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Amos 5

Amos confronts Israel's confidence in worship with God's demand for justice and his warning of approaching judgment.

Amos raises a funeral lament over the house of Israel, describing its fall as though it has already happened. YHWH calls the people to seek him and live, while exposing bribery in the courts and the crushing of the poor. Their places of worship will offer no shelter from judgment. Feasts and songs meet God's rejection, and the day they expect to bring deliverance will bring darkness. The chapter ends with a sentence of exile beyond Damascus.

injustice and angersermon or Bible study notes
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1Listen to this word which I take up for a lamentation over you, O house of Israel:
2“The virgin of Israel has fallen; She shall rise no more. She is cast down on her land; there is no one to raise her up.”
3For the Lord GOD says: “The city that went out a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went out one hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel.”
4For the LORD says to the house of Israel: “Seek me, and you will live;
5but don’t seek Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and don’t pass to Beersheba; for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nothing.
6Seek 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.
7You who turn justice to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth!
8Seek 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,
9who brings sudden destruction on the strong, so that destruction comes on the fortress.
10They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks blamelessly.
11Therefore, because 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.
12For I know how many are your offenses, and how great are your sins— you who afflict the just, who take a bribe, and who turn away the needy in the courts.
13Therefore a prudent person keeps silent in such a time, for it is an evil time.
14Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so the LORD, the God of Armies, will be with you, as you say.
15Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the courts. It may be that the LORD, the God of Armies, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”
16Therefore the LORD, the God of Armies, the Lord, says: “Wailing will be in all the wide ways. They will say in all the streets, ‘Alas! Alas!’ They will call the farmer to mourning, and those who are skillful in lamentation to wailing.
17In all vineyards there will be wailing, for I will pass through the middle of you,” says the LORD.
18“Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD! Why do you long for the day of the LORD? It is darkness, and not light.
19As if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him; or he went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a snake bit him.
20Won’t the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? Even very dark, and no brightness in it?
21I hate, I despise your feasts, and I can’t stand your solemn assemblies.
22Yes, though you offer me your burnt offerings and meal offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat animals.
23Take away from me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.
24But let justice roll on like rivers, and righteousness like a mighty stream.
25“Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, house of Israel?
26You also carried the tent of your king and the shrine of your images, the star of your god, which you made for yourselves.
27Therefore I will cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus,” says the LORD, whose name is the God of Armies.
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Amos 5:4God's call to seek him and live interrupts the funeral lament, holding out life amid the announcement of Israel's fall.
Amos 5:15Seeking God takes concrete shape in loving good and establishing justice, while mercy remains God's gift rather than Israel's entitlement.
Amos 5:21God's rejection of Israel's feasts exposes the gulf between their public worship and their treatment of the poor.
Where this chapter reaches

Isaiah and Micah share Amos's condemnation of worship joined to injustice, exposing religious observance that leaves oppression untouched. Hosea and Jeremiah share the call to return to God and the warning that idolatry and covenant unfaithfulness bring judgment and exile.

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Notice

After reading the whole chapter

Which detail in Amos's account of the courts helps you understand what God means by justice?

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What does the call to seek God expose about the places where you look for security?

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Questions people ask about Amos 5

Why does God hate Israel's feasts in Amos 5?

God rejects the feasts alongside offerings and music because Israel's worship coexists with oppression, bribery, and the denial of justice to the needy. The chapter also charges the people with idolatry. Their ceremonies cannot secure God's favor while they persist in the conduct he condemns.

What is the day of YHWH in Amos 5?

The day of YHWH is God's intervention in judgment, which some Israelites seem to expect will favor them. Amos declares that it will bring darkness for them. The sequence of lion, bear, and snake depicts danger that cannot be escaped, even by reaching home.

What does “let justice roll on like rivers” mean?

The image calls for justice and righteousness to flow through Israel's life with the force and abundance of water. Earlier verses make this concrete: the poor are trampled, bribes are taken, and the needy are turned away in court. God demands a public life shaped by justice.

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Amos · 9 chapters
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What the Bible says about anger →

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).