# Amos 5 (New King James Version)
A Lament for Israel

##### Chapter 5
###### 1 Hear this word which I take up against you, a lamentation, O house of Israel:

###### 2 The virgin of Israel has fallen;  
She will rise no more.  
She lies forsaken on her land;  
_There is_ no one to raise her up.

###### 3 For thus says the Lord God:
"The city that goes out by a thousand  
Shall have a hundred left,  
And that which goes out by a hundred  
Shall have ten left to the house of Israel."A Call to Repentance

###### 4 For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel:
"Seek Me and live;  

###### 5 But do not seek Bethel,  
Nor enter Gilgal,  
Nor pass over to Beersheba;  
For Gilgal shall surely go into captivity,  
And Bethel shall come to nothing.  

###### 6 Seek the Lord and live,  
Lest He break out like fire _in_ the house of Joseph,  
And devour _it,_  
With no one to quench _it_ in Bethel--  

###### 7 You who turn justice to wormwood,  
And lay righteousness to rest in the earth!"

###### 8 He made the Pleiades and Orion;  
He turns the shadow of death into morning  
And makes the day dark as night;  
He calls for the waters of the sea  
And pours them out on the face of the earth;  
The Lord _is_ His name.  

###### 9 He rains ruin upon the strong,  
So that fury comes upon the fortress.

###### 10 They hate the one who rebukes in the gate,  
And they abhor the one who speaks uprightly.  

###### 11 Therefore, because you tread down the poor  
And take grain taxes from him,  
Though you have built houses of hewn stone,  
Yet you shall not dwell in them;  
You have planted pleasant vineyards,  
But you shall not drink wine from them.  

###### 12 For I know your manifold transgressions  
And your mighty sins:  
Afflicting the just _and_ taking bribes;  
Diverting the poor _from justice_ at the gate.  

###### 13 Therefore the prudent keep silent at that time,  
For it _is_ an evil time.

###### 14 Seek good and not evil,  
That you may live;  
So the Lord God of hosts will be with you,  
As you have spoken.  

###### 15 Hate evil, love good;  
Establish justice in the gate.  
It may be that the Lord God of hosts  
Will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.The Day of the Lord

###### 16 Therefore the Lord God of hosts, the Lord, says this:
"_There shall be_ wailing in all streets,  
And they shall say in all the highways,  
'Alas! Alas!'  
They shall call the farmer to mourning,  
And skillful lamenters to wailing.  

###### 17 In all vineyards _there shall be_ wailing,  
For I will pass through you,"  
Says the Lord.

###### 18 Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord!  
For what good _is_ the day of the Lord to you?  
It _will be_ darkness, and not light.  

###### 19 It _will be_ as though a man fled from a lion,  
And a bear met him!  
Or _as though_ he went into the house,  
Leaned his hand on the wall,  
And a serpent bit him!  

###### 20 _Is_ not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light?  
_Is it not_ very dark, with no brightness in it?

###### 21 "I hate, I despise your feast days,  
And I do not savor your sacred assemblies.  

###### 22 Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings,  
I will not accept _them,_  
Nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings.  

###### 23 Take away from Me the noise of your songs,  
For I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments.  

###### 24 But let justice run down like water,  
And righteousness like a mighty stream.

###### 25 "Did you offer Me sacrifices and offerings  
In the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?  

###### 26 You also carried Sikkuth your king  
And Chiun, your idols,  
The star of your gods,  
Which you made for yourselves.  

###### 27 Therefore I will send you into captivity beyond Damascus,"  
Says the Lord, whose name _is_ the God of hosts.