Amos 4:1-13

  • A message against the cows of Bashan (1-3)

  • Jehovah scorns Israel’s false worship (4, 5)

  • Israel refuses to accept discipline (6-13)

    • “Get ready to meet your God” (12)

    • ‘God tells man His thoughts’ (13)

4  “Hear this word, you cows of Baʹshan,Who are on the mountain of Sa·marʹi·a,+You women who are defrauding the lowly+ and crushing the poor,Who say to their husbands,* ‘Bring us something to drink!’  2  The Sovereign Lord Jehovah has sworn by his holiness,‘“Look! The days are coming upon you when he will lift you up with butcher hooksAnd the rest of you with fishhooks.  3  You will go out through the breaches in the wall, each one straight ahead;And you will be cast out to Harʹmon,” declares Jehovah.’  4  ‘Come to Bethʹel and commit transgression,*+To Gilʹgal and transgress even more!+ Bring your sacrifices+ in the morning,And your tithes*+ on the third day.  5  Burn a thanksgiving sacrifice of leavened bread;+Loudly proclaim your voluntary offerings! For that is what you love to do, O people of Israel,’ declares the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.  6  ‘And for my part, I made your teeth clean of food* in all your citiesAnd caused a lack of bread in all your houses;+But you did not come back to me,’+ declares Jehovah.  7  ‘I also withheld rain from you three months before the harvest;+I made it rain on one city but not on another city. One plot of land would have rain,But another plot of land where there was no rain would dry up.  8  People of two or three cities staggered to one city to drink water,+And they would not get satisfied;But you did not come back to me,’+ declares Jehovah.  9  ‘I struck you with scorching heat and mildew.+ You multiplied your gardens and vineyards,But the locust would devour your fig trees and olive trees;+And you still did not come back to me,’+ declares Jehovah. 10  ‘I sent among you a pestilence like that of Egypt.+ With the sword I killed your young men+ and captured your horses.+ I made the stench of your camps rise up into your nostrils;+But you did not come back to me,’ declares Jehovah. 11  ‘I caused an overthrow among youLike God’s overthrow of Sodʹom and Go·morʹrah.+ And you were like a log snatched out of the fire;But you did not come back to me,’+ declares Jehovah. 12  So that is what I will do to you, O Israel. Because this is what I will do to you,Get ready to meet your God, O Israel. 13  For look! he is the One who formed the mountains+ and created the wind;+He tells man what His thoughts are,He turns the dawn into darkness,+And he treads on earth’s high places;+Jehovah the God of armies is his name.”

Footnotes

Or “masters.”
Or “rebel.”
Or “tenth parts.”
Or “gave you no food to eat.”