God's New Revelations

The Prophet Amos

Unlocked Dynamic Bible :: World English Bible Catholic

- Chapter 5 -

1
You people of Israel, listen to this funeral song that I will sing about you:
2
“You are like a young woman, but in spite of that, you will certainly be struck down and you will never get up again! You will lie on the ground, abandoned, and there will be no one to help you stand up.”
3
This is what Yahweh the Lord says to the people of Israel: “When your enemies attack you, and when a thousand of your soldiers go into battle, only a hundred will survive. When a hundred soldiers march out from a city to fight, only ten will remain alive.”

A Call to Repentance

(Joel 1:13–20; Zephaniah 2:1–3; Luke 13:1–5)
4
Yahweh continues to say to the people of Israel: “You Israelite people, return to me! If you do that, you will continue to remain alive.
5
Do not go to Bethel to seek my help; do not go to Gilgal to worship; do not go to Beersheba, because your enemies will drag away the people of Gilgal to other countries, and they will completely destroy Bethel.”
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So come to Yahweh; if you do that, you will remain alive. If you do not do that, Yahweh will come down on you descendants of Joseph like a fire; that fire will burn everything in Bethel and nothing will be able to save that town.
7
You people distort what is right; you make others think that it is something very bitter; you treat good things as though they were evil.
8
God created all the groups of stars and he put them in their places. Each morning he causes the darkness to become the dawn, and each evening he causes the daylight to become darkness. He scoops up water from the oceans to become clouds, and then he dumps the water from the clouds onto the earth. The one who does those things is Yahweh.
9
He causes strong soldiers to be killed, and he causes the high walls around cities to fall down.
10
He is the one who will punish you because you hate those who challenge anyone who tries to make unjust decisions; you hate those who tell the truth in your courts.
11
You oppress poor people and force them to pay big taxes. So you have built big stone mansions for yourselves, but you will not be able to live in them. You have planted vineyards, but there will not be any grapes for you to harvest to make wine.
12
I know all of your sins and the terrible crimes that you have committed. You oppress righteous people, and you accept bribes. You do not allow judges to treat poor people justly.
13
This is a time when many people do evil things, so people who have good sense say nothing at all.
14
In order to remain alive, you must stop doing what is wrong, and start doing what is right. If you do that, Yahweh, Commander of the angel armies, will be with you as you claim that he always is.
15
Love what is good, and hate what is evil! Try to cause judges in your courts to make decisions that are right! If you do those things, perhaps Yahweh, Commander of the angel armies, will act mercifully toward you descendants of Joseph who are still alive.

Woe to Rebellious Israel

(Acts 7:39–43)
16
“Because I, Yahweh, will punish you for your sins, this is what I have solemnly declared: People will be wailing loudly in every street, and people will be shocked in every plaza. Farmers will be called to come and weep, along with the other official mourners who will wail for those who have died.
17
People will be wailing in your vineyards, because I will punish you severely. That will surely happen because I, Yahweh, have said it!”
18
Terrible things will happen to you who want Yahweh to punish his enemies, because that will be a day of darkness, not of light.
19
At that time, when you try to run from a lion, you will face a bear. When you run into your house to be safe, and you put your hand on the wall, it will be bitten by a snake.
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That day, when he punishes people, will certainly be awful, like a dark night without even a little bit of light.
21
Yahweh says, “I hate your religious celebrations and the times when you gather to worship me; I detest them all.
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Even if you bring me offerings to burn on the altar and offerings of grain, I will no longer accept them. Even if you bring me offerings to restore fellowship with me, I will not pay any attention to them.
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So stop singing noisy songs! I will not listen when you play harps.
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Instead, act justly and righteously; you should do this and never stop; if you do, it will be like the water in a river that never stops flowing.
25
You Israelite people, your ancestors wandered through the wilderness for forty years; and during that time, they never brought any sacrifices and offerings to me!
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But you carried the two idols that you have made, Sikkuth, the god whom you call ‘king,’ and Kaiwan, the image of the star that you worship.
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For I will now force you to go to a country that is far beyond Damascus! That will surely happen because I, Yahweh, Commander of the angel armies, have said it!”
1
Listen to this word which I take up for a lamentation over you, O house of Israel:
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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.”
3
For the Lord GOD says:The city that went out a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went out one hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel.”

A Call to Repentance

(Joel 1:13–20; Zephaniah 2:1–3; Luke 13:1–5)
4
For the LORD says to the house of Israel:Seek me, and you will live;
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.
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.
7
You who turn justice to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth!
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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,
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who brings sudden destruction on the strong, so that destruction comes on the fortress.
10
They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks blamelessly.
11
Therefore, because 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.
12
For I know how many are your offenses, and how great are your sins you who afflict the just, who take a bribe, and who turn away the needy in the courts.
13
Therefore a prudent person keeps silent in such a time, for it is an evil time.
14
Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so the LORD, the God of Armies, will be with you, as you say.
15
Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the courts. It may be that the LORD, the God of Armies, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”

Woe to Rebellious Israel

(Acts 7:39–43)
16
Therefore the LORD, the God of Armies, the Lord, says:Wailing will be in all the wide ways. They will say in all the streets, ‘Alas! Alas!’ They will call the farmer to mourning, and those who are skillful in lamentation to wailing.
17
In all vineyards there will be wailing, for I will pass through the middle of you,” says the LORD.
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.
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.
20
Won’t the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? Even very dark, and no brightness in it?
21
I hate, I despise your feasts, and I can’t stand your solemn assemblies.
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.
23
Take away from me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.
24
But let justice roll on like rivers, and righteousness like a mighty stream.
25
Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, house of Israel?
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.
27
Therefore I will cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus,” says the LORD, whose name is the God of Armies.