5:14. Seek ye good, and not evil, that you may live: and the Lord the G.o.d of hosts will be with you, as you have said.
5:15. Hate evil, and love good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be the Lord the G.o.d of hosts may have mercy on the remnant of Joseph.
5:16. Therefore thus saith the Lord the G.o.d of hosts the sovereign Lord: In every street there shall be wailing: and in all places that are without, they shall say: Alas, alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful in lamentation to lament.
5:17. And in all vineyards there shall be wailing: because I will pa.s.s through in the midst of thee, saith the Lord.
5:18. Woe to them that desire the day of the Lord: to what end is it for you? the day of the Lord is darkness, and not light.
5:19. As if a man should flee from the face of a lion, and a bear should meet him: or enter into the house, and lean with his hand upon the wall, and a serpent should bite him.
5:20. Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light: and obscurity, and no brightness in it?
5:21. I hate, and have rejected your festivities: and I will not receive the odour of your a.s.semblies.
5:22. And if you offer me holocausts, and your gifts, I will not receive them: neither will I regard the vows of your fat beasts.
5:23. Take away from me the tumult of thy songs: and I will not hear the canticles of thy harp.
5:24. But judgment shall be revealed as water, and justice as a mighty torrent.
5:25. Did you offer victims and sacrifices to me in the desert for forty years, O house of Israel?
Did you offer, etc... Except the sacrifices that were offered at the first, in the dedication of the tabernacle, the Israelites offered no sacrifices in the desert.
5:26. But you carried a tabernacle for your Moloch, and the image of your idols, the star of your G.o.d, which you made to yourselves.
A tabernacle, etc... All this alludes to the idolatry which they committed, when they were drawn away by the daughters of Moab to the worship of their G.o.ds. Num. 25.
5:27. And I will cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the Lord, the G.o.d of hosts is his name.
Amos Chapter 6
The desolation of Israel for their pride and luxury.
6:1. Woe to you that are wealthy in Sion, and to you that have confidence in the mountain of Samaria: ye great men, heads of the people, that go in with state into the house of Israel.
6:2. Pa.s.s ye over to Chalane, and see, and go from thence into Emath the great: and go down into Geth of the Philistines, and to all the best kingdoms of these: if their border be larger than your border.
6:3. You that are separated unto the evil day: and that approach to the throne of iniquity;
6:4. You that sleep upon beds of ivory, and are wanton on your couches: that eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the herd;
6:5. You that sing to the sound of the psaltery: they have thought themselves to have instruments of music like David;
6:6. That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the best ointments: and they are not concerned for the affliction of Joseph.
6:7. Wherefore now they shall go captive at the head of them that go into captivity: and the faction of the luxurious ones shall be taken away.
6:8. The Lord G.o.d hath sworn by his own soul, saith the Lord the G.o.d of hosts: I detest the pride of Jacob, and I hate his houses, and I will deliver up the city with the inhabitants thereof.
6:9. And if there remain ten men in one house, they also shall die.
6:10. And a man"s kinsman shall take him up, and shall burn him, that he may carry the bones out of the house; and he shall say to him that is in the inner rooms of the house: Is there yet any with thee?
6:11. And he shall answer: There is an end. And he shall say to him: Hold thy peace, and mention not the name of the Lord.
6:12. For behold the Lord hath commanded, and he will strike the greater house with breaches, and the lesser house with clefts.
6:13. Can horses run upon the rocks, or can any one plough with buffles?
for you have turned judgment into bitterness, and the fruit of justice into wormwood.
6:14. You that rejoice in a thing of nought: you that say: Have we not taken unto us horns by our own strength?
6:15. But behold, I will raise up a nation against you, O house of Israel, saith the Lord the G.o.d of hosts; and they shall destroy you from the entrance of Emath, even to the torrent of the desert.
Amos Chapter 7
The prophet sees, in three visions, evils coming upon Israel: he is accused of treason by the false priest of Bethel.
7:1. These things the Lord G.o.d shewed to me: and behold the locust was formed in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter rain, and lo, it was the latter rain after the king"s mowing.
The locust, etc... These judgments by locusts and fire, which, by the prophet"s intercession, were moderated, signify the former invasions of the a.s.syrians under Phul and Theglathphalasar, before the utter desolation of Israel by Salmanasar.
7:2. And it came to pa.s.s, that when they had made an end of eating the gra.s.s of the land, I said: O Lord G.o.d, be merciful, I beseech thee: who shall raise up Jacob, for he is very little?
7:3. The Lord had pity upon this: It shall not be, said the Lord.
7:4. These things the Lord G.o.d shewed to me: and behold the Lord called for judgment unto fire, and it devoured the great deep, and ate up a part at the same time.
7:5. And I said: O Lord G.o.d, cease, I beseech thee, who shall raise up Jacob, for he is a little one?
7:6. The Lord had pity upon this. Yea this also shall not be, said the Lord G.o.d.
7:7. These things the Lord shewed to me: and behold the Lord was standing upon a plastered wall, and in his hand a mason"s trowel.
7:8. And the Lord said to me: What seest thou, Amos? And I said: A mason"s trowel. And the Lord said: Behold, I will lay down the trowel in the midst of my people Israel. I will plaster them over no more.
7:9. And the high places of the idol shall be thrown down, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste: and I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.
7:10. And Amasias the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying: Amos hath rebelled against thee in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words.
7:11. For thus saith Amos: Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall be carried away captive out of their own land.
Jeroboam shall die by the sword... The prophet did not say this; but that the Lord would rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword: which was verified, when Zacharias, the son and successor of Jeroboam, was slain by the sword. 4 Kings 15.10.
7:12. And Amasias said to Amos: Thou seer, go, flee away into the land of Juda: and eat bread there, and prophesy there.
7:13. But prophesy not again any more in Bethel: because it is the king"s sanctuary, and it is the house of the kingdom.