Amos 4

Pampered rich cows of Samaria

Toasting the ladies of Samaria

1Listen to me, you pampered cows, [1]
Women grazing on Samaria’s hills, [2]
Cheating the poor
And stealing from people
Who struggle to survive.
Yeah, it’s you women who say
To the man of the house,
“I could use another drink about now.”
2As sure as the LORD God is holy,
Your day is coming.
So are invaders who’ll drag you away
Like fish on a stinger,
The last of you still flopping in nets.
3They’ll drag you through holes in the wall
Straight out of town.
They’ll throw you to Mount Hermon. [3]

How not to worship God

4Go to Bethel [4] and worship
Like it’s perfectly fine.
Go to Gilgal and worship
Like you’re doing nothing wrong.
Religiously bring your sacrifices every morning.
Bring your tithe every three days. [5]
5Bring some yeast-free bread
As an offering to express your thanks. [6]
On top of that, give something extra
as a voluntary offering.
Then go brag about it.
The LORD God says:
That’s how you Israelites behave.

How God used weather to warn Israel

6I tried to warn you.
I took away your food
And left your cities hungry.
That didn’t get your attention.
You didn’t come back to me,
The LORD says.
7So, I stopped the rain when you needed it most,
Three months before harvesttime.
I sent rain to some towns
And stopped it in others.
One field of crops grew.
Another field went dead dry.
8Thirsty people staggered from town to town
Looking for water.
But they never got all they needed.
That didn’t work, either.
You didn’t come back to me,
The LORD says.
9Next, I infected your gardens and vineyards
With yellowing disease and mold.
I sent locusts to chew up your figs and olives.
That didn’t work.
You didn’t come back to me,
The LORD says.
10I sent deadly plagues, like I did in Egypt.
I sent soldiers to kill your men with swords. [7]
They took your horses when they left.
The reek of death filled your nostrils
Each time you took a breath.
Didn’t work.
You didn’t come back to me,
The LORD says.
11I destroyed you like Sodom and Gomorrah.
Your survivors barely made it out alive.
Yet, you didn’t come back to me,
The LORD says.

Punishment: more of the same

12This is what I have already done to you.
And this is what I’ll keep right on doing.
Israel, get ready to meet your God!
13Just so you don’t miss him,
He’s the one who makes the mountains.
He sends the wind on its way.
He shares his thoughts with people.
He turns on the light at daybreak.
He turns it off at sunset.
He walks the mountains.
His name is the LORD, [8]
And he is the God of everyone.

Footnotes

Intro Notes for Amos

14:1

Literally, “cows of Bashan.” Bashan was a land of pastures in Syria. Herders of Bashan were famous for raising some of the biggest and best livestock in the ancient Middle East. Moses promised the Israelites that they would one day have “Top-grade rams, Bashan-bred” (Deuteronomy 32:14).

24:1

Samaria was the capital city of the northern Jewish nation of Israel. It was also the surrounding region, much like the way New York, New York refers to a city and state. It was also an alternate name for Israel, like “Zion” was for “Jerusalem.”

34:3

The verse is unclear in the Hebrew. The translation is often “Harmon.” But some scholars say it may refer to Mount Hermon in the north. Assyrian invaders had to pass Mount Hermon on their way home, to the north and then to the east.

44:4

Bethel and Gilgal were the main worship areas in the northern Jewish nation of Israel. Jewish law, however, required them to worship only in Jerusalem. See footnote for 3:14.

54:4

This is a little hyperbole. Jews didn’t bring tithes to the worship center every three days. Apparently, Amos is saying they can put all the energy they want into their worship rituals. But we can’t really worship God by doing what he told us not to do. That’s not worship. That’s pretty much the bad side of the pancake.

64:5

A thank offering is one that the worshiper helped eat in a meal. People gave this offering as an expression of thanks or as part of a promise they made to God (Leviticus 7:12-15). This offering was the epitome of the sacrificial system because it provided a way to worship God and to thank him in a joyful way, with a meal.

74:10

This suggests the book of Judges. It’s one cycle after another: the Israelites turn their backs on God to worship idols, God sends invaders and oppressors to punish them, they ask God for help, he sends a leader like Gideon or Samson. Then they repeat that cycle all the way to chaos at the end of the book.

84:13

“LORD,” usually printed in all capital letters, is a name of God that appears around 7,000 times in many English editions of the Christian Bible. That makes it the most common way of referring to God. The lower-case “Lord” is a translation of the Hebrew word Adonai. It refers to God as our master, our life coach, or the boss. He’s in charge of us, and we try to obey him. “LORD” is the spelling most Bibles use when the writer refers to the name of God. Moses asked God what his name was, and God said Moses should tell the Israelite ancestors of the Jews that his name is “I AM” (Exodus 3:14). In the original Hebrew language, the name is spelled with only consonants—no vowels. It’s an ancient shorthand, to save hides used to make scrolls. The name is YHWH. Without knowing which vowels, most scholars have settled on YAHWEH, pronounced YAH-way. God’s name is so sacred to many Jews that they refuse to speak it. Instead, they’ll use names that describe the character of God, such as Adonai, which means “my Lord.” They won’t even write the name. In English, they’ll spell the name G-d.