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Amos 4

KJV · Chapter 4/9

1Hear 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.

2The 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.

3And 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.

4Come to Beth–el, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes after three years:

5And 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.

6And 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.

7And 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.

8So 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.

9I 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.

10I 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.

11I 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.

12Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.

13For, 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.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Amos calls the wealthy women of Samaria 'cows of Bashan' for oppressing the poor, and lists five disasters (famine, drought, blight, war, earthquake) that God sent as warnings which Israel repeatedly ignored.

Explanation

'Cows of Bashan' is a shocking, deliberately offensive comparison: Bashan was famous for its well-fed cattle, and Amos uses the image to describe Samaria's elite women, fattened on luxury, who pressure their husbands to oppress the poor in order to sustain their lifestyle. The refrain repeated five times, 'yet have ye not returned unto me,' is the heart of the chapter: God sent gradual warnings (famine, partial drought, agricultural blight, plague, war) hoping the people would repent, but every warning was ignored. The conclusion is a solemn summons: 'prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.' The lesson for today is to recognize the 'warnings' found in life's hardships as invitations to reflection, not merely as bad luck.

Fun facts

  • Bashan was a fertile region east of the Jordan River, famous since antiquity for raising sturdy cattle — the comparison would have been immediately understood, and felt as an insult, by Israel's elite women.
  • The mention of God destroying them 'as Sodom and Gomorrah' (v. 11) is one of the few references in the Old Testament that uses this specific event as a standard of comparison for divine judgment on an entire nation.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Amos 4:1“Kine of Bashan” is an insulting nickname for the wealthy women of Samaria, compared to the well-fed cattle of the Bashan region, who demanded more drink from their husbands while oppressing the poor.
  2. Amos 4:2A shocking image: the wealthy women of Samaria (“kine of Bashan” from the previous verse) will be taken captive like fish caught on a hook.
  3. Amos 4:3They will file out through the breaches in the destroyed walls, forced to abandon even the luxuries they had accumulated.
  4. Amos 4:4“Come to Beth-el, and transgress” is a sarcastic invitation: Bethel and Gilgal were popular shrines where people went to offer excessive sacrifices, thinking this made up for their everyday injustice — the prophet mocks this kind of empty religiosity.
  5. Amos 4:5A sarcastic invitation to keep performing the same religious rituals as always, since that is really what they enjoy doing — even though it is empty of justice.
  6. Amos 4:6“Yet have ye not returned unto me” repeats several times throughout this chapter, each time after a different plague (famine, drought, crop blight, pestilence); the repetition shows that not even a string of disasters made the people change their ways.
  7. Amos 4:7God recalls having controlled the rain selectively, making it rain on one city and not another, as a specific and personal warning, not a generic drought.
  8. Amos 4:8People from various cities had to wander in search of water without finding enough — even so, the people did not turn back to God.
  9. Amos 4:9One more agricultural plague — excessive heat, blight, and locusts — striking gardens and orchards, and still no change in behavior.
  10. Amos 4:10God sent pestilence as in Egypt (recalling the plagues of the Exodus) and allowed military defeats — even with bodies rotting, the people remained unyielding.
  11. Amos 4:11The comparison with Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19), cities destroyed by fire, shows the severity of the punishment Israel had already partly suffered — and still the people continued as they were.
  12. Amos 4:12After listing all the ignored warnings, God announces that he will now act for good, calling Israel to prepare for this final confrontation.
  13. Amos 4:13A hymn of praise describing God’s power as creator — who forms the mountains and the wind — reinforcing that this is the same God Israel is going to “meet” in judgment.

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