Amos 5:1-17

A Lamentation against Israel

1 Hear this word, O house of Israel, this lamentation I take up against you:

2 “Fallen is Virgin Israel, never to rise again. She lies abandoned on her land, with no one to raise her up.”

3 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.”

A Call to Repentance

4 For this is what the LORD says to the house of Israel: ¹ “Seek Me and live!

5 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. ^[a]

6 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.

7 There are those who turn justice into wormwood and cast righteousness to the ground.

8 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—

9 He flashes destruction on the strong, so that fury comes upon the stronghold.

10 There are those who hate the one who reproves in the gate and despise him who speaks with integrity.

11 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.

12 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.

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

14 Seek good, not evil, so that you may live. And the LORD, the God of Hosts, will be with you, as you have claimed.

15 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.”

Woe to Rebellious Israel

16 Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Hosts, the Lord, says: ² “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.

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

Amos 5:1-17 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. (Joel 1:13–20; Zephaniah 2:1–3; Luke 13:1–5)
• 2. (Acts 7:39–43)

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew to Aven, a reference to Beth-aven, a derogatory term for Bethel; see Hosea 4:15.