Amos 4

¹ Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria, who oppress the poor, crush the needy, and say to your masters, “Bring it, and let’s drink!”

² The Lord GOD has sworn by his holiness: “Look, the days are coming upon you when you will be carried away with hooks, and the last of you with fishhooks.

³ You will go out through the breaches, each straight ahead, and be cast out toward Harmon,” says the LORD.

⁴ Come to Bethel and rebel; come to Gilgal and rebel even more! Bring your sacrifices every morning and your tithes every third day.

⁵ Burn leavened bread as a thank offering, announce your freewill offerings, and make them heard, for that is what you love, people of Israel”—declares the Lord GOD.

⁶ For my part, I gave you clean teeth in all your towns and a lack of bread everywhere you lived; yet you did not return to me,” declares the LORD.

⁷ I also withheld the rain from you when three months still remained before the harvest. I sent rain on one town, but not on another; one field received rain, while the field that got none dried up.

⁸ Two or three towns staggered to another town to drink water, but could not get enough; yet you did not return to me,” declares the LORD.

⁹ I struck you with blight and mildew; the locust devoured your many gardens, your vineyards, your fig trees, and your olive trees; yet you did not return to me,” declares the LORD.

¹⁰ I sent a plague among you like the one in Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword, along with your captured horses, and made the stench of your camps rise into your nostrils; yet you did not return to me,” declares the LORD.

¹¹ I overthrew you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a stick snatched from the fire; yet you did not return to me,” declares the LORD.

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

¹³ For here is the one who forms the mountains and creates the wind, who tells human beings what they are thinking, who turns dawn into darkness and walks on the heights of the earth: the LORD, God of Armies, is his name.

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