Amos 6

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Hear this word, hyou cows of Bashan,

who are ion the mountain of Samaria,

jwho oppress the poor, jwho crush the needy,

who say to your husbands, Bring, that we may drink!

kThe Lord God has sworn by his holiness

that, behold, the days are coming upon you,

lwhen they shall take you away with hooks,

leven the last of you with fishhooks.

mAnd you shall go out through the breaches,

each one straight ahead;

and you shall be cast out into Harmon,

declares the Lord.

nCome to Bethel, and transgress;

to oGilgal, and multiply transgression;

nbring your psacrifices every morning,

your tithes every three days;

offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of qthat which is leavened,

and proclaim rfreewill offerings, publish them;

sfor so you love to do, O people of Israel!

declares the Lord God.

Israel Has Not Returned to the Lord

I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities,

and tlack of bread in all your places,

uyet you did not return to me,

declares the Lord.

I also vwithheld the rain from you

when there were yet three months to the harvest;

wI would send rain on one city,

and send no rain on another city;

one field would have rain,

and the field on which it did not rain would wither;

so two or three cities xwould wander to another city

to drink water, and would not be satisfied;

uyet you did not return to me,

declares the Lord.

yI struck you with blight and mildew;

your many gardens and your vineyards,

your fig trees and your olive trees zthe locust devoured;

uyet you did not return to me,

declares the Lord.

10  I sent among you a pestilence aafter the manner of Egypt;

I killed your young men with the sword,

and bcarried away your horses,1

and cI made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils;

uyet you did not return to me,

declares the Lord.

11  I overthrew some of you,

das when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,

and you were eas a brand2 plucked out of the burning;

uyet you did not return to me,

declares the Lord.

12  Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel;

because I will do this to you,

prepare to meet your God, O Israel!

13  For behold, fhe who forms the mountains and creates the wind,

and gdeclares to man what is his thought,

hwho makes the morning darkness,

and itreads on the heights of the earth

jthe Lord, the God of hosts, is his name!

Seek the Lord and Live

Hear this word that I ktake up over you in lamentation, O house of Israel:

Fallen, no more to rise,

is lthe virgin Israel;

forsaken on her land,

with none to raise her up.

For thus says the Lord God:

The city that went out a thousand

shall have a hundred left,

and that which went out a hundred

shall have ten left

to the house of Israel.

For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel:

mSeek me and live;

but do not seek nBethel,

and do not enter into nGilgal

or cross over to oBeersheba;

for nGilgal shall surely go into exile,

and nBethel shall come to nothing.

mSeek the Lord and live,

plest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph,

and it devour, with none to quench it for nBethel,

O qyou who turn justice to wormwood1

and cast down righteousness to the earth!

He who made the rPleiades and Orion,

and turns deep darkness into the morning

and sdarkens the day into night,

who tcalls for the waters of the sea

tand pours them out on the surface of the earth,

uthe Lord is his name;

vwho makes destruction flash forth against the strong,

so that destruction comes upon the fortress.

10  wThey hate him who reproves xin the gate,

and they yabhor him who speaks the truth.

11  Therefore because you ztrample on2 the poor

and you exact taxes of grain from him,

ayou have built houses of hewn stone,

but you shall not dwell in them;

ayou have planted pleasant vineyards,

but you shall not drink their wine.

12  For I know how many are your transgressions

and how great are your sins

you who afflict the righteous, who btake a bribe,

and cturn aside the needy xin the gate.

13  Therefore he who is prudent will dkeep silent in such a time,

efor it is an evil time.

14  fSeek good, and not evil,

that you may live;

and so the Lord, gthe God of hosts, will be with you,

as you have said.

15  hHate evil, and love good,

and establish justice xin the gate;

iit may be that the Lord, the God of hosts,

will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

16 Therefore thus says the Lord, gthe God of hosts, the Lord:

In all the squares jthere shall be wailing,

and in all the streets they shall say, Alas! Alas!

They shall call the farmers to mourning

and jto wailing those who are skilled in lamentation,

17  and in all vineyards there shall be wailing,

for kI will pass through your midst,

says the Lord.

Let Justice Roll Down

18  Woe to you who desire lthe day of the Lord!

Why would you have the day of the Lord?

mIt is darkness, and not light,

19  nas if a man fled from a lion,

and a bear met him,

or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall,

and a serpent bit him.

20  mIs not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light,

and gloom with no brightness in it?

21  oI hate, I despise your feasts,

and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.

22  pEven though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,

I will not accept them;

and the peace offerings of your fattened animals,

I will not look upon them.

23  Take away from me the noise of your songs;

to qthe melody of your harps I will not listen.

24  But let justice roll down like waters,

and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

25 rDid you bring to me sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? 26 sYou tshall take up Sikkuth your king, and Kiyyun your star-godyour images that you made for yourselves, 27 uand I will send you into exile beyond Damascus, says the Lord, whose name is gthe God of hosts.

Woe to Those at Ease in Zion

wWoe to those who are at ease in Zion,

and to those who feel secure on xthe mountain of Samaria,

ythe notable men of zthe first of the nations,

to whom the house of Israel comes!

Pass over to aCalneh, and see,

and from there go to bHamath the great;

then go down to cGath of the Philistines.

dAre you better than these kingdoms?

