Amos Chapter 5

From The Open Bible Project

5:1 Listen to this word which I take up for a lamentation over you, O house of Israel.

5:2 "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."

• (a) He so calls them, because they so boasted of themselves, or because they were given to lustfulness and daintiness.

5:3 For thus says the Lord Yahweh: "The city that went forth a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went forth one hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel."

• (b) Meaning, that the tenth part would hardly be saved.

5:4 For thus says Yahweh to the house of Israel: "Seek me, and you will live;

5:5 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.

• (c) In those places they worshipped new idols, which before served for the true honour of God: therefore he says that these will not save them.

5:6 Seek 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.

5:7 You who turn justice to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth:

• (d) Instead of judgment and fairness they execute cruelty and oppression.

5:8 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, Yahweh is his name,

• (e) He describes the power of God; (Job 9:9).

5:9 who brings sudden destruction on the strong, so that destruction comes on the fortress.

5:10 They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks blamelessly.

• (f) They hate the Prophets, who reprove them in the open assemblies.

5:11 Forasmuch therefore as 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.

• (g) You take both his money and also his food, with which he should live.

5:12 For 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.

5:13 Therefore a prudent person keeps silent in such a time, for it is an evil time.

• (h) God will so plague them that they will not allow the godly to open their mouths once to admonish them of their faults.

5:14 Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be with you, as you say.

5:15 Hate 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."

5:16 Therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of Armies, the Lord: "Wailing will be in all the broad 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.

• (i) So that people of all types will have reason to lament because of the great plagues.

5:17 In all vineyards there will be wailing; for I will pass through the midst of you," says Yahweh.

5:18 "Woe to you who desire the day of Yahweh! Why do you long for the day of Yahweh? It is darkness, and not light.

• (k) He speaks in this way because the wicked and hypocrites said they were content to endure God’s judgments, whereas the godly tremble and fear; (Jeremiah 30:7; Joel 2:2,11), (Zephaniah 1:15).

5:19 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.

5:20 Won't the day of Yahweh be darkness, and not light? Even very dark, and no brightness in it?

5:21 I hate, I despise your feasts, and I can't stand your solemn assemblies.

5:22 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.

• (l) Because you have corrupted my true service, and remain obstinate in your vices; (Isaiah 1:11; Jeremiah 6:10).

5:23 Take away from me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.

5:24 But let justice roll on like rivers, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

• (m) Do your duty to God, and to your neighbour, and so you will plentifully feel his grace, if you show your abundant affections according to God’s word.

5:25 "Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, house of Israel?

5:26 You also carried the tent of your king and the shrine of your images, the star of your god, which you made for yourselves.

• (n) That idol which you esteemed as your king, and carried about as you did Chiun, in which images you thought that there was a certain divinity.

5:27 Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus," says Yahweh, whose name is the God of Armies.