Bible-Reading.comAmos 4
1Give ear to this word, you cows of Bashan, who are in the hill of Samaria, by whom the poor are kept down, and those in need are crushed; who say to their lords, Get out the wine and give us drink.
2The Lord God has taken an oath by his holy name, that the days are coming when they will take you away with hooks, and the rest of you with fish-hooks.
3And you will go out through the broken places, every one going straight before her, and you will be sent into Harmon, says the Lord.
4Come to Beth-el and do evil; to Gilgal, increasing the number of your sins; come with your offerings every morning and your tenths every three days:
5Let that which is leavened be burned as a praise-offering, let the news of your free offerings be given out publicly; for this is pleasing to you, O children of Israel, says the Lord.
6But in all your towns I have kept food from your teeth, and in all your places there has been need of bread: and still you have not come back to me, says the Lord.
7And I have kept back the rain from you, when it was still three months before the grain-cutting: I sent rain on one town and kept it back from another: one part was rained on, and the part where there was no rain became a waste.
8So two or three towns went wandering to one town looking for water, and did not get enough: and still you have not come back to me, says the Lord.
9I have sent destruction on your fields by burning and disease: the increase of your gardens and your vine-gardens, your fig-trees and your olive-trees, has been food for worms: and still you have not come back to me, says the Lord.
10I have sent disease among you, as it was in Egypt: I have put your young men to the sword, and have taken away your horses; I have made the evil smell from your tents come up to your noses: and still you have not come back to me, says the Lord.
11And I have sent destruction among you, as when God sent destruction on Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a burning stick pulled out of the fire: and still you have not come back to me, says the Lord.
12So this is what I will do to you, O Israel: and because I will do this to you, be ready for a meeting with your God, O Israel.
13For see, he who gave form to the mountains and made the wind, giving knowledge of his purpose to man, who makes the morning dark, and is walking on the high places of the earth: the Lord, the God of armies, is his name.
Amos 5
1Give ear to this word, my song of sorrow over you, O children of Israel.
2The virgin of Israel has been made low, never again to be lifted up: she is stretched out by herself on her land; there is no one to put her on her feet again.
3For these are the words of the Lord God: The town which was able to send out a thousand, will have only a hundred; and that which sent out a hundred, will have only ten, in Israel.
4For these are the words of the Lord to the children of Israel: Let your hearts be turned to me, so that you may have life:
5Do not be looking for help to Beth-el, and do not go to Gilgal, or make your way to Beer-sheba: for Gilgal will certainly be taken prisoner, and Beth-el will come to nothing.
6Go to the Lord for help so that you may have life; for fear that he may come like fire bursting out in the family of Joseph, causing destruction, and there will be no one to put it out in Beth-el.
7You who make the work of judging a bitter thing, crushing down righteousness to the earth;
8Go for help to him who makes Orion and the Pleiades, by whom the deep dark is turned into morning, who makes the day black with night; whose voice goes out to the waters of the sea, sending them out over the face of the earth: the Lord is his name;
9Who sends sudden destruction on the strong, so that destruction comes on the walled town.
10They have hate for him who makes protest against evil in the public place, and he whose words are upright is disgusting to them.
11So because the poor man is crushed under your feet, and you take taxes from him of grain: you have made for yourselves houses of cut stone, but you will not take your rest in them; the fair vine-gardens planted by your hands will not give you wine.
12For I have seen how your evil-doing is increased and how strong are your sins, you troublers of the upright, who take rewards and do wrong to the cause of the poor in the public place.
13So the wise will say nothing in that time; for it is an evil time.
14Go after good and not evil, so that life may be yours: and so the Lord, the God of armies, will be with you, as you say.
15Be haters of evil and lovers of good, and let right be done in the public place: it may be that the Lord, the God of armies, will have mercy on the rest of Joseph.
16So these are the words of the Lord, the God of armies, the Lord: There will be weeping in all the open spaces; and in all the streets they will say, Sorrow! sorrow! and they will get in the farmer to the weeping, and the makers of sad songs to give cries of grief.
17In all the vine-gardens there will be cries of grief: for I will go through among you, says the Lord.
18Sorrow to you who are looking for the day of the Lord! what is the day of the Lord to you? it is dark and not light.
19As if a man, running away from a lion, came face to face with a bear; or went into the house and put his hand on the wall and got a bite from a snake.
20Will not the day of the Lord be dark and not light? even very dark, with no light shining in it?
21Your feasts are disgusting to me, I will have nothing to do with them; I will take no delight in your holy meetings.
22Even if you give me your burned offerings and your meal offerings, I will not take pleasure in them: I will have nothing to do with the peace-offerings of your fat beasts.
23Take away from me the noise of your songs; my ears are shut to the melody of your instruments.
24But let the right go rolling on like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
25Did you come to me with offerings of beasts and meal offerings in the waste land for forty years, O Israel?
26Truly, you will take up Saccuth your king and Kaiwan your images, the star of your god, which you made for yourselves.
27And I will send you away as prisoners farther than Damascus, says the Lord, whose name is the God of armies.
Amos 6
1Sorrow to those who are resting in comfort in Zion, and to those who have no fear of danger in the mountain of Samaria, the noted men of the chief of the nations, to whom the people of Israel come!
2Go on to Calneh and see; and from there go to Hamath the great; then go down to Gath of the Philistines: are you better than these kingdoms? or is your land wider than theirs?
3You who put far away the evil day, causing the rule of the violent to come near;
4Who are resting on beds of ivory, stretched out on soft seats, feasting on lambs from the flock and young oxen from the cattle-house;
5Making foolish songs to the sound of corded instruments, and designing for themselves instruments of music, like David;
6Drinking wine in basins, rubbing themselves with the best oils; but they have no grief for the destruction of Joseph.
7So now they will go away prisoners with the first of those who are made prisoners, and the loud cry of those who were stretched out will come to an end.
8The Lord God has taken an oath by himself, says the Lord, the God of armies: the pride of Jacob is disgusting to me, and I have hate for his great houses: so I will give up the town with everything in it.
9Then it will come about that if there are still ten men in a house, death will overtake them.
10And when a man's relation, even the one who is responsible for burning his body, lifting him up to take his bones out of the house, says to him who is in the inmost part of the house, Is there still anyone with you? and he says, No; then he will say, Keep quiet, for the name of the Lord may not be named.
11For see, at the order of the Lord the great house will be full of cracks and the little house will be broken.
12Is it possible for horses to go running on the rock? may the sea be ploughed with oxen? for the right to be turned by you into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into a bitter plant?
13You whose joy is in a thing of no value, who say, Have we not taken for ourselves horns by the strength which is ours?
14For see, I will send against you a nation, O Israel, says the Lord, the God of armies, ruling you cruelly from the way into Hamath as far as the stream of the Arabah.