Amos 5
A funeral dirge for living Israel: she has fallen, never to rise again. Seek me and live, not Bethel, Gilgal, or Beersheba. Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. God hates their religious festivals because they are divorced from justice.
AmosChapter 5 of 927 versesBerean Standard Bible
In this passage: IsraelBethelBeersheba
If God speaks to you through Amos 5, record what He said in Doxa and come back to it.
Hear this word, O house of Israel, this lamentation I take up against you:
“Fallen is Virgin Israel, never to rise again. She lies abandoned on her land, with no one to raise her up.”
This is what the Lord GOD says: “The city that marches out a thousand strong will have but a hundred left, and the one that marches out a hundred strong will have but ten left in the house of Israel.”
For this is what the LORD says to the house of Israel: “Seek Me and live!
Do not seek Bethel or go to Gilgal; do not journey to Beersheba, for Gilgal will surely go into exile, and Bethel will come to nothing.
Quoted in the Deeper Dive, day 39: How did Israel first hear Genesis 21:22–34?
Seek the LORD and live, or He will sweep like fire through the house of Joseph; it will devour everything, with no one at Bethel to extinguish it.
There are those who turn justice into wormwood and cast righteousness to the ground.
He who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns darkness into dawn and darkens day into night, who summons the waters of the sea and pours them over the face of the earth—the LORD is His name—
He flashes destruction on the strong, so that fury comes upon the stronghold.
There are those who hate the one who reproves in the gate and despise him who speaks with integrity.
Therefore, because you trample on the poor and exact from him a tax of grain, you will never live in the stone houses you have built; you will never drink the wine from the lush vineyards you have planted.
For I know that your transgressions are many and your sins are numerous. You oppress the righteous by taking bribes; you deprive the poor of justice in the gate.
Therefore, the prudent keep silent in such times, for the days are evil.
Seek good, not evil, so that you may live. And the LORD, the God of Hosts, will be with you, as you have claimed.
Hate evil and love good; establish justice in the gate. Perhaps the LORD, the God of Hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”
Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Hosts, the Lord, says: “There will be wailing in all the public squares and cries of ‘Alas! Alas!’ in all the streets. The farmer will be summoned to mourn, and the mourners to wail.
There will be wailing in all the vineyards, for I will pass through your midst,” says the LORD.
Woe to you who long for the Day of the LORD! What will the Day of the LORD be for you? It will be darkness and not light.
It will be like a man who flees from a lion, only to encounter a bear, or who enters his house and rests his hand against the wall, only to be bitten by a snake.
Will not the Day of the LORD be darkness and not light, even gloom with no brightness in it?
“I hate, I despise your feasts! I cannot stand the stench of your solemn assemblies.
Even though you offer Me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; for your peace offerings of fattened cattle I will have no regard.
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 a river, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
Did you bring Me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
Did you bring me sacrifices forty years in the wilderness? — Stephen's speech
“But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘Did you bring Me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?”
Read Acts 7:42›You have taken along Sakkuth your king and Kaiwan your star god, the idols you made for yourselves.
Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the LORD, whose name is the God of Hosts.
Read next
How to Hear God’s Voice: A Practical Guide for BelieversScripture is the record of a God who speaks. This guide covers how to hear Him today and keep what He says.Cross-references for Amos 5
“Seek the LORD, all you humble of the earth who carry out His justice. Seek righteousness; seek humility. Perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the LORD’s anger.”
“So he went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. The LORD is with you when you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.”
“Have I not commanded you to be strong and courageous? Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.””
“He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”
“This is what the LORD says: Administer justice and righteousness. Rescue the victim of robbery from the hand of his oppressor. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow. Do not shed innocent blood in this place.”
Cross-references from OpenBible.info, licensed CC BY.
Amos 5 on Doxa
- El Olam: Why God Was First Called Eternal at a Disputed Well (Genesis 21) · Quoted in the Deeper Dive, day 39
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If God speaks to you through Amos 5
Doxa is where you record what God has said to you, in the words it came in, weigh it against Scripture with people you trust, and come back to it in the years that follow.
