to mourning, and such as are skilful in lamentation to lament.

5:17. And in all vineyards there shall be wailing: because I will pass
through in the midst of thee, saith the Lord.

5:18. Woe to them that desire the day of the Lord: to what end is it for
you? the day of the Lord is darkness, and not light.

5:19. As if a man should flee from the face of a lion, and a bear should
meet him: or enter into the house, and lean with his hand upon the wall,
and a serpent should bite him.

5:20. Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light: and
obscurity, and no brightness in it?

5:21. I hate, and have rejected your festivities: and I will not receive
the odour of your assemblies.

5:22. And if you offer me holocausts, and your gifts, I will not receive
them: neither will I regard the vows of your fat beasts.

5:23. Take away from me the tumult of thy songs: and I will not hear the
canticles of thy harp.

5:24. But judgment shall be revealed as water, and justice as a mighty
torrent.

5:25. Did you offer victims and sacrifices to me in the desert for forty
years, O house of Israel?

Did you offer, etc... Except the sacrifices that were offered at the
first, in the dedication of the tabernacle, the Israelites offered no
sacrifices in the desert.

5:26. But you carried a tabernacle for your Moloch, and the image of your
idols, the star of your god, which you made to yourselves.

A tabernacle, etc... All this alludes to the idolatry which they
committed, when they were drawn away by the daughters of Moab to the
worship of their gods. Num. 25.

5:27. And I will cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith
the Lord, the God of hosts is his name.

Amos Chapter 6

The desolation of Israel for their pride and luxury.

6:1. Woe to you that are wealthy in Sion, and to you that have
confidence in the mountain of Samaria: ye great men, heads of the
people, that go in with state into the house of Israel.

6:2. Pass ye over to Chalane, and see, and go from thence into Emath the
great: and go down into Geth of the Philistines, and to all the best
kingdoms of these: if their border be larger than your border.

6:3. You that are separated unto the evil day: and that approach to the
throne of iniquity;

6:4. You that sleep upon beds of ivory, and are wanton on your couches:
that eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of
the herd;

6:5. You that sing to the sound of the ps