Amos 4

Israel Has Not Returned to the LORD

1 Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on the mountain of Samaria, you who oppress the poor and crush the needy, who say to your husbands, “Bring us something to drink.”

2 The Lord GOD has sworn by His holiness: the days are coming when they will drag you away with hooks, the last of you with fishhooks.

3 You will go out through broken walls, each one straight ahead, and you will be thrown out toward Harmon,” says the LORD.

4 “Go ahead, go to Bethel and keep sinning. Go to Gilgal and sin even more. Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days.

5 Burn thank offerings with leaven and brag about your freewill offerings, because that is what you love to do, people of Israel,” says the Lord GOD.

6 “I gave you empty stomachs in every city and lack of bread in every place, yet you did not return to Me,” says the LORD.

7 “I held back rain from you while there were still three months to harvest. I sent rain on one city but not another. One field had rain, another dried up.

8 People staggered from city to city looking for water but still were not satisfied, yet you did not return to Me,” says the LORD.

9 “I struck your crops with blight and mildew. Locusts devoured your gardens and vineyards, your fig trees and olive trees, yet you did not return to Me,” says the LORD.

10 “I sent plagues among you like I did in Egypt. I killed your young men with the sword along with your captured horses. I filled your noses with the stench of your camps, yet you did not return to Me,” says the LORD.

11 “I overthrew some of you like God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a burning stick snatched from the fire, yet you did not return to Me,” says the LORD.

12 “So this is what I am going to do to you, Israel. Because I am about to do this, get ready to meet your God.”

13 He is the One who forms the mountains, creates the wind, and tells man what his thoughts are. He turns dawn into darkness and walks on the high places of the earth. The LORD God of armies is His name.