Amos Chapter 4
Israel Does Not Learn
1 Listen to this, you cows of Bashan living in Samaria,
you women that oppress the poor and crush the needy,
that tell their husbands, “Bring the wine so we can get drunk!”
2 The Lord Yahveh has sworn by his holiness,
“The time’s coming when they’ll take you away with meat hooks,
the last of you like fish on hooks.
3You’ll leave through the breaches in the walls,
each one straight ahead.
You’ll be thrown out into Harmon/Mt. Hermon.” Amos 4:1-3
4“Go sacrifice at Bethel and sin;
multiply your disobedience in Gilgal!
Bring your sacrifices every morning,
your tithes every three days.
5Offer a thank offering with yeast in it;
declare freewill offerings and brag about it.
That’s what you like to do, you people in Israel.
6“I brought hunger to all your towns,
clean teeth everywhere you live;
yet you haven’t come back to me.
Amos 4:4-6
7“I kept it from raining
when it was still three months till harvest.
Then I’d let it rain on one city
and not on another.
One place would get rain;
the place that didn’t, would dry up.
8So two or three towns would stagger to another to get a drink,
but they wouldn’t get enough;
yet you haven’t come back to me.
9“I struck you with blight and mildew,
and laid waste your orchards and vineyards.
The locusts ate your fig trees and olives;
yet you haven’t come back to me.”
Amos 4:7-9
10“I sent a plague among you like I did in Egypt;
I killed your young men with the sword
along with your captured horses.
I made the stench in your camp fill your nostrils;
yet you haven’t come back to me.
11“I overthrew you like I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah;
your survivors were like charred stakes snatched from the fire;
yet you haven’t come back to me.
Amos 4:10-11
12“Because I’m going to do this to you, Israel,
prepare to meet your God.”
13 The One that builds mountains and creates wind,
and reveals to people what he’s thinking,
the One that turns dawn into darkness
and walks on mountaintops—