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UST AMOS Chapter 5

◄ AMOS 5 ► ║ ©

5 You people of Israel, listen to this funeral song that I will sing about you:

2 “You are like a young woman,

but in spite of that, you will certainly be struck down

and you will never get up again!

You will lie on the ground, abandoned,

and there will be no one to help you stand up.”

3 This is what Yahweh the Lord has declared to the people of Israel:

“When your enemies attack you,

and when a thousand of your soldiers go into battle,

only a hundred will survive.

When a hundred soldiers march out from a city to fight,

only ten will remain alive.”

4 This is what Yahweh has declared to the people of Israel:

“You Israelite people, return to me!

If you do that, you will continue to remain alive.

5 Do not go to Bethel to seek my help;

do not go to Gilgal to worship;

do not go to Beersheba,

because your enemies will drag away the people of Gilgal to other countries,

and they will completely destroy Bethel.”

6 So come to Yahweh;

if you do that, you will remain alive.

If you do not do that,

Yahweh will come down on you descendants of Joseph like a fire;

that fire will burn everything in Bethel

and nothing will be able to save that town.

7 You people distort what is right; you make others think that it is something very bitter;

you treat good things as though they were evil.

8 God created all the groups of stars

and he put them in their places.

Each morning he causes the darkness to become the dawn,

and each evening he causes the daylight to become darkness.

He scoops up water from the oceans to become clouds,

and then he dumps the water from the clouds onto the earth.

The one who does those things is Yahweh.

9 He brings sudden destruction on the rulers and the wealthy landowners,

and he destroys their fortified cities.

You hate those who challenge anyone who tries to make unjust decisions;

you hate those who tell the truth in your courts.

11 Doom is coming on you wealthy landowners and nobles because you oppress poor people and force them to pay hefty taxes.

You have built big stone mansions for yourselves,

but you will not be able to live in them.

You have planted delightful vineyards,

but there will not be any grapes for you to harvest to make wine.

12 For I know all of your sins

and the terrible crimes that you have committed.

You oppress righteous people,

and you accept bribes.

You do not allow judges to treat poor people justly.

13 This is a time when many people do evil things,

so people who have good sense say nothing at all.

14 In order to remain alive,

you must stop doing what is wrong, and start doing what is right.

If you do that, Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, will be with you

as you claim that he always is.

15 Love what is good, and hate what is evil!

Try to cause judges in your courts to make decisions that are right!

If you do those things, perhaps Yahweh, commander of the angel armies,

will act mercifully toward you descendants of Joseph who are still alive.

16 Therefore, Yahweh will punish you for your sins! This is what Yahweh, the Lord, the commander of angel armies, has solemnly declared:

“People will be wailing loudly in every street,

and people will cry in horror in every plaza at the complete desolation.

Farmers will leave their fields to come and weep,

along with the other official mourners who will wail for those who have died.

17 People will be wailing in your vineyards,

because I will punish you severely,” declares Yahweh.

18 Terrible things will happen to you who want Yahweh to punish his enemies,

because that will be a day of darkness, not of light.

19 At that time, when you try to run from a lion,

you will face a bear.

When you run into your house to be safe,

and you put your hand on the wall,

a snake will bite it.

20 That day, when he punishes people, will certainly be awful, like a dark night

without even a little bit of light.

21 Yahweh says, “I hate your religious celebrations

and the times when you gather to worship me;

I detest them all.

22 Even if you bring me offerings to burn on the altar and offerings of grain,

I will no longer accept them.

Even if you bring me offerings to restore fellowship with me,

I will not pay any attention to them.

23 So stop singing noisy songs!

I will not listen when you play harps.

24 Instead, act justly and righteously; you should do this and never stop;

if you do, it will be like the water in a river that never stops flowing.

25 You Israelite people, your ancestors wandered through the wilderness for forty years;

and during that time, they never brought any sacrifices and offerings to me!

26 But you carried the two idols that you have made for yourselves—

Sikkuth, the god whom you call ‘king,’

and Kaiwan, the image of the star that you worship.

27 For I will now force you to go to a country that is far beyond Damascus!” Yahweh has declared this; He is the commander of angel armies.

◄ AMOS 5 ► ║ ©

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