Amos 4:1-12

4:1 Listen to this message, you cows of Bashan who live on Mount Samaria!

You oppress the poor;

you crush the needy.

You say to your husbands,

“Bring us more to drink!”

4:2 The sovereign Lord confirms this oath by his own holy character:

“Certainly the time is approaching

when you will be carried away in baskets,

every last one of you in fishermen’s pots.

4:3 Each of you will go straight through the gaps in the walls;

you will be thrown out toward Harmon.”

The Lord is speaking!

Israel has an Appointment with God

4:4 “Go to Bethel and rebel!

At Gilgal rebel some more!

Bring your sacrifices in the morning,

your tithes on the third day!

4:5 Burn a thank offering of bread made with yeast!

Make a public display of your voluntary offerings!

For you love to do this, you Israelites.”

The sovereign Lord is speaking!

4:6 “But surely I gave you no food to eat in any of your cities;

you lacked food everywhere you live.

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking!

4:7 “I withheld rain from you three months before the harvest.

I gave rain to one city, but not to another.

One field would get rain, but the field that received no rain dried up.

4:8 People from two or three cities staggered into one city to get water,

but remained thirsty.

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking!

4:9 “I destroyed your crops with blight and disease.

Locusts kept devouring your orchards, vineyards, fig trees, and olive trees.

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking!

4:10 “I sent against you a plague like one of the Egyptian plagues.

I killed your young men with the sword,

along with the horses you had captured.

I made the stench from the corpses rise up into your nostrils.

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking!

4:11 “I overthrew some of you the way God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

You were like a burning stick snatched from the flames.

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking!

4:12 “Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel.

Because I will do this to you,

prepare to meet your God, Israel!