Amos 5

Lamentation for Israel

1 Listen to this message that I am singing for you, a lament, house of Israel:

2 She has fallen; Virgin Israel will never rise again.^[a] She lies abandoned on her land, with no one to raise her up.

3 For the Lord God says: The city that marches out a thousand [strong] will have [only] a hundred left, and the one that marches out a hundred [strong] will have [only] ten left in the house of Israel.

Seek God and Live

4 For the Lord says to the house of Israel: Seek Me and live!

5 Do not seek Bethel or go to Gilgal or journey to Beer-sheba, for Gilgal will certainly go into exile, and Bethel will come to nothing.

6 Seek Yahweh and live, or He will spread like fire^[b] [throughout] the house of Joseph; it will consume [everything,] with no one at Bethel to extinguish it.^[c]

7 Those who turn justice into wormwood^[d] throw righteousness to the ground.

8 The One who made the Pleiades and Orion,^[e] who turns darkness^[f] into dawn^[g] and darkens day into night,^[h] who summons the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the earth^[i]- Yahweh is His name.

9 He brings destruction^[j] on the strong,^[k] and it falls on the stronghold.

10 They hate the one who convicts [the guilty] at the city gate and despise the one who speaks with integrity.

11 Therefore, because you trample on the poor and exact a grain tax from him, you will never live in the houses of cut stone you have built; you will never drink the wine from the lush vineyards you have planted.^[l]

12 For I know your crimes are many and your sins innumerable. They oppress the righteous, take a bribe, and deprive the poor of justice at the gates.

13 Therefore, the wise person will keep silent at such a time, for the days are evil.

14 Seek good and 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;^[m] establish justice in the gate.^[n] Perhaps the Lord, the God of Hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

16 Therefore Yahweh, the God of Hosts, the Lord, says: There will be wailing in all the public squares; they will cry out in anguish^[o] in all the streets. The farmer will be called on to mourn, and professional mourners^[p][q]to wail.

17 There will be wailing in all the vineyards, for I will pass among you.^[r] The Lord has spoken.

The Day of the Lord

18 Woe to you who long for the Day of the Lord! What will the Day of the Lord be for you? It will be darkness and not light.

19 It will be like a man who flees from a lion only to have a bear confront him. He goes home and rests his hand against the wall only to have a snake bite him.

20 Won't the Day of the Lord be darkness rather than light, even gloom without any brightness in it?^[s]

21 I hate, I despise your feasts! I can't stand the stench of your solemn assemblies.

22 Even if you offer Me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept [them];^[t] I will have no regard for your fellowship offerings of fattened cattle.

23 Take away from Me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.^[u]

24 But let justice flow like water, and righteousness, like an unfailing stream.^[v]

25 "House of Israel, was it sacrifices and grain offerings that you presented to Me during the 40 years in the wilderness?

26 But you have taken up^[w] Sakkuth^[x][y]your king^[z] and Kaiwan^[aa][ab]your star god, images you have made for yourselves.^[ac]

27 So I will send you into exile beyond Damascus."^[ad] Yahweh, the God of Hosts, is His name. He has spoken.

Amos 5 Commentary

Chapter 5

Israel is called to seek the Lord. (1-6) Earnest exhortations to repentance. (7-17) Threatenings respecting idolatries. (18-27)

Verses 1-6 The convincing, awakening word must be heard and heeded, as well as words of comfort and peace; for whether we hear or forbear, the word of God shall take effect. The Lord still proclaims mercy to men, but they often expect deliverance from such self-invented forms as make their condemnation sure. While they refuse to come to Christ and to seek mercy in and by him, that they may live, the fire of Divine wrath breaks forth upon them. Men may make an idol of the world, but will find it cannot protect.

Verses 7-17 The same almighty power can, for repenting sinners, easily turn affliction and sorrow into prosperity and joy, and as easily turn the prosperity of daring sinners into utter darkness. Evil times will not bear plain dealing; that is, evil men will not. And these men were evil men indeed, when wise and good men thought it in vain even to speak to them. Those who will seek and love that which is good, may help to save the land from ruin. It behoves us to plead God's spiritual promises, to beseech him to create in us a clean heart, and to renew a right spirit within us. The Lord is ever ready to be gracious to the souls that seek him; and then piety and every duty will be attended to. But as for sinful Israel, God's judgments had often passed by them, now they shall pass through them.

Verses 18-27 Woe unto those that desire the day of the Lord's judgments, that wish for times of war and confusion; as some who long for changes, hoping to rise upon the ruins of their country! but this should be so great a desolation, that nobody could gain by it. The day of the Lord will be a dark, dismal, gloomy day to all impenitent sinners. When God makes a day dark, all the world cannot make it light. Those who are not reformed by the judgments of God, will be pursued by them; if they escape one, another stands ready to seize them. A pretence of piety is double iniquity, and so it will be found. The people of Israel copied the crimes of their forefathers. The law of worshipping the Lord our God, is, Him only we must serve. Professors thrive so little, because they have little or no communion with God in their duties. They were led captive by Satan into idolatry, therefore God caused them to go into captivity among idolaters.

Footnotes

• [a]. Am 8:14
• [b]. Dt 4:24; 32:22; Heb 12:29
• [c]. Isa 33:14; 66:24; Jr 4:4
• [d]. Am 6:12
• [e]. Jb 9:9; 38:31
• [f]. Or turns the shadow of death
• [g]. Am 4:13; Gn 1:2-3; Jb 38:12
• [h]. Am 8:9
• [i]. Jb 36:27-30
• [j]. Hb obscure
• [k]. Or stronghold
• [l]. Dt 28:30; Mc 6:15; Zph 1:13
• [m]. Rm 12:9
• [n]. Isa 1:17
• [o]. Lit will say, "Alas! Alas!"
• [p]. Lit and those skilled in lamentation
• [q]. Jr 9:17
• [r]. Ex 12:12
• [s]. Jl 2:2; Zph 1:15
• [t]. Jr 14:12
• [u]. Isa 5:12
• [v]. Mc 6:6-8
• [w]. Or you will lift up
• [x]. LXX, Sym, Syr, Vg read the tent; Ac 7:43
• [y]. Lit Sikkuth; probably a Mesopotamian war god also called Adar or Ninurta
• [z]. LXX, Vg read up the tent of Molech; Ac 7:43
• [aa]. LXX reads Rephan; Ac 7:43
• [ab]. Lit Kiyyun; probably a Mesopotamian god identified with Saturn
• [ac]. Isa 44:12-20
• [ad]. 2 Kg 17:5-6; Ac 7:42-43

Chapter Summary

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.