AM-5:1  Hear ye this word which I take up against you, [even] a

lamentation, O

house of Israel.

AM-5:2  The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise:

she is

forsaken upon her land; [there is] none to raise her up.

AM-5:3  For thus saith the Lord GOD; The city that went out [by]

a thousand

shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth [by] an

hundred shall leave

ten, to the house of Israel.

AM-5:4  For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek

ye me, and ye

shall live:

AM-5:5  But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not

to Beersheba:

for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come

to nought.

AM-5:6  Seek the LORD, and ye shall live; lest he break out like

fire in the

house of Joseph, and devour [it], and [there be] none to quench

[it] in

Bethel.

AM-5:7  Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off

righteousness in the

earth,

AM-5:8  [Seek him] that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and

turneth the

shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with

night: that

calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the

face of the

earth: The LORD [is] his name:

AM-5:9  That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so

that the spoiled

shall come against the fortress.

AM-5:10  They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor

him that

speaketh uprightly.

AM-5:11  Forasmuch therefore as your treading [is] upon the poor,

 and ye take

from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone,

but ye shall

not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye

shall not drink

wine of them.

AM-5:12  For I know your manifold transgressions, and your

mighty sins: they

afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the

poor in the gate

[from their right].

AM-5:13  Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time;

for it [is] an

evil time.

AM-5:14  Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the

LORD, the God

of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.

AM-5:15  Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish

judgment in the gate:

it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the

remnant of

Joseph.

AM-5:16  Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith

thus; Wailing

[shall be] in all streets; and they shall say in all the

highways, Alas! alas!

and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are

skilful of

lamentation to wailing.

AM-5:17  And in all vineyards [shall be] wailing: for I will

pass through

thee, saith the LORD.

AM-5:18  Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what

end [is] it for

you? the day of the LORD [is] darkness, and not light.

AM-5:19  As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him;

or went into

the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit

him.

AM-5:20  [Shall] not the day of the LORD [be] darkness, and not

light? even

very dark, and no brightness in it?

AM-5:21  I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell

in your

solemn assemblies.

AM-5:22  Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat

offerings, I will

not accept [them]: neither will I regard the peace offerings of

your fat

beasts.

AM-5:23  Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I

will not hear

the melody of thy viols.

AM-5:24  But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness

as a mighty

stream.

AM-5:25  Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the

wilderness

forty years, O house of Israel?

AM-5:26  But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and

Chiun your

images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.

AM-5:27  Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond

Damascus,

saith the LORD, whose name [is] The God of hosts.

~~~~~~