Amos 5:7

A Lament And Call To Repentance

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“Seek the Lord [search diligently for Him and long for Him as your most essential need] so that you may live,
Or He will rush down like a [devouring] fire, O house of Joseph,
And there will be no one to quench the flame for [idolatrous] Bethel,
⁷ 
“For those [shall be consumed] who turn justice into wormwood (bitterness)
And cast righteousness down to the earth.” ⁸
He who made the [cluster of stars called] Pleiades and [the constellation] Orion,
Who turns deep darkness into the morning
And darkens the day into night,
Who calls for the waters of the sea
And pours them out on the surface of the earth,
The Lord is His name.

Justice and Righteousness

With God

Amos

Israelites

Amos 6:12

Do horses run on rocks?
Do men plow rocks with oxen? [Of course not!]
Yet you have turned justice into poison
And the fruit of righteousness into wormwood (bitterness),

Deuteronomy 29:18

so that there will not be among you a man or woman, or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the Lord our God, to go and serve the [false] gods of these nations; so that there will not be among you a root [of idolatry] bearing poisonous fruit and wormwood (bitterness).

Psalm 36:3

The words of his mouth are wicked and deceitful;
He has ceased to be wise and to do good.

Psalm 125:5

But as for those who turn aside to their crooked ways [in unresponsiveness to God],
The Lord will lead them away with those who do evil.
Peace be upon Israel.

Isaiah 1:23

Your rulers are rebels
And companions of thieves;
Everyone loves bribes
And chases after gifts.
They do not defend the fatherless,
Nor does the widow’s cause come before them [instead they delay or turn a deaf ear].

Isaiah 5:7

For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house (nation) of Israel
And the men of Judah are His delightful planting [which He loves].
So He looked for justice, but in fact, [He saw] bloodshed and lawlessness;
[He looked] for righteousness, but in fact, [He heard] a cry of distress and oppression.

Isaiah 10:1

Woe (judgment is coming) to those [judges] who issue evil statutes,
And to those [magistrates] who constantly record unjust and oppressive decisions,

Isaiah 59:13-14

Rebelling against and denying the Lord,
Turning away from [following] our God,
Speaking oppression and revolt,
Conceiving and muttering from the heart lying words.

Ezekiel 3:20

Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness (right standing with God) and sins, and I place an obstacle before him, he will die; since you have not warned him, he will die in his sin, and the righteous deeds which he has done will not be remembered; but you will be responsible for his blood.

Ezekiel 18:24

“But when the righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits sin and acts in accordance with all the repulsive things that the wicked man does, will he live? All of his righteous deeds which he has done will not be remembered because of the treachery that he has committed and for his sin which he has committed; for them he shall die.

Ezekiel 33:12-13

And you, son of man, say to the sons of your people, ‘The righteousness of the righteous man will not save him in the day of his transgression; and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he will not stagger because of it in the day that he turns from his wickedness, whereas a righteous man will not be able to live because of his [previous acts of] righteousness on the day when he commits sin.’

Ezekiel 33:18

When the righteous turns back from his righteousness and commits injustice, he will also die because of it.

Hosea 10:4

They have spoken empty (disingenuous) words,
Swearing falsely to make covenants [they intend to break];
Therefore, judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field.

Amos 5:11-12

Therefore, because you impose heavy rent on the poor
And demand a tribute (food-tax) of grain from them,
Though you have built [luxurious] houses of square stone,
You will not live in them;
You have planted beautiful vineyards, but you will not drink their wine.

Habakkuk 1:12-14

Are You not from everlasting,
O Lord, my God, My Holy One?
We will not die.
O Lord, You have appointed the Chaldeans [who rule in Babylon] to execute [Your] judgment,
And You, O Rock, have established them to correct and chastise.

Zephaniah 1:6

And those who have turned back from following the Lord,
And those who have not sought the Lord [as their most important need] or inquired of Him.”