Amos 4
13 verses
Amos condemns the wealthy women of Samaria—"cows of Bashan"—who oppress the poor and crush the needy while demanding that their husbands provide them wine and luxury, juxtaposing their comfort against the suffering they inflict. The prophet catalogs a series of divine judgments God has already sent upon Israel—famine, drought, blight, locust plague, and plague—yet Israel stubbornly refuses to "return to me, declares the LORD," failing to read these afflictions as God's call to repentance. Each refrain—"yet you did not return to me"—indicts Israel's spiritual obduracy and refusal to recognize God's hand in affliction, suggesting a tragic pattern in which judgment fails to produce the repentance it is designed to evoke. The chapter concludes with an ominous summons: "Prepare to meet your God, O Israel," indicating that despite all prior warnings and punishments, final judgment is approaching and Israel must account for itself before its Maker. The accusation that Israel has not returned despite repeated chastisements establishes that the coming judgment is not arbitrary or disproportionate but the inevitable consequence of a people who hear God's voice in affliction yet refuse to heed.
VERSES IN THIS CHAPTER
1
Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink.
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2
The Lord God hath sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks.
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3
And ye shall go out at the breaches, every cow at that which is before her; and ye shall cast them into the palace, saith the Lord.
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4
Come to Beth–el, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes after three years:
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5
And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, and proclaim and publish the free offerings: for this liketh you, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord God.
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6
And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.
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7
And also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered.
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8
So two or three cities wandered unto one city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.
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9
I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmerworm devoured them: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.
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10
I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses; and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.
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11
I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.
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12
Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.
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13
For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The Lord, The God of hosts, is his name.
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