Reading for September 2nd

Read Amos 5.1-27 A lament over Israel.
When a lament anticipating Israel's fall (vv. 1-3, 16-20), Amos indicts Israel for its injustices
(vv. 10-13, 21-27) and pleads with Israel to seek God in order to avoid disaster (vv. 4-7, 14-15).
In verses 1-3 Amos begins his lament by describing the conquest of Israel as if it had already happened.
In verses 4-7 in his opening appeal to seek God, Amos criticizes the worship (v. 5) of those who are not just (v. 7).
In verse 5 Beer-sheba, a southern religious center with old associations with the northern kingdom of Israel (1 Sam 8.2; 1 Kings 19.3), is mentioned here alongside two northern centers, Bethel and Gilgal, which Amos criticizes elsewhere (4.4).
In verse 6 Joseph, father of the ancestors of the two most powerful northern tribes (Ephraim and
Manasseh), is employed by Amos, as a synonym for Israel.
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