Amos 4
Authorized (King James) Version
4 Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan,
that are in the mountain of Samaria,
which oppress the poor, which crush the needy,
which say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink.
2 The Lord God hath sworn by his holiness,
that, lo, the days shall come upon you,
that he will take you away with hooks,
and your posterity with fishhooks.
3 And ye shall go out at the breaches,
every cow at that which is before her;
and ye shall cast them into the palace,
saith the Lord.
4 Come to Beth-el, and transgress;
at Gilgal multiply transgression;
and bring your sacrifices every morning,
and your tithes after three years:
5 and offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven,
and proclaim and publish the free offerings:
for this liketh you, O ye children of Israel,
saith the Lord God.
6 And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities,
and want of bread in all your places:
yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.
7 And also I have withholden the rain from you,
when there were yet three months to the harvest:
and I caused it to rain upon one city,
and caused it not to rain upon another city:
one piece was rained upon,
and the piece whereupon it rained not withered.
8 So two or three cities wandered unto one city, to drink water;
but they were not satisfied:
yet have ye not returned unto me,
saith the Lord.
9 I have smitten you with blasting and mildew:
when your gardens and your vineyards
and your fig trees and your olive trees increased,
the palmerworm devoured them:
yet have ye not returned unto me,
saith the Lord.
10 I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt:
your young men have I slain with the sword,
and have taken away your horses;
and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils:
yet have ye not returned unto me,
saith the Lord.
11 I have overthrown some of you,
as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,
and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning:
yet have ye not returned unto me,
saith the Lord.
12 Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel:
and because I will do this unto thee,
prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.
13 For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind,
and declareth unto man what is his thought,
that maketh the morning darkness,
and treadeth upon the high places of the earth,
The Lord, The God of hosts, is his name.
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!
KJV reproduced by permission of Cambridge University Press, the Crown’s patentee in the UK.
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.
