Amos

A Lament and Call to Seek Justice

Chapter 5

¹ Hear this word that I have taken up over you, a lament, house of Israel. ² She has fallen; she will not rise again—virgin of Israel. She has been abandoned on her land; there is no one to raise her. ³ For thus says the Lord GOD: The city that goes out a thousand will leave behind a hundred, and the one that goes out a hundred will leave behind ten to the house of Israel. ⁴ For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel: "Seek me and live." ⁵ Do not seek at Bethel, do not come to Gilgal, and do not pass over to Beer-sheba, for Gilgal will surely go into exile; it will go into exile; and Bethel will be to iniquity. ⁶ Seek the LORD and live, lest it prevail like fire, house of Joseph, and devour, and there is no extinguisher for house of God. ⁷ Those who turn justice to wormwood and righteousness to earth have abandoned. ⁸ who makes the Pleiades and Orion, and turns the shadow of death into morning and day into night, who darkens, who calls to the waters of the sea and pours them out on the face of the earth—the LORD is his name. ⁹ The one who causes breast upon might and breast upon fortress—he comes. ¹⁰ They hate the one who rebukes in the gate, and they abominate the blameless word. ¹¹ Therefore, because you have oppressed the poor and taken from him a gift of grain, houses of cut stone you have built, and you shall not dwell in them; vineyards of Desire you have planted, and you shall not drink their wine. ¹² For I know your many transgressions and your mighty sins. You oppressors of the righteous, takers of ransom, have bent the poor in the gate. ¹³ Therefore the discerning one in that time will be silent, because it is an evil time. ¹⁴ Seek good and not evil so that you may live, and so it will be—the LORD God of Hosts is with you—as you have said. ¹⁵ Hate evil and love good, and establish justice in the gate. Perhaps the LORD God of Hosts will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. ¹⁶ Therefore thus says the LORD God of Hosts, my Lord: In all the broad places, lamentation, and in all the streets they will say, "Alas! Alas!" And they will call the farmer to mourning and the lamentation to knowers of lament. ¹⁷ And in all the vineyards there will be lamentation, for I will pass through your midst, says the LORD.

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