“Go to Bethel(A) and sin;
    go to Gilgal(B) and sin yet more.
Bring your sacrifices every morning,(C)
    your tithes(D) every three years.[a](E)
Burn leavened bread(F) as a thank offering
    and brag about your freewill offerings(G)
boast about them, you Israelites,
    for this is what you love to do,”
declares the Sovereign Lord.

“I gave you empty stomachs in every city
    and lack of bread in every town,
    yet you have not returned to me,”
declares the Lord.(H)

“I also withheld(I) rain from you
    when the harvest was still three months away.
I sent rain on one town,
    but withheld it from another.(J)
One field had rain;
    another had none and dried up.
People staggered from town to town for water(K)
    but did not get enough(L) to drink,
    yet you have not returned(M) to me,”
declares the Lord.(N)

“Many times I struck your gardens and vineyards,
    destroying them with blight and mildew.(O)
Locusts(P) devoured your fig and olive trees,(Q)
    yet you have not returned(R) to me,”
declares the Lord.

10 “I sent plagues(S) among you
    as I did to Egypt.(T)
I killed your young men(U) with the sword,
    along with your captured horses.
I filled your nostrils with the stench(V) of your camps,
    yet you have not returned to me,”(W)
declares the Lord.(X)

11 “I overthrew some of you
    as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.(Y)
You were like a burning stick(Z) snatched from the fire,
    yet you have not returned to me,”
declares the Lord.(AA)

12 “Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel,
    and because I will do this to you, Israel,
    prepare to meet your God.”

13 He who forms the mountains,(AB)
    who creates the wind,(AC)
    and who reveals his thoughts(AD) to mankind,
who turns dawn to darkness,
    and treads on the heights of the earth(AE)
    the Lord God Almighty is his name.(AF)

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Footnotes

  1. Amos 4:4 Or days

“Come to Bethel and transgress; to Gilgal and multiply transgression![a] Bring your sacrifices in the morning and your tithes on the third day.[b] And bring a thank offering of unleavened bread, and proclaim freewill offerings, pronounce them, for so you love to do, O people[c] of Israel,” is the declaration of my Lord Yahweh. “And I[d] in turn gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities and lack of bread in all your places. Yet you did not return to me,” is the declaration of Yahweh. “And I also withheld the rain from you when there were still three months to the harvest. And I would send rain on one city and send no rain on another city. One tract of land will be rained on, and the tract of land on which it does not rain[e] will dry up. So two or three cities wandered to one city to drink water and they were not satisfied, yet you did not return to me,” is the declaration of Yahweh. “I struck you with blight and with mildew. Frequently the cutting locust devoured your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees, yet you did not return to me,” is the declaration of Yahweh. 10 “I sent among you a plague in the manner of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword, along with the captivity of your horses. And I made the stench of your camps go up into your nostrils, yet you did not return to me,” is the declaration of Yahweh. 11 “I overthrew some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a stick snatched from the fire, and yet you did not return to me,” is the declaration of Yahweh. 12 “Therefore, thus I will do to you, O Israel. Because I will do this to you, O Israel, prepare to meet your God! 13 Yes, here is the one who forms the mountains, and the one who creates the wind, and the one who reveals to humans what his thoughts are, and the one who treads on the heights of the earth; Yahweh, the God of hosts, is his name!”

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Footnotes

  1. Amos 4:4 Literally “increase to transgress”
  2. Amos 4:4 Literally “for three of days”
  3. Amos 4:5 Literally “children”
  4. Amos 4:6 Emphatic use of personal pronoun
  5. Amos 4:7 Literally “which does not rain down on it”