A Lament for Israel and a Call to Repentance

Amos 5

Y’all must listen to this word that I take up for a lament over y’all, O house of Israel:

“The virgin of Israel has fallen, She will rise no more. She is cast down on her land, there is no one to raise her up.”

For Lord YHWH says:

“The city that went out with a thousand will have only a hundred left, and the one that went out with one hundred will have only ten left to the house of Israel.”

For YHWH says to the house of Israel:

“Y’all must seek me, and y’all will live; but y’all must not seek Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and y’all must not cross over to Beersheba; for Gilgal will be taken captive-captive, and Bethel will come to nothing. Y’all must seek YHWH, so y’all will live, or ʜᴇ will spread out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, and there be no one to quench it in Bethel. You who turn justice to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth! 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, YHWH is his name, who brings sudden destruction on the strong, so that destruction comes on the fortress. They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks blamelessly. Therefore, because y’all trample on the poor and take a wheat tax, though y’all have built houses of cut stone, y’all will never dwell in them. Y’all have planted pleasant vineyards, but y’all will not drink their wine. For I know how many are y’all’s offenses, and how great are y’all’s sins— Oppressing the just, taking a bribe, turning away the needy in the courts. Therefore a prudent person keeps silent in such a time, for it is an evil time. Y’all must seek good and not evil, so that y’all may live, and so YHWH, the God of Armies, will be with y’all, as y’all claim. Y’all are to hate evil and love good, and y’all must establish justice in the courts. It may be that YHWH, the God of Armies, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”

Therefore YHWH, 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. In all vineyards there will be wailing, for I will pass through the middle of you,” says YHWH.

The Day of the Lord

“Woe to all who desire the day of YHWH! Why do y’all long for the day of YHWH? It is darkness, and not light. 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. Won’t the day of YHWH be darkness, and not light? Even very dark, and no brightness in it? I hate and despise y’all’s feasts, and I take no pleasure from smell of y’all’s solemn assemblies. Yes, though y’all offer me burnt offerings and meal offerings, I will not accept them; And I have no regard for the y’all’s peace offerings of fattened animals. Take away from me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like rivers, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

“Did y’all bring sacrifices and offerings to me in the wilderness for forty years, house of Israel? Y’all carried the tent of y’all’s king and the shrine of y’all’s images, the star of y’all’s god, which y’all made for yourselves*. Therefore I will drive y’all into exile beyond Damascus,” says YHWH, whose name is the God of Armies.