Amos 5

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¹Listen to this word which I take up for a lamentation over you, O house of Israel. ✦ 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.” ✦ ³For thus says the Lord Yahweh: “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.” ✦ ⁴For Yahweh says to the house of Israel: “Seek me, and you will live; ✦ ⁵but 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. ✦ ⁶Seek Yahweh, 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. ✦ ⁷You who turn justice to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth: ✦ ⁸seek 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, Yahweh is his name, ✦ ⁹who brings sudden destruction on the strong, so that destruction comes on the fortress. ✦ ¹⁰They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks blamelessly. ✦ ¹¹Therefore, 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. ✦ ¹²For 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. ✦ ¹³Therefore a prudent person keeps silent in such a time, for it is an evil time. ✦ ¹⁴Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be with you, as you say. ✦ ¹⁵Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the courts. It may be that Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.” ✦ ¹⁶Therefore Yahweh, the God of Armies, the Lord, says: “Wailing will be in all the wide 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. ✦ ¹⁷In all vineyards there will be wailing; for I will pass through the middle of you,” says Yahweh. ✦ ¹⁸“Woe to you who desire the day of Yahweh! Why do you long for the day of Yahweh? It is darkness, and not light. ✦ ¹⁹As 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. ✦ ²⁰Won’t the day of Yahweh be darkness, and not light? Even very dark, and no brightness in it? ✦ ²¹I hate, I despise your feasts, and I can’t stand your solemn assemblies. ✦ ²²Yes, 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. ✦ ²³Take away from me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. ✦ ²⁴But 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? ✦ ²⁶You also carried the tent of your king and the shrine of your images, the star of your god, which you made for yourselves. ✦ ²⁷Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus,” says Yahweh, whose name is the God of Armies. ✦

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Where this chapter connects

Amos 5 ·12 Amos 6 ·6 Isa 1 ·6 Amos 8 ·6 Amos 4 ·5 Isa 5 ·5 Jer 9 ·5 Mic 2 ·5

Christ at the center

Amid judgment on injustice, Amos promises the raising up of David's fallen tent — read by James in Acts 15 as the ingathering of the nations into the kingdom of the risen Christ.

How Amos 5 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Resources, by level

Lay

★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical
A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.

Pastoral

SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical
Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.

Commentaries & study tools

VideoBibleProject — Amos videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
VideoWatch teaching on Amos 5YouTube · Lay · Free
Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.
CommentaryEnduring Word — Amos 5David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical
Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.
CommentaryMatthew Henry on AmosMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — Amos 5Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free
Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

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