Amos 5
Seek Me That You May Live
5Hear this word which I take up for you as a funeral alament, O house of Israel:2She has fallen; she will anot rise again—The bvirgin Israel.She lies abandoned on her land;There is cnone to raise her up.3For thus says Lord Yahweh, “The city which goes forth one thousand strongWill have one ahundred left,And the one which goes forth one hundred strongWill have bten left to the house of Israel.”
5“But do not seek aBethel,And do not come to bGilgal,Nor cross over to cBeersheba;For Gilgal will certainly go into 1exile,And Bethel will become 2evil.6“aSeek Yahweh that you may live,Lest He come mightily like a bfire, 1O house of Joseph,And it will consume with none to quench it for Bethel,7For those who overturn ajustice into wormwoodAnd put righteousness down to the earth.”8He who made the aPleiades and OrionAnd boverturns the shadow of death into morning,1Who also cdarkens day into night,Who dcalls for the waters of the seaAnd pours them out on the surface of the earth,eYahweh is His name.9It is He who aflashes forth with devastation upon the strongSo that bdevastation comes upon the fortification.10They hate him who areproves in the 1gate,And they babhor him who speaks with integrity.11Therefore because you 1impose heavy rent on the poorAnd take a tribute of grain from them,Though you have built ahouses of cut stone,Yet you will not live in them;You have planted desirable vineyards, yet you will bnot drink their wine.12For I know your transgressions are many and your sins are mighty,You who adistress the righteous and take bribesAnd 1turn aside the needy in the 2gate.13Therefore at 1such a time the one with insight akeeps silent, for it is an evil time.14Seek good and not evil, in order that you may live;And thus may Yahweh God of hosts be with you,aJust as you have said!15aHate evil, love good,And set justice at the 1gate!Perhaps Yahweh God of hostsbMay be gracious to the cremnant of Joseph.16Therefore thus says Yahweh God of hosts, the Lord, “There is awailing in all the plazas,And in all the streets they say, ‘Alas! Alas!’They also call the bfarmer to mourningAnd 1,cprofessional weepers to wailing.
17“And in all the avineyards there is wailingBecause I will pass through the midst of you,” says Yahweh.18Woe, you who are longing for the aday of Yahweh,For what purpose will the day of Yahweh be to you?It will be bdarkness and not light;19As when a man aflees from a lionAnd a bear meets him;1Or he goes home, leans his hand against the wall,And a snake bites him.20Will not the day of Yahweh be adarkness instead of light,Even thick darkness with no brightness in it?21“I hate, I areject your feasts,Nor do I 1,bdelight in your solemn assemblies.22“Even though you aoffer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings,I will not accept them;And I will not even look at the bpeace offerings of your fatlings.23“Remove from Me the tumult of your songs;I will not even listen to the melody of your harps.24“But let ajustice roll down like watersAnd righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.25“1,aDid you present Me with sacrifices and grain offerings in the wilderness for forty years, O house of Israel? 26“aYou also carried along 1Sikkuth your king and 2Kiyyun, your images, 3the star of your gods which you made for yourselves. 27“Therefore, I will make you go into exile beyond Damascus,” says Yahweh, whose name is the God of hosts.