Amos 5:4-17 - Seek God And Live
4 The Lord says this to the family of Israel: "Seek me so you can live! 5 Do not seek Bethel! Do not visit Gilgal! Do not journey down to Beer Sheba! For the people of Gilgal will certainly be carried into exile; and Bethel will become a place where disaster abounds." 6 Seek the Lord so you can live! Otherwise he will break out like fire against Joseph's family; the fire will consume and no one will be able to quench it and save Bethel. 7 The Israelites turn justice into bitterness; they throw what is fair and right to the ground.
8 (But there is one who made the constellations Pleiades and Orion; he can turn the darkness into morning and daylight into night. He summons the water of the seas and pours it out on the earth's surface. The Lord is his name! 9 He flashes destruction down upon the strong so that destruction overwhelms the fortified places.)
10 The Israelites hate anyone who arbitrates at the city gate; they despise anyone who speaks honestly. 11 Therefore, because you make the poor pay taxes on their crops and exact a grain tax from them, you will not live in the houses you built with chiseled stone, nor will you drink the wine from the fine vineyards you planted. 12 Certainly I am aware of your many rebellious acts and your numerous sins. You torment the innocent, you take bribes, and you deny justice to the needy at the city gate. 13 For this reason whoever is smart keeps quiet in such a time, for it is an evil time.
14 Seek good and not evil so you can live! Then the Lord, the God who commands armies, just might be with you, as you claim he is. 15 Hate what is wrong, love what is right! Promote justice at the city gate! Maybe the Lord, the God who commands armies, will have mercy on those who are left from Joseph.
16 Because of Israel's sins this is what the Lord, the God who commands armies, the sovereign One, says: "In all the squares there will be wailing, in all the streets they will mourn the dead. They will tell the field workers to lament and the professional mourners to wail. 17 In all the vineyards there will be wailing, for I will pass through your midst," says the Lord.