Amos 4

1 Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy, who say to your husbands, “Bring us more to drink.”

Hear this word, you cows 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.

2 The Lord GOD has sworn by His holiness: “Behold, the days are coming when you will be taken away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks.

The Lord GOD has sworn by his holiness, that, see, the days shall come on you, that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks.

3 You will go out through broken walls, each one straight ahead of her, and you will be cast out toward Harmon,”

And you shall go out at the breaches, every cow at that which is before her; and you shall cast them into the palace, says the LORD.

4 “Go to Bethel and transgress; rebel even more at Gilgal! Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days.

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

5 Offer leavened bread as a thank offering, and loudly proclaim your freewill offerings. For that is what you children of Israel love to do,”

And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, and proclaim and publish the free offerings: for this likes you, O you children of Israel, says the Lord GOD.

6 “I beset all your cities with cleanness of teeth and all your towns with lack of bread, yet you did not return to Me,”

And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have you not returned to me, says the LORD.

7 “I also withheld the rain from you when the harvest was three months away. I sent rain on one city but withheld it from another. One field received rain; another without rain withered.

And also I have withheld the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain on one city, and caused it not to rain on another city: one piece was rained on, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered.

8 People staggered from city to city for water to drink, but they were not satisfied; yet you did not return to Me,”

So two or three cities wandered to one city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied: yet have you not returned to me, says the LORD.

9 “I struck you with blight and mildew in your growing gardens and vineyards; the locust devoured your fig and olive trees, yet you did not return to Me,”

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 you not returned to me, says the LORD.

10 “I sent plagues among you like those of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword, along with your captured horses. I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camp, yet you did not return to Me,”

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 to your nostrils: yet have you not returned to me, says the LORD.

11 “Some of you I overthrew as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a firebrand snatched from a blaze, yet you did not return to Me,”

I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have you not returned to me, says the LORD.

12 “Therefore, that is what I will do to you, O Israel, and since I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!

Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel: and because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel.

13 For behold, He who forms the mountains, who creates the wind and reveals His thoughts to man, who turns the dawn to darkness and strides on the heights of the earth— the LORD, the God of Hosts, is His name.”

For, see, he that forms the mountains, and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought, that makes the morning darkness, and treads on the high places of the earth, The LORD, The God of hosts, is his name.