Amos 5 Berean Standard Bible
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 Hear this word, O house of Israel, this lamentation I take up against you:
1 Listen to this word which I take up for a lamentation over you, O house of Israel:
2 “Fallen is Virgin Israel, never to rise again. She lies abandoned on her land, with no one to raise her up.”
2 “The virgin of Israel has fallen; She shall rise no more. She is cast down on her land; there is no one to raise her up.”
3 This is what the Lord GOD says: “The city that marches out a thousand strong will only see a hundred return, and the one that marches out a hundred strong will have but ten left in the house of Israel.”
3 For the Lord Yahweh says: “The city that went out a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went out one hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel.”
4 For this is what the LORD says to the house of Israel: “Seek Me and live!
4 For Yahweh says to the house of Israel: “Seek me, and you will live;
5 Do not seek Bethel or go to Gilgal; do not journey to Beersheba, for Gilgal will surely go into exile, and Bethel will come to nothing.
5 but don’t seek Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and don’t pass to Beersheba; for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nothing.
6 Seek the LORD and live, or He will sweep like fire through the house of Joseph; it will devour everything, with no one at Bethel to extinguish it.
6 Seek Yahweh, and you will live, lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, and there be no one to quench it in Bethel.
7 There are those who turn justice into wormwood and cast righteousness to the ground.
7 You who turn justice to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth!
8 He who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns darkness into dawn and darkens day into night, who summons the waters of the sea and pours them over the face of the earth— the LORD is His name—
8 Seek him who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns the shadow of death into the morning, and makes the day dark with night; who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the surface of the earth, Yahweh is his name,
9 He flashes destruction on the strong, so that fury comes upon the stronghold.
9 who brings sudden destruction on the strong, so that destruction comes on the fortress.
10 There are those who hate the one who reproves in the gate and despise him who speaks with integrity.
10 They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks blamelessly.
11 Therefore, because you trample on the poor and exact from him a tax of grain, you will never live in the stone houses you have built; you will never drink the wine from the lush vineyards you have planted.
11 Therefore, because you trample on the poor and take taxes from him of wheat, you have built houses of cut stone, but you will not dwell in them. You have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine.
12 For I know that your transgressions are many and your sins are numerous. You oppress the righteous by taking bribes; you deprive the poor of justice in the gate.
12 For I know how many are your offenses, and how great are your sins— you who afflict the just, who take a bribe, and who turn away the needy in the courts.
13 Therefore, the prudent keep silent in such times, for the days are evil.
13 Therefore a prudent person keeps silent in such a time, for it is an evil time.
14 Seek good, not evil, so that you may live. And the LORD, the God of Hosts, will be with you, as you have claimed.
14 Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be with you, as you say.
15 Hate evil and love good; establish justice in the gate. Perhaps the LORD, the God of Hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”
15 Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the courts. It may be that Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”
16 Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Hosts, the Lord, says: “There will be wailing in all the public squares and cries of ‘Alas! Alas!’ in all the streets. The farmer will be summoned to mourn, and the mourners to wail.
16 Therefore Yahweh, the God of Armies, the Lord, says: “Wailing will be in all the wide ways. They will say in all the streets, ‘Alas! Alas!’ They will call the farmer to mourning, and those who are skillful in lamentation to wailing.
17 There will be wailing in all the vineyards, for I will pass through your midst,” says the LORD.
17 In all vineyards there will be wailing, for I will pass through the middle of you,” says Yahweh.
18 Woe to you who long for the Day of the LORD! What will the Day of the LORD be for you? It will be darkness and not light.
18 “Woe to you who desire the day of Yahweh! Why do you long for the day of Yahweh? It is darkness, and not light.
19 It will be like a man who flees from a lion, only to encounter a bear, or who enters his house and rests his hand against the wall, only to be bitten by a snake.
19 As if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him; or he went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a snake bit him.
20 Will not the Day of the LORD be darkness and not light, even gloom with no brightness in it?
20 Won’t the day of Yahweh be darkness, and not light? Even very dark, and no brightness in it?
21 “I hate, I despise your feasts! I cannot stand the stench of your solemn assemblies.
21 I hate, I despise your feasts, and I can’t stand your solemn assemblies.
22 Even though you offer Me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; for your peace offerings of fattened cattle I will have no regard.
22 Yes, though you offer me your burnt offerings and meal offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat animals.
23 Take away from Me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.
23 Take away from me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.
24 But let justice roll on like a river, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
24 But let justice roll on like rivers, and righteousness like a mighty stream.
25 Did you bring Me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
25 “Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, house of Israel?
