Bible in Basic English
"So because the poor man is crushed under your feet, and you take taxes from him of grain: you have made for yourselves houses of cut stone, but you will not take your rest in them; the fair vine-gardens planted by your hands will not give you wine."
— Amos 5:11, Bible in Basic English
“Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.”
Go for help to him who makes Orion and the Pleiades, by whom the deep dark is turned into morning, who makes the day black with night; whose voice goes out to the waters of the sea, sending them out over the face of the earth: the Lord is his name;
Who sends sudden destruction on the strong, so that destruction comes on the walled town.
They have hate for him who makes protest against evil in the public place, and he whose words are upright is disgusting to them.
So because the poor man is crushed under your feet, and you take taxes from him of grain: you have made for yourselves houses of cut stone, but you will not take your rest in them; the fair vine-gardens planted by your hands will not give you wine.
For I have seen how your evil-doing is increased and how strong are your sins, you troublers of the upright, who take rewards and do wrong to the cause of the poor in the public place.
So the wise will say nothing in that time; for it is an evil time.
Go after good and not evil, so that life may be yours: and so the Lord, the God of armies, will be with you, as you say.