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Amos, starting at chapter 4
{4:1} Listen 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!"
{4:2} The Lord GOD has sworn by his holiness that behold,
"The days shall come on you that they will take you away with hooks,
and the last of you with fish hooks.
{4:3} You will go out at the breaks in the wall,
everyone straight before her;
and you will cast yourselves into Harmon," says the LORD.
{4:4} "Go to Bethel, and sin;
to Gilgal, and sin more.
Bring your sacrifices every morning,
your tithes every three days,
{4:5} offer 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 GOD.
{4:6} "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 the LORD.
{4:7} "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 place was rained on,
and the piece where it didn't rain withered.
{4:8} So two or three cities staggered to one city to drink water,
and were not satisfied:
yet you haven't returned to me," says the LORD.
{4:9} "I struck you with blight and mildew many times in your gardens
and your vineyards;
and your fig trees and your olive trees have the swarming locust
devoured:
yet you haven't returned to me," says the LORD.
{4:10} "I sent plagues among you like I did Egypt.
I have slain your young men with the sword,
and have carried away your horses;
and I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camp,
yet you haven't returned to me," says the LORD.
{4:11} "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 the LORD.
{4:12} "Therefore thus will I do to you, Israel;
because I will do this to you,
prepare to meet your God, Israel.
{4:13} For, behold, he who forms the mountains,
and creates the wind,
and declares to man what is his thought;
who makes the morning darkness,
and treads on the high places of the earth:
The LORD, the God of Hosts, is his name."
{5:1} Listen to this word which I take up for a lamentation over
you, O house of Israel.
{5:2} "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."
{5:3} For thus says the Lord GOD:
"The city that went forth a thousand shall have a hundred left,
and that which went forth one hundred shall have ten left to the
house of Israel."
{5:4} For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel:
"Seek me, and you will live;
{5:5} 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.
{5:6} Seek the LORD, 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.
{5:7} You who turn justice to wormwood,
and cast down righteousness to the earth:
{5:8} 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, the LORD is his name,
{5:9} who brings sudden destruction on the strong,
so that destruction comes on the fortress.
{5:10} They hate him who reproves in the gate,
and they abhor him who speaks blamelessly.
{5:11} Forasmuch therefore as 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.
{5:12} For I know how many your offenses,
and how great are your sins--
you who afflict the just,
who take a bribe,
and who turn aside the needy in the courts.
{5:13} Therefore a prudent person keeps silent in such a time,
for it is an evil time.
{5:14} Seek good, and not evil,
that you may live;
and so the LORD, the God of Hosts, will be with you,
as you say.
{5:15} Hate evil, love good,
and establish justice in the courts.
It may be that the LORD, the God of Hosts, will be gracious to the
remnant of Joseph."
{5:16} Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Hosts, the Lord:
"Wailing will be in all the broad ways;
and they will say in all the streets, 'Alas! Alas!'
and they will call the farmer to mourning,
and those who are skillful in lamentation to wailing.
{5:17} In all vineyards there will be wailing;
for I will pass through the midst of you," says the LORD.
{5:18} "Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD!
Why do you long for the day of the LORD?
It is darkness,
and not light.
{5:19} 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.
{5:20} Won't the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light?
Even very dark, and no brightness in it?
{5:21} I hate, I despise your feasts,
and I can't stand your solemn assemblies.
{5:22} 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.
{5:23} Take away from me the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.
{5:24} But let justice roll on like rivers,
and righteousness like a mighty stream.
{5:25} "Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings in the
wilderness forty years, house of Israel? {5:26} You also carried the
tent of your king and the shrine of your images, the star of your god,
which you made for yourselves. {5:27} Therefore will I cause you to go
into captivity beyond Damascus," says the LORD, whose name is the God
of Hosts.
{6:1} Woe 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!
{6:2} Go to Calneh, and see;
and from there go to Hamath the great;
then go down to Gath of the Philistines.
are they better than these kingdoms?
or is their border greater than your border?
{6:3} Those who put far away the evil day,
and cause the seat of violence to come near;
{6:4} Who 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 midst of the stall;
{6:5} who strum on the strings of a harp;
who invent for themselves instruments of music, like David;
{6:6} who drink wine in bowls,
and anoint themselves with the best oils;
but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.
{6:7} Therefore they will now go captive with the first who go captive;
and the feasting and lounging will end.
{6:8} "The Lord GOD has sworn by himself," says the LORD, the God of
Hosts:
"I abhor the pride of Jacob,
and detest his fortresses.
Therefore I will deliver up the city with all that is in it.
{6:9} It will happen, if there remain ten men in one house,
that they shall die.
{6:10} "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 the name of the
LORD.'
{6:11} "For, behold, the LORD commands, and the great house will be
smashed to pieces,
and the little house into bits.
{6:12} Do 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;
{6:13} you who rejoice in a thing of nothing, who say,
'Haven't we taken for ourselves horns by our own strength?'
{6:14} For, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, house of
Israel,"
says the LORD, the God of Hosts;
"and they will afflict you from the entrance of Hamath to the brook
of the Arabah."
________________________________________________________________________
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