Amos:4-6

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* Hear this word , ye kine of Bashan , that are in the mountain of Samaria , which oppress the poor , which crush the needy , which say to their masters , Bring , and let us drink . * The Lord GOD hath sworn by his holiness , that , lo , the days shall come upon you , that he will take you away with hooks , and your posterity with fishhooks . * And ye shall go out at the breaches , every cow at that which is before her ; and ye shall cast them into the palace , saith the LORD . * Come to Bethel , and transgress ; at Gilgal multiply transgression ; and bring your sacrifices every morning , and your tithes after three years : * And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven , and proclaim and publish the free offerings : for this liketh you , O ye children of Israel , saith the Lord GOD . * And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities , and want of bread in all your places : yet have ye not returned unto me , saith the LORD . * And also I have withholden the rain from you , when there were yet three months to the harvest : and I caused it to rain upon one city , and caused it not to rain upon another city : one piece was rained upon , and the piece whereupon it rained not withered . * So two or three cities wandered unto one city , to drink water ; but they were not satisfied : yet have ye not returned unto me , saith the LORD . * I have smitten you with blasting and mildew : when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased , the palmerworm devoured them : yet have ye not returned unto me , saith the LORD . * I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt : your young men have I slain with the sword , and have taken away your horses ; and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils : yet have ye not returned unto me , saith the LORD . * I have overthrown some of you , as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah , and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning : yet have ye not returned unto me , saith the LORD . * Therefore thus will I do unto thee , O Israel : and because I will do this unto thee , prepare to meet thy God , O Israel . * For , lo , he that formeth the mountains , and createth the wind , and declareth unto man what is his thought , that maketh the morning darkness , and treadeth upon the high places of the earth , The LORD , The God of hosts , is his name . * Hear ye this word which I take up against you , even a lamentation , O house of Israel . * The virgin of Israel is fallen ; she shall no more rise : she is forsaken upon her land ; there is none to raise her up . * 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 . * For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel , Seek ye me , and ye shall live : * 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 . * 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 . * Ye who turn judgment to wormwood , and leave off righteousness in the earth , * 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 : * That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong , so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress . * They hate him that rebuketh in the gate , and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly . * 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 . * 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 . * Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time ; for it is an evil time . * 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 . * 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 . * 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 . * And in all vineyards shall be wailing : for I will pass through thee , saith the LORD . * 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 . * 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 . * Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness , and not light ? even very dark , and no brightness in it ? * I hate , I despise your feast days , and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies . * 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 . * Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs ; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols . * But let judgment run down as waters , and righteousness as a mighty stream . * Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years , O house of Israel ? * But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images , the star of your god , which ye made to yourselves . * Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus , saith the LORD , whose name is The God of hosts . * Woe to them that are at ease in Zion , and trust in the mountain of Samaria , which are named chief of the nations , to whom the house of Israel came ! * Pass ye unto Calneh , and see ; and from thence go ye to Hamath the great : then go down to Gath of the Philistines : be they better than these kingdoms ? or their border greater than your border ? * Ye that put far away the evil day , and cause the seat of violence to come near ; * That lie upon beds of ivory , and stretch themselves upon their couches , and eat the lambs out of the flock , and the calves out of the midst of the stall ; * That chant to the sound of the viol , and invent to themselves instruments of musick , like David ; * That drink wine in bowls , and anoint themselves with the chief ointments : but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph . * Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive , and the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed . * The Lord GOD hath sworn by himself , saith the LORD the God of hosts , I abhor the excellency of Jacob , and hate his palaces : therefore will I deliver up the city with all that is therein . * And it shall come to pass , if there remain ten men in one house , that they shall die . * And a man 's uncle shall take him up , and he that burneth him , to bring out the bones out of the house , and shall say unto him that is by the sides of the house , Is there yet any with thee ? and he shall say , No . Then shall he say , Hold thy tongue : for we may not make mention of the name of the LORD . * For , behold , the LORD commandeth , and he will smite the great house with breaches , and the little house with clefts . * Shall horses run upon the rock ? will one plow there with oxen ? for ye have turned judgment into gall , and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock : * Ye which rejoice in a thing of nought , which say , Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength ? * But , behold , I will raise up against you a nation , O house of Israel , saith the LORD the God of hosts ; and they shall afflict you from the entering in of Hemath unto the river of the wilderness . * Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me ; and , behold , he formed grasshoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth ; and , lo , it was the latter growth after the king 's mowings .

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