Amos 4; Amos 5; Amos 6; Revelation 7

1 Listen to this message, you cows of Bashann on the Mountain of Samaria. You take things from the poor and crush people who are in need. Then you command your husbands, "Bring us something to drink!"

2 The Lord God has promised this: "Just as surely as I am a holy God, the time will come when you will be taken away by hooks, and what is left of you with fishhooks.

3 You will go straight out of the city through holes in the walls, and you will be thrown on the garbage dump," says the Lord.

4 "Come to the city of Bethel and sin; come to Gilgal and sin even more. Offer your sacrifices every morning, and bring one-tenth of your crops every three days.

5 Offer bread made with yeast as a sacrifice to show your thanks, and brag about the special offerings you bring, because this is what you love to do, Israelites," says the Lord God.

6 "I did not give you any food in your cities, and there was not enough to eat in any of your towns, but you did not come back to me," says the Lord.

7 "I held back the rain from you three months before harvest time. Then I let it rain on one city but not on another. Rain fell on one field, but another field got none and dried up.

8 People weak from thirst went from town to town for water, but they could not get enough to drink. Still you did not come back to me," says the Lord.

9 "I made your crops die from disease and mildew. When your gardens and your vineyards got larger, locusts ate your fig and olive trees. But still you did not come back to me," says the Lord.

10 "I sent disasters against you, as I did to Egypt. I killed your young men with swords, and your horses were taken from you. I made you smell the stink from all the dead bodies, but still you did not come back to me," says the Lord.

11 "I destroyed some of you as I destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. You were like a burning stick pulled from a fire, but still you did not come back to me," says the Lord.

12 "So this is what I will do to you, Israel; because I will do this to you, get ready to meet your God, Israel."

13 He is the one who makes the mountains and creates the wind and makes his thoughts known to people. He changes the dawn into darkness and walks over the mountains of the earth. His name is the Lord God All-Powerful.

1 Listen to this funeral song that I sing about you, people of Israel.

2 "The young girl Israel has fallen, and she will not rise up again. She was left alone in her own land, and there is no one to help her up."

3 This is what the Lord God says: "If a thousand soldiers leave a city, only a hundred will return; if a hundred soldiers leave a city, only ten will return."

4 This is what the Lord says to the nation of Israel: "Come to me and live.

5 But do not look in Bethel or go to Gilgal, and do not go down to Beersheba. The people of Gilgal will be taken away as captives, and Bethel will become nothing."

6 Come to the Lord and live, or he will move like fire against the descendants of Joseph. The fire will burn Bethel, and there will be no one to put it out.

7 You turn justice upside down, and you throw on the ground what is right.

8 God is the one who made the star groups Pleiades and Orion; he changes darkness into the morning light, and the day into dark night. He calls for the waters of the sea to pour out on the earth. The Lord is his name.

9 He destroys the protected city; he ruins the strong, walled city.

10 You hate those who speak in court against evil, and you can't stand those who tell the truth.

11 You walk on poor people, forcing them to give you grain. You have built fancy houses of cut stone, but you will not live in them. You have planted beautiful vineyards, but you will not drink the wine from them.

12 I know your many crimes, your terrible sins. You hurt people who do right, you take money to do wrong, and you keep the poor from getting justice in court.

13 In such times the wise person will keep quiet, because it is a bad time.

14 Try to do good, not evil, so that you will live, and the Lord God All-Powerful will be with you just as you say he is.

15 Hate evil and love good; be fair in the courts. to the people of Joseph who are left alive.

16 This is what the Lord, the Lord God All-Powerful, says: "People will be crying in all the streets; they will be saying, 'Oh, no!' in the public places. They will call the farmers to come and weep and will pay people to cry out loud for them.

17 People will be crying in all the vineyards, because I will pass among you to punish you," says the Lord.

18 How terrible it will be for you who want the Lord's day of judging to come. Why do you want that day to come? It will bring darkness for you, not light.

19 It will be like someone who runs from a lion and meets a bear, or like someone who goes into his house and puts his hand on the wall, and then is bitten by a snake.

