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Amós 5

ARC · Chapter 5/9

1Ouvi esta palavra, que levanto sobre vós uma lamentação, ó casa de Israel.

2A virgem de Israel caiu, nunca mais tornará a levantar-se: desamparada está na sua terra, não ha quem a levante.

3Porque assim diz o Senhor Jehovah: A cidade da qual saem mil conservará cem, e aquella da qual saem cem conservará dez á casa de Israel.

4Porque assim diz o Senhor á casa de Israel: Buscae-me, e vivei.

5Porém não busqueis a Beth-el, nem venhaes a Gilgal, nem passeis a Berseba, porque Gilgal certamente será levado captivo, e Beth-el será desfeito em nada.

6Buscae ao Senhor, e vivei, para que não accommetta a casa de José como um fogo, e a consuma, e não haja em Beth-el quem o apague.

7(Os que pervertem o juizo em alosna, e deitam na terra a justiça.)

8O que faz o setestrello, e o orion, e torna a sombra da noite em manhã, e escurece o dia como a noite, que chama as aguas do mar, e as derrama sobre a terra, o Senhor é o seu nome.

9O que esforça o despojado contra o forte: assim que venha a assolação contra a fortaleza.

10Na porta aborrecem o que os reprehende, e abominam o que falla sinceramente.

11Portanto, visto que pizaes o pobre, e d'elle tomaes um cargo de trigo, edificastes casas de pedras lavradas, mas n'ellas não habitareis; vinhas desejaveis plantastes, mas não bebereis do seu vinho.

12Porque sei que são muitas as vossas transgressões, e grossos os vossos peccados: affligem o justo, tomam resgate, e rejeitam os necessitados na porta.

13Portanto, o prudente n'aquelle tempo se calará, porque o tempo será mau.

14Buscae o bem, e não o mal, para que vivaes: e assim o Senhor, o Deus dos Exercitos, estará comvosco, como dizeis.

15Aborrecei o mal, e amae o bem, e estabelecei o juizo na porta: porventura o Senhor, o Deus dos Exercitos, terá piedade do resto de José.

16Portanto, assim diz o Senhor Deus dos Exercitos, o Senhor: Em todas as ruas haverá pranto, e em todos os bairros dirão: Ai! ai! E ao lavrador chamarão a choro, e ao pranto aos que souberem prantear.

17E em todas as vinhas haverá pranto; porque passarei pelo meio de ti, diz o Senhor.

18Ai d'aquelles que desejam o dia do Senhor! para que pois vos será este dia do Senhor? trevas será e não luz.

19Como o que foge de diante do leão, e se encontra com elle o urso, ou como se entrasse n'uma casa, e a sua mão encostasse á parede, e fosse mordido d'uma cobra.

20Não será pois o dia do Senhor trevas e não luz? e escuridade, sem que haja resplandor?

21Aborreço, desprezo as vossas festas, e os vossos dias de prohibição não me darão bom cheiro.

22Porque ainda que me offereceis holocaustos, como tambem as vossas offertas de manjares, não me agrado d'ellas: nem attentarei para as offertas pacificas de vossos animaes gordos.

23Affasta de mim o estrepito dos teus canticos; porque não ouvirei as psalmodias dos teus instrumentos.

24Corra porém o juizo como as aguas, e a justiça como o ribeiro impetuoso.

25Haveis-me porventura offerecido sacrificios e offertas no deserto por quarenta annos, ó casa de Israel?

26Antes levastes a tenda de vosso Moloch, e a estatua das vossas imagens, a estrella do vosso deus, que fizestes para vós mesmos.

27Portanto vos levarei captivos, para além de Damasco, diz o Senhor, cujo nome é o Deus dos exercitos.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Amos raises a funeral lament over Israel, though still alive, and calls for a return to true justice, denouncing empty religious rituals while the exploitation of the poor continues.

Explanation

Singing a 'lamentation' (a funeral dirge) over a nation that still exists is a dramatic prophetic device, as though Amos already saw Israel as morally dead, even while physically alive. The invitation 'seek ye me, and ye shall live' is followed by a warning against seeking God at corrupted shrines like Bethel and Gilgal. The climax of the chapter is God's rejection of religious ritual ('I hate, I despise your feast days') when it is not accompanied by real justice: 'But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream' — one of the most quoted verses on social justice in history. The practical application: worship without a commitment to justice and compassion for one's neighbor does not please God, no matter how elaborate it is.

