Amos 5–6: Let Justice Roll On Like a River": The Funeral Song
Scripture: Berean Standard Bible
Hear this word, O house of Israel, this lamentation I take up against you:
“Fallen is Virgin Israel,never to rise again.She lies abandoned on her land,with no one to raise her up.”
This is what the Lord GOD says:
“The city that marches out a thousand strongwill only see a hundred return,and the one that marches out a hundred strongwill have but ten left in the house of Israel.”
For this is what the LORD says to the house of Israel:
“Seek me and live!
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.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.
There are those who turn justice into wormwoodand cast righteousness to the ground.
He who made the Pleiades and Orion,who turns darkness into dawnand darkens day into night,who summons the waters of the seaand pours them over the face of the earth—the LORD is his name—he flashes destruction on the strong,so that fury comes upon the stronghold.
There are those who hate the one who reproves in the gateand despise him who speaks with integrity.Therefore, because you trample on the poorand exact from him a tax of grain,you will never livein the stone houses you have built;you will never drink the winefrom the lush vineyards you have planted.
For I know that your transgressions are manyand your sins are numerous.You oppress the righteous by taking bribes;you deprive the poor of justice in the gate.Therefore, the prudent keep silent in such times,for the days are evil.
Seek good, not evil,so that you may live.And the LORD, the God of Hosts,will be with you, as you have claimed.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.”
Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Hosts, the Lord, says:
“There will be wailing in all the public squaresand cries of ‘Alas! Alas!’ in all the streets.The farmer will be summoned to mourn,and the mourners to wail.There will be wailing in all the vineyards,for I will pass through your midst,”says the LORD.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.It will be like a man who flees from a lion,only to encounter a bear,or who enters his house and rests his hand against the wall,only to be bitten by a snake.Will not the Day of the LORDbe darkness and not light,even gloom with no brightness in it?
“I hate, I despise your feasts!I cannot stand the stench of your solemn assemblies.Even though you offer me burnt offerings and grain offerings,I will not accept them;for your peace offerings of fattened cattleI will have no regard.Take away from me the noise of your songs!I will not listen to the music of your harps.But let justice roll on like a river,and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
Did you bring me sacrifices and offeringsforty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?You have taken along Sakkuth your kingand Kaiwan your star god,the idols you made for yourselves.Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,”says the LORD, whose name is the God of Hosts.Woe to those at ease in Zionand those secure on Mount Samaria,the distinguished ones of the foremost nation,to whom the house of Israel comes.Cross over to Calneh and see;go from there to the great Hamath;then go down to Gath of the Philistines.Are you better than these kingdoms?Is their territory larger than yours?
You dismiss the day of calamityand bring near a reign of violence.You lie on beds inlaid with ivory,and lounge upon your couches.You dine on lambs from the flockand calves from the stall.You improvise songs on the harp like Davidand invent your own musical instruments.You drink wine by the bowlfuland anoint yourselves with the finest oils,but you fail to grieveover the ruin of Joseph.
Therefore, you will now go into exileas the first of the captives,and your feasting and loungingwill come to an end.
The Lord GOD has sworn by himself—the LORD, the God of Hosts, has declared:
“I abhor Jacob’s prideand detest his citadels,so I will deliver up the cityand everything in it.”
And if there are ten men left in one house, they too will die. And when the relative who is to burn the bodies picks them up to remove them from the house, he will call to one inside, “Is anyone else with you?”
“None,” that person will answer.
“Silence,” the relative will retort, “for the name of the LORD must not be invoked.”
For the LORD gives a command:
“The great house will be smashed to pieces,and the small house to rubble.”
“Do horses gallop on the cliffs?Does one plow the sea with oxen?But you have turned justice into poisonand the fruit of righteousness into wormwood—you who rejoice in Lo-debar and say,‘Did we not take Karnaim by our own strength?’For behold, I will raise up a nationagainst you, O house of Israel,”declares the LORD, the God of Hosts,“and they will oppress youfrom Lebo-hamath to the Brook of the Arabah.”