20 So the Lord's day of judging will bring darkness, not light; it will be very dark, not light at all.

21 The Lord says, "I completely hate your feasts; I cannot stand your religious meetings.

22 If you offer me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I won't accept them. You bring your best fellowship offerings of fattened cattle, but I will ignore them.

23 Take the noise of your songs away from me! I won't listen to the music of your harps.

24 But let justice flow like a river, and let goodness flow like a stream that never stops.

25 "People of Israel, you did not bring me sacrifices and offerings while you traveled in the desert for forty years.

26 You have carried with you your king, the god Sakkuth, and Kaiwan your idol, and the star gods you have made.

27 So I will send you away as captives beyond Damascus," says the Lord, whose name is the God All-Powerful.

1 How terrible it will be for those who have an easy life in Jerusalem, for those who feel safe living on Mount Samaria. You think you are the important people of the best nation in the world; the Israelites come to you for help.

2 Go look at the city of Calneh, and from there go to the great city Hamath; then go down to Gath of the Philistines. You are no better than these kingdoms. Your land is no larger than theirs.

3 You put off the day of punishment, but you bring near the day when you can do evil to others.

4 You lie on beds decorated with ivory and stretch out on your couches. You eat tender lambs and fattened calves.

5 You make up songs on your harps, and, like David, you compose songs on musical instruments.

6 You drink wine by the bowlful and use the best perfumed lotions. But you are not sad over the ruin of Israel,

7 so you will be some of the first ones taken as slaves. Your feasting and lying around will come to an end.

8 The Lord God made this promise; the Lord God All-Powerful says: "I hate the pride of the Israelites, and I hate their strong buildings, so I will let the enemy take the city and everything in it."

9 At that time there might be only ten people left alive in just one house, but they will also die.

10 When the relatives come to get the bodies to take them outside, one of them will call to the other and ask, "Are there any other dead bodies with you?" That person will answer, "No." Then the one who asked will say, "Hush! We must not say the name of the Lord."

11 The Lord has given the command; the large house will be broken into pieces, and the small house into bits.

12 Horses do not run on rocks, and people do not plow rocks with oxen. But you have changed fairness into poison; you have changed what is right into a bitter taste.

13 You are happy that the town of Lo Debar was captured, and you say, "We have taken Karnaimn by our own strength."

14 The Lord God All-Powerful says, "Israel, I will bring a nation against you that will make your people suffer from Lebo Hamath in the north to the valley south of the Dead Sea."

1 After the vision of these things I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth. The angels were holding the four winds of the earth to keep them from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree.

2 Then I saw another angel coming up from the east who had the seal of the living God. And he called out in a loud voice to the four angels to whom God had given power to harm the earth and the sea.

3 He said to them, "Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we mark with a sign the foreheads of the people who serve our God."

4 Then I heard how many people were marked with the sign. There were one hundred forty-four thousand from every tribe of the people of Israel.

5 From the tribe of Judah twelve thousand were marked with the sign, from the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand, from the tribe of Gad twelve thousand,

6 from the tribe of Asher twelve thousand, from the tribe of Naphtali twelve thousand, from the tribe of Manasseh twelve thousand,

7 from the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand, from the tribe of Levi twelve thousand, from the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand,

8 from the tribe of Zebulun twelve thousand, from the tribe of Joseph twelve thousand, and from the tribe of Benjamin twelve thousand were marked with the sign.

9 After the vision of these things I looked, and there was a great number of people, so many that no one could count them. They were from every nation, tribe, people, and language of the earth. They were all standing before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.

10 They were shouting in a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."

11 All the angels were standing around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures. They all bowed down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God,

12 saying, "Amen! Praise, glory, wisdom, thanks, honor, power, and strength belong to our God forever and ever. Amen!"

13 Then one of the elders asked me, "Who are these people dressed in white robes? Where did they come from?"

14 I answered, "You know, sir." And the elder said to me, "These are the people who have come out of the great distress. They have washed their robesn and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

15 Because of this, they are before the throne of God. They worship him day and night in his temple. And the One who sits on the throne will be present with them.

16 Those people will never be hungry again, and they will never be thirsty again. The sun will not hurt them, and no heat will burn them,

17 because the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd. He will lead them to springs of water that give life. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."