Amos 5
What Happens in This Chapter
Amos sings a funeral song over Israel, saying the nation has fallen and its army will be cut down. He calls the people to seek the LORD and live instead of going to the worship places at Bethel, Gilgal, and Beersheba, and he names how they crush the poor and twist the courts. He tells them the day of the LORD will be darkness for them, says God rejects their feasts and offerings while justice is missing, and ends with God sending them into exile beyond Damascus.
Plain reading written for kids. Short sentences, everyday words, one idea at a time.
Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel.
1Listen to this message, people of Israel. It is a sad song I sing about you.
2The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up.
2Israel has fallen like a young girl who cannot stand again. She lies alone on her own land. No one comes to lift her up.
3For 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.
3The Lord GOD says this: A town will send out a thousand soldiers. Only a hundred will come home. A town will send out a hundred. Only ten will be left in Israel.
4For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live:
4This is what the LORD says to the people of Israel: Look for me, and you will live.
5But 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.
5Do not look for help at Bethel, Gilgal, or Beersheba. People went to those towns to worship. Gilgal's people will be marched away. Bethel will come to nothing.
6Seek 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.
6Look for the LORD, and you will live. If you do not, he will sweep through Joseph's family like fire. It will burn everything up. No one at Bethel can put it out.
7Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,
7You take what is fair and make it bitter. You throw what is right down on the ground.
"Wormwood" is a plant with a very bitter taste. Turning fairness into wormwood means making the courts bitter and useless to people.
8Seek 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:
8Look for the God who made the star groups, the Pleiades and Orion. He turns deep darkness into morning. He turns bright day into night. He calls up the water of the sea and pours it on the land. His name is the LORD.
9That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.
9He brings sudden ruin on strong people. Even their safe, walled forts fall down.
10They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.
10In the town gate, leaders decided what was fair. You hate the man who speaks up there. You cannot stand the man who tells the truth.
11Forasmuch 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.
11You step on poor people. You make them hand over their wheat. So you will not live in the fine stone houses you built. You will not drink wine from the good vineyards you planted.
12For 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.
12I know you do wrong again and again. Your sins are many. You hurt good people and take money to help liars. You keep the poor from getting fair treatment at the gate.
13Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.
13So wise people stay quiet at a time like this. It is a bad time.
14Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.
14Look for good, not evil, so that you may live. Then the LORD, the God of armies, will be with you. That is what you keep saying about him.
"The LORD, the God of hosts" means the God who commands armies. It is a title for God's power.
15Hate 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.
15Hate what is evil. Love what is good. Make things fair at the town gate. Maybe the LORD, the God of armies, will be kind to the few people of Joseph who are left.
16Therefore 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.
16So the Lord, the LORD, the God of armies, says this: People will cry loudly in every open square. In every street they will say, "Oh no! Oh no!" Farmers will be called to weep. People who sing sad songs will be called to wail.
17And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the LORD.
17There will be crying in every vineyard. For I will walk right through your land, says the LORD.
18Woe 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.
18It will be sad for you who wish for the day of the LORD, the day when he comes. What good will that day be for you? It will be dark, not light.
19As 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.
19It will be like a man running away from a lion, and a bear meets him. Or he goes into his house and rests his hand on the wall, and a snake bites him.
20Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?
20Will not the day of the LORD be dark and not light? It will be very dark, with no brightness at all.
21I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.
21I hate your feast days. I cannot stand them. I take no pleasure in your big worship meetings.
22Though 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.
22Even if you bring me burnt animals and gifts of grain, I will not take them. I will not even look at the fat animals you bring to show friendship.
In the King James Bible, "meat offering" does not mean meat. It means a gift of grain or flour.
23Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.
23Take the noise of your songs away from me. I will not listen to the music of your harps.
24But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.
24Instead, let fairness flow down like a river. Let right living flow like a stream that never dries up.
25Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?
25People of Israel, did you bring me sacrifices and gifts for forty years in the desert?
26But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.
26You have carried the tent of your god Moloch, and Chiun, your star god. You made those statues for yourselves.
Moloch and Chiun are names of gods that people made statues of. Other Bibles spell these names Sakkuth and Kaiwan.
27Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the LORD, whose name is The God of hosts.
27So I will send you far away from home, past Damascus, says the LORD. His name is the God of armies.
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