 Ye have built houses of hewn stone, 1 But ye shall not dwell in them; 1 Ye have planted pleasant vineyards, 1 But ye shall not drink wine of them. 1
12For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: 1 They afflict the just, they take a bribe, 1 And they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right. 1
13Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; 1 For it is an evil time. 1
14Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: 1 And so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken. 1
15Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: 1 It may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph. 1
16Therefore the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus; 1 Wailing shall be in all streets; 1 And they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! 1 And they shall call the husbandman to mourning, 1 And such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing. 1
17And in all vineyards shall be wailing: 1 For I will pass through thee, saith the Lord. 1
18Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! 1 To what end is it for you? 1 The day of the Lord is darkness, and not light. 1
19As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; 1 Or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. 1
20Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light? 1 Even very dark, and no brightness in it? 1
21I hate, I despise your feast days, 1 And I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. 1
22Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: 1 Neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. 1
23Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; 1 For I will not hear the melody of thy viols. 1
24But let judgment run down as waters, 1 And righteousness as a mighty stream. 1
25Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? 1
26But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, 1 The star of your god, which ye made to yourselves. 1
27Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, 1 Saith the Lord, whose name is The God of hosts.