Amos 5:14-27

5:14 Seek good and not evil so you can live!

Then the Lord, the God who commands armies, just might be with you,

as you claim he is.

5:15 Hate what is wrong, love what is right!

Promote justice at the city gate!

Maybe the Lord, the God who commands armies, will have mercy on those who are left from Joseph.

5:16 Because of Israel’s sins this is what the Lord, the God who commands armies, the sovereign One, says:

“In all the squares there will be wailing,

in all the streets they will mourn the dead.

They will tell the field workers to lament

and the professional mourners to wail.

5:17 In all the vineyards there will be wailing,

for I will pass through your midst,” says the Lord.

The Lord Demands Justice

5:18 Woe to those who wish for the day of the Lord!

Why do you want the Lord’s day of judgment to come?

It will bring darkness, not light.

5:19 Disaster will be inescapable,

as if a man ran from a lion only to meet a bear,

then escaped into a house,

leaned his hand against the wall,

and was bitten by a poisonous snake.

5:20 Don’t you realize the Lord’s day of judgment will bring darkness, not light –

gloomy blackness, not bright light?

5:21 “I absolutely despise your festivals!

I get no pleasure from your religious assemblies!

5:22 Even if you offer me burnt and grain offerings, I will not be satisfied;

I will not look with favor on your peace offerings of fattened calves.

5:23 Take away from me your noisy songs;

I don’t want to hear the music of your stringed instruments.

5:24 Justice must flow like torrents of water,

righteous actions like a stream that never dries up.

5:25 You did not bring me sacrifices and grain offerings during the forty years you spent in the wilderness, family of Israel.

5:26 You will pick up your images of Sikkuth, your king,

and Kiyyun, your star god, which you made for yourselves,

5:27 and I will drive you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the Lord.

He is called the God who commands armies!