1 Listen to this word, you cows of Bashan, you wo men who live on the hills of Samaria, who oppress the weak and abuse the needy, who order your husbands, “Bring us something to drink quickly!”
2 Yahweh has sworn by his holiness, “The time is coming upon you when you will be dragged away with hooks, even the last of you with fish hooks.
3 Through the breaks in the wall you will go out, straight ahead, driven out all the way to Hermon.” It is Yahweh who speaks.
Prepare to meet your God
4 “Come, sinners, to the Sanc tuary in Bethel, go down to Gilgal and sin even more!
Each morning bring your sacrifices and on the third day your tithes. Burn leavened food for thanksgiving.
5 Proclaim in public your freewill offering, for this is what makes you happy, people of Israel,” says Yahweh.
6 “Though I have made your teeth clean of food in every city, though I have made your bread in all your dwellings scarce, yet you did not return to me,” says Yahweh.
7 “Though I withheld rain from you when the harvest was still three months away, though I sent rain upon one town and withheld it from another,
8 though people staggered from town to town, and found no water to quench their thirst, yet you never returned to me,” says Yahweh.
9 “Though with blight and calamities I have stricken your garden and vineyard, though your fig and olive trees were devoured by the locusts, yet you never returned to me,” says Yahweh.
10 “Though as in Egypt I sent you a plague, though I slew your young men with the sword along with your captured horses, and nauseated you with stench from your own dead, yet you never returned to me,” says Yahweh.
11 “I overthrew you, a divine punishment, as happened to Sodom and Go morrah; you were like a brand snatched from the blaze, yet you never returned to me,” says Yahweh.
12 “Therefore I will deal with you in my own way, Israel, and since I will do this to you, prepare, Israel, to meet your God!”
13 For it is he who makes the thunder and creates the winds, and makes people know why he did, who turns dawn to twilight, who strides upon the heights of the earth – Yahweh, God of hosts, is his name.
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Comments Amos, Chapter 4
• 4.1 It is worth noting how Amos deals with rich and selfish women. He compares them with nothing less than the cows of Bashan. Bashan is on the other side of the Jordan and is famous in the Old Testament for its fattened flocks.
These women are getting fat at the expense of the poor and all they know is how to make cocktails. Amos announces the day when they will be taken from the conquered capital and exiled with as little consideration as that given to a herd of cattle.
• 4. Amos recalls the many hardships and trials which gave the people of Israel an opportunity for reflection.
He notes the contrast between the luxury, the frequency of religious celebrations and the evil behavior of the people. They think that if they go through the rituals and offer sacrifices, God will not pay attention to their evil ways. But that is not the way it is.