Amos curses the rulers of Ancient Israel:

(Adapted from the Old Testament for a commemoration of the

1611 King James Bible) 



"I say,

You have sent a whole people into exile;

you have forgotten how to be brothers to others.

In your fury,

you have lost all sense of pity.


You have sold innocent men for money;

you have crushed the poor and the needy;

you have taken their grain

so that you can build yourself fine stone houses.

In your palaces you store up your own violence

just as you hoard your plunder and loot.


You lie on your marble couches,

stretch out on your beds,

eating the lambs of our flocks of sheep,

eating the calves from our herds of cattle,

drinking basinfuls of wine,

anointing yourselves with fine oils,

turning away the poor at your gate.


You dare to think that the instruments you sing to

are playing the music of David -

you who do not feel the pain and sorrow

of destroying the word of Joseph.


In time

you too will go into exile,

you will not even drink the wine

from the vineyards you’ve made;

and the great banquets you once feasted on

will slip into the past

just like your dreams of never-ending power."