October 5

Amos 5:14 — 9:15
 

14 “‘Search for what is good, and not what is bad, to the end that YOU people may keep living; and that thus Jehovah the God of armies may come to be with YOU, just as YOU have said. 15 Hate what is bad, and love what is good, and give justice a place in the gate. It may be that Jehovah the God of armies will show favor to the remaining ones of Joseph.’

16 “Therefore this is what Jehovah the God of armies, Jehovah, has said, ‘In all the public squares there will be wailing, and in all the streets people will be saying: “Ah! Ah!” And they will have to call a farmer to mourning, and to wailing those experienced in lamentation.’ 17 ‘And in all vineyards there will be wailing; for I shall pass through the midst of you,’ Jehovah has said.

18 “‘Woe to those who are craving the day of Jehovah! What, then, will the day of Jehovah mean to YOU people? It will be darkness, and no light, 19 just as when a man flees because of the lion, and the bear actually meets him; and [as when] he went into the house and supported his hand against the wall, and the serpent bit him. 20 Will not the day of Jehovah be darkness, and not light; and will it not have gloom, and not brightness? 21 I have hated, I have rejected YOUR festivals, and I shall not enjoy the smell of YOUR solemn assemblies. 22 But if YOU people offer up to me whole burnt offerings, even in YOUR gift offerings I shall find no pleasure, and on YOUR communion sacrifices of fatlings I shall not look. 23 Remove from me the turmoil of your songs; and the melodious sound of your stringed instruments may I not hear. 24 And let justice roll forth just like waters, and righteousness like a constantly flowing torrent. 25 Was it sacrifices and gift offerings that YOU people brought near to me in the wilderness for forty years, O house of Israel? 26 And YOU will certainly carry Sakkuth YOUR king and Kaiwan, YOUR images, the star of YOUR god, whom YOU made for yourselves. 27 And I will cause YOU to go into exile beyond Damascus,’ he whose name is Jehovah the God of armies has said.”

6 “Woe to those who are at ease in Zion and to those trusting in the mountain of Samaria! They are the distinguished ones of the chief part of the nations, and to them the house of Israel have come. 2 Make YOUR way over to Calneh, and see; and go from there to populous Hamath, and go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are they better than these kingdoms, or is their territory bigger than YOUR territory? 3 [Are YOU] putting out of [YOUR] mind the calamitous day, and do YOU bring near the dwelling of violence? 4 [YOU men] that are lying down on couches of ivory and are sprawling on their divans, and are eating the rams out of a flock and the young bulls from among fattened calves; 5 that are improvising according to the sound of the stringed instrument; that, like David, have devised for themselves instruments for song; 6 that are drinking out of bowls of wine, and that with the choicest oils do their anointing, and that have not been made sick at the catastrophe of Joseph.

7 “Therefore now they will go into exile at the head of those going into exile, and the revelry of sprawling ones must depart.

8 “‘The Sovereign Lord Jehovah has sworn by his own soul,’ is the utterance of Jehovah the God of armies, ‘“I am detesting the pride of Jacob, and his dwelling towers I have hated, and I will deliver up [the] city and what fills it. 9 And it must occur that if ten men should be left remaining in one house, they must also die. 10 And his father’s brother will have to carry them forth one by one, and will be burning them one by one, in order to bring out [the] bones from the house. And he will have to say to whoever is in the innermost parts of the house, ‘Are there any more with you?’ And he will certainly say, ‘Nobody!’ And he will have to say, ‘Keep silence! For it is not the occasion for making any mention of the name of Jehovah.’”

11 “‘For here is Jehovah commanding, and he will certainly strike down the great house into rubble and the small house into debris.

12 “‘On a crag will horses run, or will one plow [there] with cattle? For into a poisonous plant YOU people have turned justice, and the fruitage of righteousness into wormwood, 13 [YOU who] are rejoicing in a thing that is not; who are saying: “Have we not in our strength taken horns to ourselves?” 14 Look! I am raising up against YOU, O house of Israel,’ is the utterance of Jehovah the God of the armies, ‘a nation, and they must oppress YOU people from the entering in of Hamath down to the torrent valley of the Arabah.’”

7 This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah caused me to see, and, look! he was forming a [locust] swarm at the start of the coming up of the later sowing. And, look! it was the later sowing after the mown grass of the king. 2 And it occurred that when it had finished eating up the vegetation of the land, I proceeded to say: “O Sovereign Lord Jehovah, forgive, please. Who will rise up of Jacob? For he is small!”

3 Jehovah felt regret over this. “It shall not occur,” Jehovah said.

4 This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah caused me to see, and, look! the Sovereign Lord Jehovah was calling for a contention by means of fire; and it went eating up the vast watery deep and ate up the tract of land. 5 And I proceeded to say: “O Sovereign Lord Jehovah, hold off, please. Who will rise up of Jacob? For he is small!”

6 Jehovah felt regret over this. “That, too, will not occur,” the Sovereign Lord Jehovah said.

7 This is what he caused me to see, and, look! Jehovah was stationed on a wall [made with] a plummet, and there was a plummet in his hand. 8 Then Jehovah said to me: “What are you seeing, Amos?” So I said: “A plummet.” And Jehovah went on to say: “Here I am setting a plummet in the midst of my people Israel. I shall no more do any further excusing of it. 9 And the high places of Isaac will certainly be laid desolate, and the sanctuaries themselves of Israel will be devastated; and I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with a sword.”

10 And Amaziah the priest of Bethel proceeded to send to Jeroboam the king of Israel, saying: “Amos has conspired against you right inside the house of Israel. The land is not able to put up with all his words. 11 For this is what Amos has said, ‘By the sword Jeroboam will die; and as regards Israel, it will without fail go into exile from its own ground.’”

