Amos 3–6

1Hear this word that Yahweh has spoken against you, children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up out of the land of Egypt, saying:

2“I have only chosen you of all the families of the earth. Therefore I will punish you for all of your sins.”

3Do two walk together, unless they have agreed?

4Will a lion roar in the thicket, when he has no prey? Does a young lion cry out of his den, if he has caught nothing?

5Can a bird fall in a trap on the earth, where no snare is set for him? Does a snare spring up from the ground, when there is nothing to catch?

6Does the trumpet alarm sound in a city, without the people being afraid? Does evil happen to a city, and Yahweh hasn’t done it?

7Surely the Lord Yahweh will do nothing, unless he reveals his secret to his servants the prophets.

8The lion has roared. Who will not fear? The Lord Yahweh has spoken. Who can but prophesy?

9Proclaim in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, “Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria, and see what unrest is in her, and what oppression is among them.”

10“Indeed they don’t know to do right,” says Yahweh, “Who hoard plunder and loot in their palaces.”

11Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: “An adversary will overrun the land; and he will pull down your strongholds, and your fortresses will be plundered.”

12Yahweh says: “As the shepherd rescues out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so shall the children of Israel be rescued who sit in Samaria on the corner of a couch, and on the silken cushions of a bed.”

13“Listen, and testify against the house of Jacob,” says the Lord Yahweh, the God of Armies.

14“For in the day that I visit the transgressions of Israel on him, I will also visit the altars of Bethel; and the horns of the altar will be cut off, and fall to the ground.

15I will strike the winter house with the summer house; and the houses of ivory will perish, and the great houses will have an end,” says Yahweh.

1Listen to this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who tell their husbands, “Bring us drinks!”

2The Lord Yahweh has sworn by his holiness, “Behold, the days shall come on you that they will take you away with hooks, and the last of you with fish hooks.

3You will go out at the breaks in the wall, everyone straight before her; and you will cast yourselves into Harmon,” says Yahweh.

4“Go to Bethel, and sin; to Gilgal, and sin more. Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days,

5offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened, and proclaim free will offerings and brag about them; for this pleases you, you children of Israel,” says the Lord Yahweh.

6“I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in every town; yet you haven’t returned to me,” says Yahweh.

7“I also have withheld the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest; and I caused it to rain on one city, and caused it not to rain on another city. One field was rained on, and the field where it didn’t rain withered.

8So two or three cities staggered to one city to drink water, and were not satisfied; yet you haven’t returned to me,” says Yahweh.

9“I struck you with blight and mildew many times in your gardens and your vineyards, and the swarming locusts have devoured your fig trees and your olive trees; yet you haven’t returned to me,” says Yahweh.

10“I sent plagues among you like I did Egypt. I have slain your young men with the sword, and have carried away your horses. I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camp, yet you haven’t returned to me,” says Yahweh.

11“I have overthrown some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a burning stick plucked out of the fire; yet you haven’t returned to me,” says Yahweh.

12“Therefore I will do this to you, Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, Israel.

13For, behold, he who forms the mountains, creates the wind, declares to man what is his thought, who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the high places of the earth: Yahweh, the God of Armies, is his name.”

1Listen to this word which I take up for a lamentation over you, O house of Israel:

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.”

3For 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.”

4For Yahweh says to the house of Israel: “Seek me, and you will live;

5but 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.

6Seek 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.

7You who turn justice to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth!

8Seek 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,

9who brings sudden destruction on the strong, so that destruction comes on the fortress.

10They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks blamelessly.

11Therefore, 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.

12For 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.

13Therefore a prudent person keeps silent in such a time, for it is an evil time.

14Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be with you, as you say.

15Hate 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.”

16Therefore 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.

17In all vineyards there will be wailing, for I will pass through the middle of you,” says Yahweh.

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.

19As 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.

20Won’t the day of Yahweh be darkness, and not light? Even very dark, and no brightness in it?

21I hate, I despise your feasts, and I can’t stand your solemn assemblies.

22Yes, 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.

23Take away from me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.

24But let justice roll on like rivers, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

25“Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, house of Israel?

26You also carried the tent of your king and the shrine of your images, the star of your god, which you made for yourselves.

27Therefore I will cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus,” says Yahweh, whose name is the God of Armies.

1Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who are secure on the mountain of Samaria, the notable men of the chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel come!

2Go to Calneh, and see. From there go to Hamath the great. Then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are they better than these kingdoms? Is their border greater than your border?

3Alas for you who put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near,

4who lie on beds of ivory, and stretch themselves on their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the middle of the stall,

5who strum on the strings of a harp, who invent for themselves instruments of music, like David;

6who drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the best oils, but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.

7Therefore they will now go captive with the first who go captive. The feasting and lounging will end.

8“The Lord Yahweh has sworn by himself,” says Yahweh, the God of Armies: “I abhor the pride of Jacob, and detest his fortresses. Therefore I will deliver up the city with all that is in it.

9It will happen that if ten men remain in one house, they will die.

10“When a man’s relative carries him, even he who burns him, to bring bodies out of the house, and asks him who is in the innermost parts of the house, ‘Is there yet any with you?’ And he says, ‘No;’ then he will say, ‘Hush! Indeed we must not mention Yahweh’s name.’

11“For, behold, Yahweh commands, and the great house will be smashed to pieces, and the little house into bits.

12Do horses run on the rocky crags? Does one plow there with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness,

13you who rejoice in a thing of nothing, who say, ‘Haven’t we taken for ourselves horns by our own strength?’

14For, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, house of Israel,” says Yahweh, the God of Armies; “and they will afflict you from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of the Arabah.”