Amos 5:1-27
5 “Hear this word that I am taking up over YOU people as a dirge,+ O house of Israel:
2 “The virgin,+ Israel, has fallen;+She cannot get up again.+She has been forsaken upon her own ground;There is no one raising her up.+
3 “For this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘The very city that was going forth with a thousand will have a hundred left; and the one going forth with a hundred will have ten left, for the house of Israel.’+
4 “For this is what Jehovah has said to the house of Israel, ‘Search for me,+ and keep living.+
5 And do not search for Bethʹel,+ and to Gilʹgal+ YOU must not come, and to Beʹer-sheʹba YOU must not pass over;+ because Gilʹgal itself will without fail go into exile;+ and as regards Bethʹel, it will become something uncanny.+
6 Search for Jehovah, and keep living,+ that he may not become operative just like fire,+ O house of Joseph,+ and it may not actually devour, and Bethʹel* may not be with no one to extinguish+ [it],
7 O YOU who are turning justice into mere wormwood,+ and the ones who have cast righteousness itself to the earth.+
8 The Maker of the Kiʹmah+ constellation* and the Keʹsil+ constellation,*+ and the One turning deep shadow+ into the morning itself, and the One who has made day itself dark as night,+ the One calling for the waters of the sea, that he may pour them out upon the surface of the earth+—Jehovah is his name;+
9 he who is causing a despoiling to flash forth upon someone strong, that despoiling itself may come upon even a fortified place.
10 “‘In the gate they have hated a reprover,+ and a speaker of perfect things they detest.+
11 Therefore, for the reason that YOU are extracting farm rent from someone lowly, and the tribute of grain YOU keep taking from him;+ houses of hewn stone YOU have built,+ but YOU will not keep dwelling in them; and desirable vineyards YOU have planted, but YOU will not keep drinking the wine of them.+
12 For I have known how many YOUR revolts+ are and how mighty YOUR sins are,+ O YOU who are showing hostility toward someone righteous,+ YOU who are taking hush money,*+ and the ones who have turned aside poor people+ even in the gate.+
13 Therefore the very one having insight will in that time keep silent, for it will be a calamitous time.+
14 “‘Search for what is good, and not what is bad,+ to the end that YOU people may keep living;+ and that thus Jehovah the God of armies* may come to be with YOU, just as YOU have said.+
15 Hate what is bad, and love what is good,+ and give justice a place in the gate.+ It may be that Jehovah the God of armies will show favor+ to the remaining ones of Joseph.’+
16 “Therefore this is what Jehovah the God of armies, Jehovah,* has said, ‘In all the public squares there will be wailing,+ and in all the streets people will be saying: “Ah! Ah!” And they will have to call a farmer to mourning,+ and to wailing those experienced in lamentation.’+
17 ‘And in all vineyards there will be wailing;+ for I shall pass through the midst of you,’+ Jehovah has said.
18 “‘Woe to those who are craving the day of Jehovah!+ What, then, will the day of Jehovah mean to YOU people?+ It will be darkness, and no light,+
19 just as when a man* flees because of the lion, and the bear actually meets him; and [as when] he went into the house and supported his hand against the wall, and the serpent bit him.+
20 Will not the day of Jehovah be darkness, and not light; and will it not have gloom, and not brightness?+
21 I have hated, I have rejected YOUR festivals,+ and I shall not enjoy the smell of YOUR solemn assemblies.+
22 But if YOU people offer up to me whole burnt offerings,+ even in YOUR gift offerings I shall find no pleasure,+ and on YOUR communion sacrifices of fatlings I shall not look.+
23 Remove from me the turmoil of your songs; and the melodious sound of your stringed instruments may I not hear.+
24 And let justice roll forth just like waters,+ and righteousness like a constantly flowing torrent.+
25 Was it sacrifices and gift offerings that YOU people brought near to me in the wilderness for forty years, O house of Israel?+
26 And YOU will certainly carry* Sakʹkuth* YOUR king*+ and Kaiʹwan,* YOUR images, the star of YOUR god,* whom YOU made for yourselves.+
27 And I will cause YOU to go into exile beyond Damascus,’+ he whose name is Jehovah the God of armies has said.”+
Footnotes
^ “Bethel,” MTSyVg; LXX, “the house of Israel.”
^ Or, “a ransom.” Heb., khoʹpher.
^ “The God of armies.” Heb., ʼElo·heh-tseva·ʼohthʹ.
^ One of 134 scribal changes from YHWH to ʼAdho·naiʹ. See App 1B.
^ “A man.” Heb., ʼish.
^ Or, “you have carried.”
^ “Sakkuth.” Heb., Sik·kuthʹ. The name was purposely vocalized in Heb. to correspond to shiq·qutsʹ, “disgusting thing.” It possibly refers to a star-god, for it is put in a parallelism with the “star of your god” in the same vs. LXXSy, “the tent”; Lat., ta·ber·naʹcu·lum.
^ “Your king.” Heb., mal·kekhemʹ; Gr., Mo·lokhʹ; Syr., demal·kum; Lat., Moʹloch.
^ “Kaiwan.” Or, “Kewan.” Heb., Ki·yunʹ, vowel-pointed intentionally to correspond with shiq·qutsʹ, “disgusting thing.” Evidently the Akkadian star Kai·maʹnu, or Kai·waʹnu, is meant, because this occurs in Akkadian inscriptions as the name for Saturn (a star-god). Gr., Rhai·phanʹ; in Ac 7:43 in Stephen’s quotation, Rhom·phaʹ.
^ “Your god.” Heb., ʼelo·heh·khemʹ, referring to a false god.
