Amos 5:12-22

12 For I know how many are your offenses and how great your sins. There are those who oppress the innocent and take bribes and deprive the poor of justice in the courts.

13 Therefore the prudent keep quiet in such times, for the times are evil.

14 Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the LORD God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is.

15 Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the LORD God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph.

16 Therefore this is what the Lord, the LORD God Almighty, says: “There will be wailing in all the streets and cries of anguish in every public square. The farmers will be summoned to weep and the mourners to wail.

17 There will be wailing in all the vineyards, for I will pass through your midst,” says the LORD.

The Day of the LORD

18 Woe to you who long for the day of the LORD! Why do you long for the day of the LORD? That day will be darkness, not light.

19 It will be as though a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear, as though he entered his house and rested his hand on the wall only to have a snake bite him.

20 Will not the day of the LORD be darkness, not light— pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness?

21 “I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me.

22 Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them.

Amos 5:12-22 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO AMOS 5

In this chapter the prophet exhorts Israel to hear his lamentation over them for their impending ruin, Am 5:1-3; nevertheless to seek the Lord, and all that is good; to forsake their idols, and repent of their sins, in hopes of finding mercy, and living comfortably; or otherwise they must expect the wrath of God for their iniquities, especially their oppression of the poor, Am 5:4-15; otherwise it would be a time of weeping and wailing, of darkness and distress, however they might harden or flatter themselves, or make a jest of it, Am 5:16-20; for all their sacrifices and ceremonial worship would signify nothing, so long as they continued their idolatry with them Am 5:21-26; and therefore should surely go into captivity, Am 5:27.

Cross References

• 1. Hosea 5:3
• 2. S Job 36:18; S Isaiah 1:23; S Ezekiel 22:12
• 3. S Jeremiah 5:28
• 4. S Job 5:4; S Isaiah 5:23; S Amos 2:6-7
• 5. S Esther 4:14
• 6. Micah 2:3
• 7. S ver 6
• 8. S Psalms 52:3; S Psalms 97:10; Romans 12:9
• 9. S Genesis 18:25
• 10. S Isaiah 1:17; S Isaiah 29:21; Zechariah 8:16
• 11. S Jeremiah 36:3
• 12. S Joel 2:14
• 13. Micah 5:7,8; Micah 7:18
• 14. Jeremiah 9:17; Amos 8:3; Zephaniah 1:10
• 15. Jeremiah 7:34
• 16. S Joel 1:11
• 17. S Exodus 11:6
• 18. Exodus 12:12
• 19. Isaiah 16:10; S Jeremiah 48:33
• 20. S Isaiah 2:12; S Joel 1:15
• 21. S Jeremiah 30:5
• 22. S 1 Samuel 2:9; S Joel 2:2
• 23. S Job 20:28; Isaiah 5:19,30; Jeremiah 30:7
• 24. S Lamentations 3:10
• 25. S Deuteronomy 32:24; Job 20:24; S Ecclesiastes 10:8; Isaiah 24:17-18; Jeremiah 15:2-3; Jeremiah 48:44
• 26. S 1 Samuel 2:9
• 27. S Isaiah 13:10; S Ezekiel 7:7; Obadiah 1:15; Zephaniah 1:15
• 28. Jeremiah 44:4
• 29. S Leviticus 26:31; S Hosea 2:11
• 30. S Ezekiel 23:18; Isaiah 1:11-16
• 31. Leviticus 26:31
• 32. S Jeremiah 7:21
• 33. S Psalms 40:6
• 34. Jeremiah 14:12; S Amos 4:4; Micah 6:6-7
• 35. Isaiah 1:11-16; S Isaiah 66:3