Hear ye this word which I take up for a lamentation over you, O house of Israel.
The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she {Or, lieth forsaken}is cast down upon her land; there is none to raise her up.
For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: The city that went forth a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went forth a hundred shall have ten left, to the house of Israel.
For thus saith Jehovah unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live;
but seek not Beth-el, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beer-sheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Beth-el shall {Or, become vanity (Hebrew: Aven)}come to nought.
Seek Jehovah, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, and there be none to quench it in Beth-el.
Ye who turn justice to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth,
seek him that maketh the Pleiades and Orion, and turneth {Or, deep darkness}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 (Jehovah is his name);
that {Or, causeth destruction to flash forth}bringeth sudden destruction upon the strong, so that destruction cometh upon the fortress.
They hate him that reproveth in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.
Forasmuch therefore as ye trample upon the poor, and take exactions from him 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 the wine thereof.
For I know how manifold are your transgressions, and how mighty are your sins— ye that afflict the just, that take a bribe, and that turn aside the needy in the gate from their right.
Therefore he that is prudent shall keep silence in such a time; for it is an evil time.
Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live; and so Jehovah, the God of hosts, will be with you, as ye say.
Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish justice in the gate: it may be that Jehovah, the God of hosts, will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.
Therefore thus saith Jehovah, the God of hosts, the Lord: Wailing shall be in all the broad ways; and they shall say in all the streets, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, {Hebrew: and proclaim wailing to such as are skillful in lamentation.}and such as are skilful in lamentation to wailing.
And in all vineyards shall be wailing; for I will pass through the midst of thee, saith Jehovah.
Woe unto you that desire the day of Jehovah! Wherefore would ye have the day of Jehovah? It is darkness, and not light.
As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; {Or, and}or went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.
Shall not the day of Jehovah be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?
I hate, I despise your feasts, and I {Hebrew: will not smell a savor.}will take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
Yea, though ye offer me {Or, burnt-offerings with your meal-offerings}your burnt-offerings and meal-offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the {Or, ever-flowing}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 justice roll down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.
Did ye bring unto me sacrifices and {Or, meal-offerings}offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?
Yea, ye {Or, shall take up…And I will cause &c.}have borne the tabernacle of your king and the shrine of your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.
Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith Jehovah, whose name is the God of hosts.
Querverweise zu Amos 5,12 Amos 5,12
And it shall come to pass, when many evils and troubles are come upon them, that this song shall testify before them as a witness; for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed: for I know their imagination which they frame this day, before I have brought them into the land which I sware.
And it was so, because the children of Israel had sinned against Jehovah their God, who brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods,
and walked in the statutes of the nations, whom Jehovah cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they {Or, practised}made.
And the children of Israel did secretly things that were not right against Jehovah their God: and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fortified city;
and they set them up {Or, obelisks}pillars and Asherim upon every high hill, and under every green tree;
and there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the nations whom Jehovah carried away before them; and they wrought wicked things to provoke Jehovah to anger;
and they served idols, whereof Jehovah had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing.
Yet Jehovah testified unto Israel, and unto Judah, by every prophet, and every seer, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.
Notwithstanding, they would not hear, but hardened their neck, like to the neck of their fathers, who believed not in Jehovah their God.
And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified unto them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the nations that were round about them, concerning whom Jehovah had charged them that they should not do like them.
And they forsook all the commandments of Jehovah their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made an Asherah, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal.
And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, to provoke him to anger.
Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Israel, yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have sold the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes—
And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted justice.
they that pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and his father go unto the same maiden, to profane my holy name:
They hate him that reproveth in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.
For I know their works and their thoughts: the time cometh, that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come, and shall see my glory.
but these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood; in their full measure shall they come upon thee, in the multitude of thy sorceries, and the great abundance of thine enchantments.
they that pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and his father go unto the same maiden, to profane my holy name:
{Or, Take not away}Gather not my soul with sinners,Nor my life with men of blood;
to turn aside the needy from justice, and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be their spoil, and that they may make the fatherless their prey!
Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates, which Jehovah thy God giveth thee, according to thy tribes; and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.
because they have wrought folly in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbors' wives, and have spoken words in my name falsely, which I commanded them not; and I am he that knoweth, and am witness, saith Jehovah.
and he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, saith Jehovah.
In whose hands is wickedness,And their right hand is full of bribes.
that {Or, make men to offend by their words}make a man an offender {Or, for a word}in his cause, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just with a thing of nought.
Now Boaz went up to the gate, and sat him down there: and, behold, the near kinsman of whom Boaz spake came by; unto whom he said, Ho, such a one! turn aside, sit down here. And he turned aside, and sat down.
For the word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart.
The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his {Or, Child See Matthew 12:18; Isaiah 42:1; 52:13; 53:11.}Servant Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied before the face of Pilate, when he had determined to release him.
Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves; every one loveth bribes, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.
To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth,
When I went forth to the gate unto the city,When I prepared my seat in the {Or, broad place}street,
The young men saw me and hid themselves,And the aged rose up and stood;
The princes refrained from talking,And laid their hand on their mouth;
The voice of the nobels was {Hebrew: hid.}hushed,And their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.
For when the ear heard me, then it blessed me;And when the eye saw me, it gave witness unto me:
Because I delivered the poor that cried,The fatherless also, {Or, and him that had &c.}that had none to help him.
The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me;And I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.
I put on righteousness, and it {Or, clothed itself with me}clothed me:My justice was as a robe and a {Or, turban.}diadem.
I was eyes to the blind,And feet was I to the lame.
I was a father to the needy:And {Or, the cause which i knew not}the cause of him that I knew not I searched out.
And I brake the {Hebrew: great teeth.}jaws of the unrighteous,And plucked the prey out of his teeth.
Then I said, I shall die {Or, beside Hebrew: with.}in my nest,And I shall multiply my days as the sand:
My root is {Hebrew: opened.}spread out {Or, by}to the waters,And the dew lieth all night upon my branch;
My glory is fresh in me,And my bow is renewed in my hand.
Unto me men gave ear, and waited,And kept silence for my counsel.
After my words they spake not again;And my speech distilled upon them.
And they waited for me as for the rain;And they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.
I smiled on them, when they had no confidence;And the light of my countenance they cast not down.
I chose out their way, and sat as chief,And dwelt as a king in the army,As one that comforteth the mourners.
And there is no creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
But ye denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted unto you,
He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of {Or, fraud}oppressions, that shaketh his hands from taking a bribe, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from looking upon evil:
And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the sojourner from his right, and fear not me, saith Jehovah of hosts.
If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless,Because I saw my help in the gate:
Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? and they killed them that showed before of the coming of the Righteous One; of whom ye have now become betrayers and murderers;
The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet they lean upon Jehovah, and say, Is not Jehovah in the midst of us? no evil shall come upon us.
Rob not the poor, {Or, for}because he is poor;Neither {Or, crush}oppress the afflicted in the gate:
Behold, the hire of the laborers who mowed your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth out: and the cries of them that reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.
{Or, Both hands are put forth for evil to do it &c.}Their hands are upon that which is evil to do it diligently; the prince asketh, and the judge is ready for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth the evil desire of his soul: thus they weave it together.
Ye have condemned, ye have killed the righteous one; he doth not resist you.