12 And Amaziah proceeded to say to Amos: “O visionary, go, run your way off to the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and there you may prophesy. 13 But at Bethel you must no longer do any further prophesying, for it is the sanctuary of a king and it is the house of a kingdom.”

14 Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah: “I was not a prophet, neither was I the son of a prophet; but I was a herdsman and a nipper of figs of sycamore trees. 15 And Jehovah proceeded to take me from following the flock, and Jehovah went on to say to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ 16 And now hear the word of Jehovah, ‘Are you saying: “You must not prophesy against Israel, and you must let no [word] drop against the house of Isaac”? 17 Therefore this is what Jehovah has said: “As regards your wife, in the city she will become a prostitute. And as regards your sons and your daughters, by the sword they will fall. And as regards your ground, by the measuring rope it will be apportioned out. And as regards you yourself, on unclean ground you will die; and as regards Israel, it will without fail go into exile from its own ground.”’”

8 This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah caused me to see, and, look! there was a basket of summer fruit. 2 Then he said: “What are you seeing, Amos?” So I said: “A basket of summer fruit.” And Jehovah went on to say to me: “The end has come to my people Israel. I shall no more do any further excusing of them. 3 ‘And the songs of [the] temple will actually be a howling in that day,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah. ‘There will be many a carcass. In every place one will certainly throw [them] out—hush!’

4 “Hear this, YOU men snapping at someone poor, even in order to cause the meek ones of the earth to cease, 5 saying, ‘How long will it be before the new moon passes and we may sell cereals? Also, the sabbath, and we may offer grain for sale; in order to make the ephah small and to make the shekel great and to falsify the scales of deception; 6 in order to buy lowly people for mere silver and someone poor for [the price of] a pair of sandals, and that we may sell mere refuse of grain?’

7 “Jehovah has sworn by the Superiority of Jacob, ‘Never will I forget all their works. 8 Will it not be on this account that the land will be agitated, and every inhabitant in it will have to mourn; and it will, all of it, certainly come up just like the Nile and be tossed and sink down like the Nile of Egypt?’

9 “‘And it must occur in that day,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, ‘that I will make the sun go down at high noon, and I will cause darkness for the land on a bright day. 10 And I will turn YOUR festivals into mourning and all YOUR songs into a dirge, and I will bring up upon all hips sackcloth and upon every head baldness; and I will make the situation like the mourning for an only [son], and the end result of it as a bitter day.’

11 “‘Look! There are days coming,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, ‘and I will send a famine into the land, a famine, not for bread, and a thirst, not for water, but for hearing the words of Jehovah. 12 And they will certainly stagger from sea all the way to sea, and from north even to the sunrise. They will keep roving about while searching for the word of Jehovah, but they will not find [it]. 13 In that day the pretty virgins will swoon away, also the young men, because of the thirst; 14 those who are swearing by the guiltiness of Samaria, and who actually say: “As your god is alive, O Dan!” and, “As the way of Beer-sheba is alive!” And they will certainly fall, and they will rise up no more.’”

9 I saw Jehovah stationed above the altar, and he proceeded to say: “Strike the pillar head, so that the thresholds will rock. And cut them off at the head, all of them. And the last part of them I shall kill with the sword itself. No one fleeing of them will make good his flight, and no one escaping of them will make his getaway. 2 If they dig down into Sheol, from there my own hand will take them; and if they go up to the heavens, from there I shall bring them down. 3 And if they hide themselves on the top of Carmel, from there I shall carefully search and be certain to take them. And if they conceal themselves from in front of my eyes on the floor of the sea, down there I shall command the serpent, and it must bite them. 4 And if they go into captivity before their enemies, from there I shall command the sword, and it must kill them; and I will set my eyes upon them for bad, and not for good. 5 And the Sovereign Lord, Jehovah of the armies, is the One touching the land, so that it melts; and all the inhabitants in it will have to mourn; and it will certainly come up like the Nile, all of it, and sink down like the Nile of Egypt.

6 “‘He who is building in the heavens his stairs, and his structure over the earth that he founded; he who is calling for the waters of the sea, that he may pour them out upon the surface of the earth—Jehovah is his name.’

7 “‘Are YOU not like the sons of the Cushites to me, O sons of Israel?’ is the utterance of Jehovah. ‘Did I not bring Israel itself up out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines out of Crete, and Syria out of Kir?’

8 “‘Look! The eyes of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah are upon the sinful kingdom, and he will certainly annihilate it from upon the surface of the ground. Nevertheless, I shall not completely annihilate the house of Jacob,’ is the utterance of Jehovah. 9 ‘For, look! I am commanding, and I will jiggle the house of Israel among all the nations, just as one jiggles the sieve, so that not a pebble falls to the earth. 10 By the sword they will die—all the sinners of my people, those who are saying: “The calamity will not come near or reach as far as us.”’

11 “‘In that day I shall raise up the booth of David that is fallen, and I shall certainly repair their breaches. And its ruins I shall raise up, and I shall certainly build it up as in the days of long ago, 12 to the end that they may take possession of what is left remaining of Edom, and all the nations upon whom my name has been called,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, who is doing this.

13 “‘Look! There are days coming,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘and the plowman will actually overtake the harvester, and the treader of grapes, the carrier of the seed; and the mountains must drip with sweet wine, and the very hills will all find themselves melting. 14 And I will gather back the captive ones of my people Israel, and they will actually build [the] desolated cities and inhabit [them], and plant vineyards and drink the wine of them, and make gardens and eat the fruit of them.’

15 “‘And I shall certainly plant them upon their ground, and they will no more be uprooted from their ground that I have given them,’ Jehovah your God has said.”