Amos 5:4-17 - Seek God And Live

⁴ For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel: "Seek me, and you will live; ⁵ but do not seek Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and do not pass to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nothing. ⁶ Seek the LORD, and you will live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, and there be no one to quench it in Bethel. ⁷ You who turn justice to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth:

⁸ seek him who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns the shadow of death into the morning, and makes the day dark with night; who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the surface of the earth, the LORD is his name, ⁹ who brings sudden destruction on the strong, so that destruction comes on the fortress.

¹⁰ They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks blamelessly. ¹¹ Forasmuch therefore as you trample on the poor, and take taxes from him of wheat: You have built houses of cut stone, but you will not dwell in them. You have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine. ¹² For I know how many your offenses, and how great are your sins?you who afflict the just, who take a bribe, and who turn aside the needy in the courts. ¹³ Therefore a prudent person keeps silent in such a time, for it is an evil time.

¹⁴ Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so the LORD, the God of Hosts, will be with you, as you say. ¹⁵ Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the courts. It may be that the LORD, the God of Hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph."

¹⁶ Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Hosts, the Lord: "Wailing will be in all the broad ways; and they will say in all the streets, 'Alas. Alas.' and they will call the farmer to mourning, and those who are skillful in lamentation to wailing. ¹⁷ In all vineyards there will be wailing; for I will pass through the midst of you," says the LORD.