Amos 4
English Standard Version
4 “Hear this word, (A)you cows of Bashan,
who are (B)on the mountain of Samaria,
(C)who oppress the poor, (D)who crush the needy,
who say to your husbands, ‘Bring, that we may drink!’
2 (E)The Lord God has sworn by his holiness
that, behold, the days are coming upon you,
(F)when they shall take you away with hooks,
(G)even the last of you with fishhooks.
3 (H)And you shall go out through the breaches,
each one straight ahead;
and you shall be cast out into Harmon,”
declares the Lord.
4 (I)“Come to Bethel, and transgress;
to (J)Gilgal, and multiply transgression;
(K)bring your (L)sacrifices every morning,
your tithes every three days;
5 offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of (M)that which is leavened,
and proclaim (N)freewill offerings, publish them;
(O)for so you love to do, O people of Israel!”
declares the Lord God.
Israel Has Not Returned to the Lord
6 “I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities,
and (P)lack of bread in all your places,
(Q)yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.
7 “I also (R)withheld the rain from you
when there were yet three months to the harvest;
(S)I would send rain on one city,
and send no rain on another city;
one field would have rain,
and the field on which it did not rain would wither;
8 so two or three cities (T)would wander to another city
to drink water, and would not be satisfied;
(U)yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.
9 (V)“I struck you with blight and mildew;
your many gardens and your vineyards,
your fig trees and your olive trees (W)the locust devoured;
(X)yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.
10 “I sent among you a pestilence (Y)after the manner of Egypt;
I killed your young men with the sword,
and (Z)carried away your horses,[a]
and (AA)I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils;
(AB)yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.
11 “I overthrew some of you,
(AC)as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,
and you were (AD)as a brand[b] plucked out of the burning;
(AE)yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.
12 “Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel;
because I will do this to you,
prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”
Amos 4
New Living Translation
Israel’s Failure to Learn
4 Listen to me, you fat cows[a]
living in Samaria,
you women who oppress the poor
and crush the needy,
and who are always calling to your husbands,
“Bring us another drink!”
2 The Sovereign Lord has sworn this by his holiness:
“The time will come when you will be led away
with hooks in your noses.
Every last one of you will be dragged away
like a fish on a hook!
3 You will be led out through the ruins of the wall;
you will be thrown from your fortresses,[b]”
says the Lord.
4 “Go ahead and offer sacrifices to the idols at Bethel.
Keep on disobeying at Gilgal.
Offer sacrifices each morning,
and bring your tithes every three days.
5 Present your bread made with yeast
as an offering of thanksgiving.
Then give your extra voluntary offerings
so you can brag about it everywhere!
This is the kind of thing you Israelites love to do,”
says the Sovereign Lord.
6 “I brought hunger to every city
and famine to every town.
But still you would not return to me,”
says the Lord.
7 “I kept the rain from falling
when your crops needed it the most.
I sent rain on one town
but withheld it from another.
Rain fell on one field,
while another field withered away.
8 People staggered from town to town looking for water,
but there was never enough.
But still you would not return to me,”
says the Lord.
9 “I struck your farms and vineyards with blight and mildew.
Locusts devoured all your fig and olive trees.
But still you would not return to me,”
says the Lord.
10 “I sent plagues on you
like the plagues I sent on Egypt long ago.
I killed your young men in war
and led all your horses away.[c]
The stench of death filled the air!
But still you would not return to me,”
says the Lord.
11 “I destroyed some of your cities,
as I destroyed[d] Sodom and Gomorrah.
Those of you who survived
were like charred sticks pulled from a fire.
But still you would not return to me,”
says the Lord.
12 “Therefore, I will bring upon you all the disasters I have announced.
Prepare to meet your God in judgment, you people of Israel!”
13 For the Lord is the one who shaped the mountains,
stirs up the winds, and reveals his thoughts to mankind.
He turns the light of dawn into darkness
and treads on the heights of the earth.
The Lord God of Heaven’s Armies is his name!
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.