Study Desk

Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD! For what good is the day of the LORD to you? It will be darkness, and not light.

Take away from Me the noise of your songs, For I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments.

You also carried Sikkuth [fn] your king [fn] And Chiun, [fn] your idols,The star of your gods,Which you made for yourselves.

Who sing idly to the sound of stringed instruments, And invent for yourselves musical instruments like David;

Who drink wine from bowls, And anoint yourselves with the best ointments, But are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.

And when a relative of the dead, with one who will burn the bodies, [fn] picks up the bodies to take them out of the house, he will say to one inside the house, "Are there any more with you?" Then someone will say, "None." And he will say, "Hold your tongue! For we dare not mention the name of the Lord."

For behold, the LORD gives a command: He will break the great house into bits, And the little house into pieces.

You who rejoice over Lo Debar, [fn] Who say, "Have we not taken Karnaim [fn] for ourselvesBy our own strength?"

And so it was, when they had finished eating the grass of the land, that I said: "O Lord GOD, forgive, I pray! Oh, that Jacob may stand, For he is small!"

Thus the Lord GOD showed me: Behold, the Lord GOD called for conflict by fire, and it consumed the great deep and devoured the territory.

Then I said: "O Lord GOD, cease, I pray! Oh, that Jacob may stand, For he is small!"

For thus Amos has said: "Jeroboam shall die by the sword, And Israel shall surely be led away captive From their own land."'

But never again prophesy at Bethel, For it is the king's sanctuary, And it is the royal residence."

That we may buy the poor for silver, And the needy for a pair of sandals-- Even sell the bad wheat?"

Shall the land not tremble for this,And everyone mourn who dwells in it?All of it shall swell like the River, Amos 9:5); Masoretic Text reads the light. ">[fn] Heave and subsideLike the River of Egypt.

I will turn your feasts into mourning, And all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on every waist, And baldness on every head; I will make it like mourning for an only son, And its end like a bitter day.

"Behold, the days are coming," says the Lord GOD, "That I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine of bread, Nor a thirst for water, But of hearing the words of the LORD.

Though they go into captivity before their enemies, From there I will command the sword, And it shall slay them. I will set My eyes on them for harm and not for good."

He who builds His layers in the sky, And has founded His strata in the earth; Who calls for the waters of the sea, And pours them out on the face of the earth-- The LORD is His name.

"For surely I will command, And will sift the house of Israel among all nations, As grain is sifted in a sieve; Yet not the smallest grain shall fall to the ground.