UST AMOS Chapter 4

4 Listen up, you wealthy women of Samaria! You have gorged yourselves on luxuries and grown fat like the cows of the region of Bashan.

You oppress poor people,

and you cause needy people to suffer.

And you say to your husbands,

“Bring us more wine to drink!”

2 But Yahweh our God has said this:

“Because I am holy, I solemnly promise this:

It will soon be the time when you all will be taken to another country;

your enemies will take you away using sharp hooks to grab you.

3 Your enemies will drag you out

and you will go through breaks in your city walls,

and they will force you to go toward Harmon.”

Yahweh has declared this, so it will certainly happen.

4 Go ahead: go to the hilltop places of idol worship that are at Bethel and Gilgal, where many people worship me;

go and rebel more and more against me!

Offer sacrifices on the morning after you arrive,

and bring me a tenth of your crops the next day.

5 Bring offerings of bread to thank me,

and other offerings that are not required,

and boast about these offerings that you bring,

because that is what you like to do;

but you do it to impress others, not to please me.”

Yahweh the Lord has declared this.

6 “What’s more, I am the one who caused there to be no food in any of your cities and towns, yet you did not return to me.” declares Yahweh.

7 Furthermore, when it was still three months before the time of harvesting crops,

at the time when your crops needed rain the most,

I prevented rain from falling.

Sometimes I allowed rain to fall on some towns

and prevented it from falling on other towns.

Rain fell on some fields,

but it did not fall on other fields,

with the result that the soil in those fields where it did not rain dried up.

8 Your people would stagger from one town to another town to find water,

but they could not even get enough water to drink.

Yet, you did not return to me.” declares Yahweh. 9 Many times I struck your crops with disease and mildew.

The locusts devoured your gardens and vineyards,

your fig trees and olive trees, yet you did not return to me.” declares Yahweh.

10 I caused you to experience plagues

like the plagues that I sent to the people of Egypt.

I caused many of your young men to die in battles.

and allowed your enemies to capture your horses.

Many of your soldiers were killed,

and your camps were filled with the smell of their corpses.

Yet, you did not return to me.” declares Yahweh. 11 I got rid of many of you,

like the people in Sodom and Gomorrah.

Those of you who did not die were like a burning stick that was snatched from a fire so that it would not burn completely.

Yet, you did not return to me.” declares Yahweh.

12 So now, you people of Israel, I am going to punish you.

Prepare to stand in front of me, your God, when I judge you!

13 So, listen! I created the mountains,

and the winds.

I reveal to humans what I am thinking.

and sometimes cause the daylight to become dark like the night.

I rule over everything,

and even walk on the highest mountains on the earth!

I am Yahweh, commander of the angel armies!”

◄ AMOS 4 ► ║ ©

AMOS C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9