Fun facts

  • Verse 24 ('let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream') was quoted by Pastor Martin Luther King Jr. in his famous 'I Have a Dream' speech, becoming one of the most influential biblical texts in twentieth-century civil rights movements.
  • Bethel, Gilgal, and Beersheba (v. 5) were all sites of great historical and religious significance in Israel (linked to Abraham, Jacob, and Joshua), but Amos denounces them as corrupted by worship mixed with idolatrous practices.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Amós 5:1Amos announces that what follows is a “lamentation” — a song of mourning, as if singing Israel’s death before it has even happened.
  2. Amós 5:2Israel is described as a young woman who has fallen and will not rise again — language of mourning for a death that has not yet happened, but is treated as certain.
  3. Amós 5:3Numbers showing a crushing loss: only a tenth of Israel’s army will survive the approaching confrontation.
  4. Amós 5:4In the middle of the announcement of destruction, a direct and simple invitation appears: seeking God is the only way out to survive.
  5. Amós 5:5Bethel, Gilgal, and Beersheba were Israel’s main pilgrimage shrines; the prophet warns that these places will be destroyed, so seeking God there has become useless — one must seek the Lord himself, not the temple’s address.
  6. Amós 5:6Repeats the invitation to seek God, now with a stronger warning: if they do not seek him, a fire will consume Israel with no one in Bethel able to put it out.
  7. Amós 5:7Describes who is being accused: those who turn justice into something bitter, like the wormwood plant, and throw righteousness to the ground, worthless.
  8. Amós 5:8“The seven stars and Orion” are the constellations of the Pleiades and Orion; naming these stars is a way of recalling that the same God who created and commands the sky is the one now judging Israel.
  9. Amós 5:9God is described as one who can turn the tables, giving strength to the weak against the powerful — the same power that will bring destruction upon Israel’s strongholds.
  10. Amós 5:10“The gate” was the place of the courts at the time; there, whoever speaks the truth and rebukes injustice is hated, a sign of a society that cannot bear to hear correction.
  11. Amós 5:11The wealth built on the exploitation of the poor will not be enjoyed — houses of luxury and fine vineyards that they will never get to use.
  12. Amós 5:12A specific list of injustices: persecuting the innocent, taking bribes, and barring the poor from exactly the place where their rights should have been judged.
  13. Amós 5:13The corruption is so great that even the wise person prefers to stay silent, afraid of the consequences of speaking the truth at that moment.
  14. Amós 5:14A practical appeal: truly seeking good is what will guarantee the presence of God the people already claim to have, but only in theory.
  15. Amós 5:15Calls for a practical change in the city’s courts (“the gate”), hoping this may still bring mercy on whatever remains of the people.
  16. Amós 5:16Announcement of widespread mourning, so great that they will need to hire professional mourners to handle the grief throughout the whole city.
  17. Amós 5:17Even in the vineyards, a place of feasting and harvest, there will be weeping, because the Lord himself will “pass through” the people in judgment.
  18. Amós 5:18The people expected “the day of the Lord” as a good victory, when God would finish off Israel’s enemies; the prophet turns that expectation upside down, warning that this day will be darkness precisely for those who live in injustice.
  19. Amós 5:19The image of someone who escapes one danger only to fall into a worse one — there will be no safe refuge on this “day of the Lord.”
  20. Amós 5:20Confirms, in the form of a question, that the day expected as victory will be nothing but darkness — with no ray of hope.
  21. Amós 5:21God declares that he completely rejects the people’s religious feasts, even though they are correctly performed ceremonies.
  22. Amós 5:22Not even the most expensive and correctly offered sacrifices please God, because what really mattered was missing: true justice in everyday life.
  23. Amós 5:23God asks that even the music of worship stop, because he no longer wants to hear praise without justice behind it.
  24. Amós 5:24“Let judgment run down as waters” is God’s answer to rituals and feasts performed without real justice: what he wants is not more ceremony, it is for justice to actually function in everyday life, like a river that never stops.
  25. Amós 5:25A rhetorical question recalling that, during the forty years in the wilderness, the relationship with God did not depend so much on formal sacrifices — ritual was never the central point.
  26. Amós 5:26“The tabernacle of your Moloch” and “the star of your god” point to astral and foreign cults the people had carried since the days in the wilderness — this same passage is quoted by Stephen in the book of Acts, centuries later.
  27. Amós 5:27Conclusion of the chapter: because of idolatry and injustice, the people will be taken captive far beyond Damascus — that is, to the lands of Assyria.

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