Amos 5 Free Bible Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 Listen, people of Israel, to this funeral lament that I sing about you!
1 Listen to this word which I take up for a lamentation over you, O house of Israel:
2 Virgin Israel has fallen, and will never rise again! She lies abandoned on the ground, and there is no one to help 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 says: From a city that sends out a thousand soldiers, only a hundred will return; from a city that sends out a hundred soldiers, only ten will return.
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 This is what the Lord says to the people of Israel: Look to me so you may live!
4 For Yahweh says to the house of Israel: “Seek me, and you will live;
5 Do not look to the false gods of Bethel, do not go to the pagan shrines of Gilgal or travel to those of Beersheba. For Gilgal will 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 Look to the Lord so you may live! Otherwise he will explode like fire against the descendants of Joseph and no one from Bethel will be able to quench 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 You twist justice and make it bitter, you throw integrity to the ground.
7 You who turn justice to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth!
8 The One who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns the darkness into morning, and daytime into night, who calls for the water of the seas, and pours it down as rain upon 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 In a flash he cuts down the strong and destroys the fortresses.
9 who brings sudden destruction on the strong, so that destruction comes on the fortress.
10 You hate anyone who confronts injustice and loathe anyone who speaks honestly.
10 They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks blamelessly.
11 Because you trample down the poor and impose a tax on their grain, building for yourselves impressive houses, you will not live in them, and you will not drink wine from the fine 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 the extent of your wrongdoing and your numerous sins. You oppress good people by taking bribes, and you prevent the poor from getting justice in the courts.
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 So smart people keep quiet in such evil times.
13 Therefore a prudent person keeps silent in such a time, for it is an evil time.
14 Do what is right, and not evil, so you may live. Then the Lord God of power will be with you, as you claim he is.
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—and make sure justice wins out in your courts. Maybe the Lord God of power will have mercy on those who are left of Jacob's people.
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 For this is what the Lord, the Lord God of power says: There will be weeping in the city squares and wailing in the streets. They will call even the farmers to grieve, as well as the professional mourners.
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 every vineyard, for I will pass through the midst of you, says the Lord.
17 In all vineyards there will be wailing, for I will pass through the middle of you,” says Yahweh.
18 How disastrous it will be for those of you who long for the day of the Lord. Why would you want the day of the Lord to come? It will bring darkness, 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 running away from a lion only to meet a bear; or a man who goes home and leans his hand on a 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 Isn't the day of the Lord darkness without light? Yes, pitch dark without a glimmer of light.
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 festivals and take no delight in your religious assemblies.
21 I hate, I despise your feasts, and I can’t stand your solemn assemblies.
22 Even though you present me with burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. As for your peace offerings of fattened cattle—I will not even look at them.
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 Stop your noisy worship songs. I will not listen to the melody of your harps.
23 Take away from me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.
24 Rather let justice flow like a river, and doing right 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 during those forty years in the desert, people of Israel?
25 “Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, house of Israel?
26 But now you carry idols of Sakkuth your king and Kaiwan your star god that 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 So I will send you into exile in a land beyond Damascus, says the Lord, whose name is the God of power.
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)