Amos 4:1

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

You ²  oppress the poor;

you crush the needy.

You say to your ³  husbands,

“Bring us more to drink!” ⁴ 

Amos 4:4-9

Israel has an Appointment with God

4:4 “Go to Bethel ⁵  and rebel! ⁶ 

At Gilgal ⁷  rebel some more!

Bring your sacrifices in ⁸  the morning,

your tithes on ⁹  the third day!

4:5 Burn a thank offering of bread made with yeast! ¹⁰ 

Make a public display of your voluntary offerings! ¹¹ 

For you love to do this, you Israelites.”

The sovereign Lord is speaking!

4:6 “But surely I gave ¹²  you no food to eat in any of your cities;

you lacked food everywhere you live. ¹³ 

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking!

4:7 “I withheld rain from you three months before the harvest. ¹⁴ 

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

One field ¹⁵  would get rain, but the field that received no rain dried up.

4:8 People from ¹⁶  two or three cities staggered into one city to get ¹⁷  water,

but remained thirsty. ¹⁸ 

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking!

4:9 “I destroyed your crops ¹⁹  with blight and disease.

Locusts kept ²⁰  devouring your orchards, ²¹  vineyards, fig trees, and olive trees.

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking!

[4:1]  ¹ sn The expression cows of Bashan is used by the prophet to address the wealthy women of Samaria, who demand that their husbands satisfy their cravings. The derogatory language perhaps suggests that they, like the livestock of Bashan, were well fed, ironically in preparation for the coming slaughter. This phrase is sometimes cited to critique the book’s view of women.

[4:1]  ² tn Heb “the ones who” (three times in this verse).

[4:1]  ³ tn Heb “their.”

[4:1]  ⁴ sn Some commentators relate this scene to the description of the marzeah feast of 6:3-6, in which drinking played a prominent part (see the note at 6:6).

[4:4]  ⁵ sn Bethel and Gilgal were important formal worship centers because of their importance in Israel’s history. Here the Lord ironically urges the people to visit these places so they can increase their sin against him. Their formal worship, because it was not accompanied by social justice, only made them more guilty in God’s sight by adding hypocrisy to their list of sins. Obviously, theirs was a twisted view of the Lord. They worshiped a god of their own creation in order to satisfy their religious impulses (see 4:5: “For you love to do this”). Note that none of the rituals listed in 4:4-5 have to do with sin.

[4:4]  map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[4:4]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew word translated “rebel” (also in the following line) could very well refer here to Israel’s violations of their covenant with God (see also the term “crimes” in 1:3 [with note] and the phrase “covenant transgressions” in 2:4 [with note]; 3:14).

[4:4]  ⁷ sn See the note on Bethel earlier in this verse.

[4:4]  ⁸ tn Or “for.”

[4:4]  ⁹ tn Or “for.”

[4:5]  ¹⁰ sn For the background of the thank offering of bread made with yeast, see Lev 7:13.

[4:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “proclaim voluntary offerings, announce.”

[4:6]  ¹² tn The Hebrew construction is emphatic (pronoun + verb). It underscores the stark contrast between the judgments that the Lord had been sending with the God of blessing Israel was celebrating in its worship (4:4-5).

[4:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “But I gave to you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of food in all your places.” The phrase “cleanness of teeth” is a vivid way of picturing the famine Israel experienced.

[4:7]  ¹⁴ sn Rain…three months before the harvest refers to the rains of late March-early April.

[4:7]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “portion”; KJV, ASV “piece”; NASB “part.” The same word occurs a second time later in this verse.

[4:8]  ¹⁶ tn The words “people from” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[4:8]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “to drink.”

[4:8]  ¹⁸ tn Or “were not satisfied.”

[4:9]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “you.” By metonymy the crops belonging to these people are meant. See the remainder of this verse, which describes the agricultural devastation caused by locusts.

[4:9]  ²⁰ tn The Hiphil infinitive construct is taken adverbially (“kept”) and connected to the activity of the locusts (NJPS). It also could be taken with the preceding sentence and related to the Lord’s interventions (“I kept destroying,” cf. NEB, NJB, NIV, NRSV), or it could be understood substantivally in construct with the following nouns (“Locusts devoured your many orchards,” cf. NASB; cf. also KJV, NKJV).

[4:9]  ²¹ tn Or “gardens.”