Part 587 (1/2)

5:14. Seek ye good, and not evil, that you may live: and the Lord the G.o.d of hosts will be with you, as you have said.

5:15. Hate evil, and love good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be the Lord the G.o.d of hosts may have mercy on the remnant of Joseph.

5:16. Therefore thus saith the Lord the G.o.d of hosts the sovereign Lord: In every street there shall be wailing: and in all places that are without, they shall say: Alas, alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful in lamentation to lament.

5:17. And in all vineyards there shall be wailing: because I will pa.s.s through in the midst of thee, saith the Lord.

5:18. Woe to them that desire the day of the Lord: to what end is it for you? the day of the Lord is darkness, and not light.

5:19. As if a man should flee from the face of a lion, and a bear should meet him: or enter into the house, and lean with his hand upon the wall, and a serpent should bite him.

5:20. Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light: and obscurity, and no brightness in it?

5:21. I hate, and have rejected your festivities: and I will not receive the odour of your a.s.semblies.

5:22. And if you offer me holocausts, and your gifts, I will not receive them: neither will I regard the vows of your fat beasts.

5:23. Take away from me the tumult of thy songs: and I will not hear the canticles of thy harp.

5:24. But judgment shall be revealed as water, and justice as a mighty torrent.

5:25. Did you offer victims and sacrifices to me in the desert for forty years, O house of Israel?

Did you offer, etc... Except the sacrifices that were offered at the first, in the dedication of the tabernacle, the Israelites offered no sacrifices in the desert.

5:26. But you carried a tabernacle for your Moloch, and the image of your idols, the star of your G.o.d, which you made to yourselves.

A tabernacle, etc... All this alludes to the idolatry which they committed, when they were drawn away by the daughters of Moab to the wors.h.i.+p of their G.o.ds. Num. 25.

5:27. And I will cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the Lord, the G.o.d of hosts is his name.

Amos Chapter 6

The desolation of Israel for their pride and luxury.

6:1. Woe to you that are wealthy in Sion, and to you that have confidence in the mountain of Samaria: ye great men, heads of the people, that go in with state into the house of Israel.

6:2. Pa.s.s ye over to Chalane, and see, and go from thence into Emath the great: and go down into Geth of the Philistines, and to all the best kingdoms of these: if their border be larger than your border.

6:3. You that are separated unto the evil day: and that approach to the throne of iniquity;

6:4. You that sleep upon beds of ivory, and are wanton on your couches: that eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the herd;

6:5. You that sing to the sound of the psaltery: they have thought themselves to have instruments of music like David;

6:6. That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the best ointments: and they are not concerned for the affliction of Joseph.

6:7. Wherefore now they shall go captive at the head of them that go into captivity: and the faction of the luxurious ones shall be taken away.

6:8. The Lord G.o.d hath sworn by his own soul, saith the Lord the G.o.d of hosts: I detest the pride of Jacob, and I hate his houses, and I will deliver up the city with the inhabitants thereof.