Amos
Amos
Amos 3: Witnesses against Israel
1Hear this word that the LORD has spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying,2You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.3Can two walk together, except they be agreed?4Will a lion roar in the forest, when he has no prey? will a young lion cry out of his den, if he have taken nothing?5Can a bird fall in a snare on the earth, where no gin is for him? shall one take up a snare from the earth, and have taken nothing at all?6Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD has not done it?7Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he reveals his secret to his servants the prophets.8The lion has roared, who will not fear? the Lord GOD has spoken, who can but prophesy?9Publish in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria, and behold the great tumults in the middle thereof, and the oppressed in the middle thereof. 10For they know not to do right, said the LORD, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces.11Therefore thus said the Lord GOD; An adversary there shall be even round about the land; and he shall bring down your strength from you, and your palaces shall be spoiled.12Thus said the LORD; As the shepherd takes out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear; so shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria in the corner of a bed, and in Damascus in a couch.13Hear you, and testify in the house of Jacob, said the Lord GOD, the God of hosts,14That in the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel on him I will also visit the altars of Bethel: and the horns of the altar shall be cut off, and fall to the ground.15And I will smite the winter house with the summer house; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end, said the LORD.
Amos 4
11I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have you not returned to me, said the LORD.12Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel: and because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel.13For, see, he that forms the mountains, and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought, that makes the morning darkness, and treads on the high places of the earth, The LORD, The God of hosts, is his name.
Amos 5: A Lament for Israel
1Hear you this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel.2The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken on her land; there is none to raise her up.3For thus said the Lord GOD; The city that went out by a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel.
A Call to Repentance
4For thus said the LORD to the house of Israel, Seek you me, and you shall live:5But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nothing.6Seek the LORD, and you shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel.7You who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,8Seek him that makes the seven stars and Orion, and turns the shadow of death into the morning, and makes the day dark with night: that calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the face of the earth: The LORD is his name:9That strengthens the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.10They hate him that rebukes in the gate, and they abhor him that speaks uprightly.11For as much therefore as your treading is on the poor, and you take from him burdens of wheat: you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not dwell in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink wine of them.12For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.13Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.14Seek good, and not evil, that you may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as you have spoken.15Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.
The Coming Judgment
16Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the LORD, said thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the farmer to mourning, and such as are skillful of lamentation to wailing.17And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through you, said the LORD.18Woe to you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light.19As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.20Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?21I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.22Though you offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.23Take you away from me the noise of your songs; for I will not hear the melody of your viols.24But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.25Have you offered to me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? 26But you have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which you made to yourselves. 27Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, said the LORD, whose name is The God of hosts.
Amos 9:The Destruction of Israel
1I saw the LORD standing on the altar: and he said, Smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake: and cut them in the head, all of them; and I will slay the last of them with the sword: he that flees of them shall not flee away, and he that escapes of them shall not be delivered.2Though they dig into hell, there shall my hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, there will I bring them down:3And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out there; and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, there will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them:4And though they go into captivity before their enemies, there will I command the sword, and it shall slay them: and I will set my eyes on them for evil, and not for good.5And the Lord GOD of hosts is he that touches the land, and it shall melt, and all that dwell therein shall mourn: and it shall rise up wholly like a flood; and shall be drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.6It is he that builds his stories in the heaven, and has founded his troop in the earth; he that calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the face of the earth: The LORD is his name.7Are you not as children of the Ethiopians to me, O children of Israel? said the LORD. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?8Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are on the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, said the LORD.9For, see, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall on the earth.10All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us.
The Restoration of Israel
11In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:12That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, said the LORD that does this.13Behold, the days come, said the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that sows seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.14And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.15And I will plant them on their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, said the LORD your God.