Amos 5:1-13

Death is Imminent

5:1 Listen to this funeral song I am ready to sing about you, family of Israel:

5:2 “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.”

5:3 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.”

5:4 The Lord says this to the family of Israel:

“Seek me so you can live!

5:5 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.”

5:6 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.

5:7 The Israelites turn justice into bitterness;

they throw what is fair and right to the ground.

5:8 (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!

5:9 He flashes destruction down upon the strong

so that destruction overwhelms the fortified places.)

5:10 The Israelites hate anyone who arbitrates at the city gate;

they despise anyone who speaks honestly.

5:11 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.

5:12 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.

5:13 For this reason whoever is smart keeps quiet in such a time,

for it is an evil time.