Or is their territory greater than your territory,

eO you who put far away the day of disaster

fand bring near the seat of violence?

Woe to those gwho lie on hbeds of ivory

gand stretch themselves out on their couches,

and eat lambs from the flock

iand calves from the midst of the stall,

jwho sing idle songs to the sound of the harp

and like David jinvent for themselves instruments of music,

kwho drink wine in bowls

and lanoint themselves with the finest oils,

but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!

mTherefore they shall now be the first of those who go into exile,

and the revelry of those who stretch themselves out shall pass away.

nThe Lord God has sworn by himself, declares the Lord, the God of hosts:

I abhor othe pride of Jacob

and hate his strongholds,

pand I will deliver up the city and all that is in it.

And qif ten men remain in one house, they shall die. 10 And when one’s relative, rthe one who anoints him for burial, shall take him up to bring the bones out of the house, and shall say to him who is in the innermost parts of the house, Is there still anyone with you? he shall say, No; and he shall say, sSilence! We must not mention the name of the Lord.

11  For behold, the Lord commands,

and tthe great house shall be struck down into fragments,

and the little house into bits.

12  Do horses run on rocks?

Does one plow there1 with oxen?

uBut you have turned justice into vpoison

uand the fruit of righteousness into wormwood2

13  you who rejoice in Lo-debar,3

who say, wHave we not by our own strength

captured Karnaim4 for ourselves?

14  For behold, xI will raise up against you a nation,

O house of Israel, declares the Lord, the God of hosts;

and they shall oppress you from yLebo-hamath

to the Brook of zthe Arabah.

Warning Visions

aThis is what the Lord God showed me: behold, bhe was forming locusts when the latter growth was just beginning to sprout, and behold, it was the latter growth after the king’s mowings. When they had finished eating the grass of the land, I said,

O Lord God, please forgive!

cHow can Jacob stand?

He is so small!

dThe Lord relented concerning this:

It shall not be, said the Lord.

aThis is what the Lord God showed me: behold, the Lord God was calling efor a judgment by fire, and it devoured the great deep and was eating up the land. Then I said,

O Lord God, please cease!

cHow can Jacob stand?

He is so small!

dThe Lord relented concerning this:

This also shall not be, said the Lord God.

aThis is what he showed me: behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall built with fa plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. And the Lord said to me, gAmos, what do you see? And I said, A plumb line. Then the Lord said,

Behold, I am setting fa plumb line

in the midst of my people Israel;

gI will never again pass by them;

hthe high places of Isaac shall be made desolate,

and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste,

and I will rise against ithe house of Jeroboam with the sword.

Amos Accused

10 Then Amaziah jthe priest of Bethel sent to kJeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos has lconspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. 11 For thus Amos has said,

Jeroboam shall die by the sword,

and mIsrael must go into exile

away from his land.

12 And Amaziah said to Amos, nO seer, go, flee away oto the land of Judah, and peat bread there, and prophesy there, 13 but qnever again prophesy at Bethel, for rit is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.

14 Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, sI was1 no prophet, nor a prophet’s son, but tI was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. 15 uBut the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, Go, prophesy to my people Israel. 16 vNow therefore hear the word of the Lord.

You say, nDo not prophesy against Israel,

and wdo not preach against the house of xIsaac.

17 yTherefore thus says the Lord:

Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city,

and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword,

and your land zshall be divided up with a measuring line;

you yourself shall die in an unclean land,

and mIsrael shall surely go into exile away from its land.

The Coming Day of Bitter Mourning

aThis is what the Lord God showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit. And he said, bAmos, what do you see? And I said, cA basket of summer fruit. Then the Lord said to me,

dThe end1 has come upon my people Israel;

I will never again pass by them.

eThe songs of the temple2 fshall become wailings3 in that day,

declares the Lord God.

gSo many dead bodies!

They are thrown everywhere!

hSilence!

Hear this, iyou who trample on the needy

and bring the poor of the land to an end,

saying, When will jthe new moon be over,

that we may sell grain?

And kthe Sabbath,

that we may offer wheat for sale,

that we may make lthe ephah small and the shekel4 great

and deal deceitfully with false balances,

that we may buy the poor for msilver

and the needy for a pair of sandals

and sell the chaff of the wheat?

The Lord has sworn by nthe pride of Jacob:

Surely oI will never forget any of their deeds.

pShall not the land tremble on this account,

and everyone mourn who dwells in it,

qand all of it rise like the Nile,

and be tossed about rand sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?

And on that day, declares the Lord God,

sI will make the sun go down at noon

and darken the earth in broad daylight.

10  tI will turn your feasts into mourning

and all your songs into lamentation;

uI will bring sackcloth on every waist

uand baldness on every head;

vI will make it like the mourning for an only son

and the end of it like a bitter day.

11  Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord God,

when wI will send a famine on the land

not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,

xbut of hearing the words of the Lord.

12  xThey shall wander from sea to sea,

and from north to east;

they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord,

ybut they shall not find it.

13  zIn that day the lovely virgins and the young men

shall afaint for thirst.

14  Those who swear by bthe Guilt of Samaria,

and say, As your god lives, O Dan,

and, As cthe Way of dBeersheba lives,

they shall fall, and never rise again.