Amos 4:1-11 ▼

1 Listen to this message, you cows of Bashan who live on Mount Samaria. You women oppress the poor and abuse the needy. You say to your husbands, |Get some wine! Let's drink!|

2 The Almighty LORD has taken an oath on his holiness: Surely, the time is going to come when you will be taken away on hooks, and the rest of you on fishhooks.

3 Each of you will leave [the city] through breaks in the wall, one woman ahead of another. You will be thrown into a garbage dump. The LORD declares this.

4 Go to Bethel and sin. Go to Gilgal and sin even more. Bring your sacrifices every morning. Bring a tenth of your income every three days.

5 Burn bread as a thank offering. Brag and boast about your freewill offerings. This is what you people of Israel love to do. The Almighty LORD declares this.

6 I left you with nothing to eat in any of your cities. I left you with no food in your entire land. And you still didn't return to me, declares the LORD.

7 I stopped the rain from falling three months before the harvest. I sent rain on one city and not on another. One field had rain. Another field had none and dried up.

8 So people from two or three cities staggered as they walked to another city in order to get a drink of water. But they couldn't get enough. And you still didn't return to me, declares the LORD.

9 I struck your [crops] with blight and mildew. Locusts repeatedly devoured your gardens, vineyards, fig trees, and olive trees. And you still didn't return to me, declares the LORD.

10 I sent plagues on you as I did to Egypt. With swords I killed your best young men along with your captured horses. I made the stench from your camps fill your noses. And you still didn't return to me, declares the LORD.

11 I destroyed some of you as I destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. You were like a burning log snatched from a fire. And you still didn't return to me, declares the LORD.