Amos

Justice, not empty worship

1. Verse 1Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime:
2. Verse 2But I will send a fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the palaces of Kerioth: and Moab shall die with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet:
3. Verse 3And I will cut off the judge from the midst thereof, and will slay all the princes thereof with him, saith the LORD.
4. Verse 4Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have despised the law of the LORD, and have not kept his commandments, and their lies caused them to err, after the which their fathers have walked:
5. Verse 5But I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.
6. Verse 6Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes;
7. Verse 7That 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 will go in unto the same maid, to profane my holy name:
8. Verse 8And they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god.
9. Verse 9Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath.
10. Verse 10Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you forty years through the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite.
11. Verse 11And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites. Is it not even thus, O ye children of Israel? saith the LORD.
12. Verse 12But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not.
13. Verse 13Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves.
14. Verse 14Therefore the flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not strengthen his force, neither shall the mighty deliver himself:
15. Verse 15Neither shall he stand that handleth the bow; and he that is swift of foot shall not deliver himself: neither shall he that rideth the horse deliver himself.
16. Verse 16And he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, saith the LORD.