26 You have taken along Sakkuth your king and Kaiwan your star god, the idols you made for yourselves.
26 You also carried the tent of your king and the shrine of your images, the star of your god, which you made for yourselves.
27 Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the LORD, whose name is the God of Hosts.
27 Therefore I will cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus,” says Yahweh, whose name is the God of Armies.
Cross references (27)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Ezekiel 19:1; Jeremiah 9:17; Jeremiah 7:29; Jeremiah 9:10; Amos 3:1
- 2 Jeremiah 14:17; Hosea 14:1; Isaiah 14:21; 2 Kings 17:16; 2 Kings 15:29
- 3 Romans 9:27; Isaiah 10:22; Isaiah 6:13; Ezekiel 12:16; Isaiah 1:9
- 4 Zephaniah 2:3; 2 Chronicles 15:2; Jeremiah 29:12–13; Isaiah 55:3; Psalm 14:2
- 5 Hosea 4:15; Amos 4:4; Amos 8:14; Genesis 21:33; Amos 7:17
- 6 Isaiah 55:6; Ezekiel 20:47–48; Ezekiel 33:11; Zechariah 10:6; Amos 5:14
- 7 Amos 6:12; Zephaniah 1:6; Ezekiel 3:20; Hosea 10:4; Deuteronomy 29:18
- 8 Amos 4:13; Job 9:9; Amos 9:6; Amos 8:9; Psalm 104:20
- 9 Jeremiah 37:10; 2 Kings 13:17; Micah 5:11; 2 Kings 13:25; Hebrews 11:34
- 10 1 Kings 22:8; Isaiah 29:21; John 8:45–47; Jeremiah 17:16–17; Proverbs 9:7–8
- 11 Micah 6:15; Zephaniah 1:13; Deuteronomy 28:30; James 2:6; Haggai 1:6
- 12 Amos 2:6–7; Amos 5:10; Isaiah 1:23; 1 Samuel 8:3; Psalm 26:9–10
- 13 2 Timothy 3:1; Hosea 4:4; Ephesians 5:15–16; Micah 2:3; Ecclesiastes 3:7
- 14 Joshua 1:9; Matthew 6:33; Philippians 4:8–9; Micah 6:8; Micah 3:11
- 15 Romans 12:9; 3 John 11; Joel 2:14; Psalm 97:10; 1 Thessalonians 5:21–22
- 16 Joel 1:11; Jeremiah 9:17–20; Jeremiah 9:10; Revelation 18:15–16; Micah 1:8
- 17 Exodus 12:12; Jeremiah 48:33; Isaiah 16:10; Isaiah 32:10–12; Joel 3:17
- 18 Joel 1:15; Joel 2:1–2; Joel 2:31; Jeremiah 30:7; Malachi 4:1
- 19 Isaiah 24:17–18; Jeremiah 15:2–3; Jeremiah 48:43–44; Job 20:24–25; Acts 28:4
- 20 Isaiah 13:10; Zephaniah 1:15; Ezekiel 34:12; Job 10:21–22; Jude 13
- 21 Isaiah 1:11–16; Proverbs 28:9; Leviticus 26:31; Isaiah 66:3; Jeremiah 6:20
- 22 Micah 6:6–7; Amos 4:4–5; Isaiah 66:3; Leviticus 7:12–15; Psalm 50:23
- 23 Amos 6:5; Amos 8:10; Amos 8:3
- 24 Micah 6:8; Jeremiah 22:3; Proverbs 21:3; Hosea 6:6; Mark 12:32–34
- 25 Acts 7:42–43; Ezekiel 20:8; Nehemiah 9:18; Joshua 24:14; Leviticus 17:7
- 26 Leviticus 20:2–5; 2 Kings 23:12–13; 1 Kings 11:33; Leviticus 18:21
- 27 2 Kings 17:6; Acts 7:43; Amos 4:13; 2 Kings 15:29
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
But God turned, and gave them up to worship the hosts of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets: O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to Me sacrifices and oblations for forty years in the wilderness?
I will seek Thee, that my soul may live. For my body liveth by my soul, and my soul liveth by Thee.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 1 (1886)
I am moreover restrained by the Prophet's saying, "Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time, for it is an evil time," a time when some trip up their neighbours' heels, some stamp on a man when he is down, and others clap their hands with joy, but there is not one to feel for the fallen and hold …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 8 (1895)
The day of the Lord is darkness and not light." A day of darkness for those who are worthy of darkness.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 8 (1895)