Amos 5:1-12 ▼

1 Listen to this funeral song I am ready to sing about you, family of Israel:

2 The virgin Israel has fallen down and will not get up again. She is abandoned on her own land with no one to help her get up.|

3 The sovereign LORD says this: |The city that marches out with a thousand soldiers will have only a hundred left; the town that marches out with a hundred soldiers will have only ten left for the family of Israel.|

4 The LORD says this to the family of Israel: |Seek me so you can live!

5 Do not seek Bethel! Do not visit Gilgal! Do not journey down to Beer Sheba! For the people of Gilgal will certainly be carried into exile; and Bethel will become a place where disaster abounds.|

6 Seek the LORD so you can live! Otherwise he will break out like fire against Joseph's family; the fire will consume and no one will be able to quench it and save Bethel.

7 The Israelites turn justice into bitterness; they throw what is fair and right to the ground.

8 (But there is one who made the constellations Pleiades and Orion; he can turn the darkness into morning and daylight into night. He summons the water of the seas and pours it out on the earth's surface. The LORD is his name!

9 He flashes destruction down upon the strong so that destruction overwhelms the fortified places.)

10 The Israelites hate anyone who arbitrates at the city gate; they despise anyone who speaks honestly.

11 Therefore, because you make the poor pay taxes on their crops and exact a grain tax from them, you will not live in the houses you built with chiseled stone, nor will you drink the wine from the fine vineyards you planted.

12 Certainly I am aware of your many rebellious acts and your numerous sins. You torment the innocent, you take bribes, and you deny justice to the needy at the city gate.