Amos 4

¹ Hear this word, you cows of Bashan
on the mountain of Samaria,
you who oppress the poor,
who crush the needy,
who say to your husbands,
"Bring, and let us drink!"

² The Lord GOD has sworn by his holiness:
"Behold, the days are coming upon you
when they will take you away with hooks,
even the last of you with fishhooks.

³ You will go out through the breaches,
each one straight ahead,
and you will be cast out toward Harmon,"
declares the LORD.

⁴ "Come to Bethel and transgress;
to Gilgal and multiply transgression!
Bring your sacrifices every morning,
your tithes every three days.

⁵ Offer a thanksgiving sacrifice of leavened bread,
and proclaim freewill offerings — announce them!
For so you love to do, O people of Israel,"
declares the Lord GOD.

⁶ "I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities
and lack of bread in all your places,
yet you did not return to me,"
declares the LORD.

⁷ "I also withheld the rain from you
when there were still three months to the harvest.
I sent rain on one city
and withheld rain from another city.
One field received rain,
and the field on which it did not rain withered.

⁸ Two or three cities staggered to another city
to drink water, but were not satisfied;
yet you did not return to me,"
declares the LORD.

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

¹⁰ "I sent a plague among you
after the manner of Egypt.
I killed your young men with the sword,
along with your captured horses.
I made the stench of your camp rise into your nostrils;
yet you did not return to me,"
declares the LORD.

¹¹ "I overthrew some of you
as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,
and you were like a brand snatched from the burning;
yet you did not return to me,"
declares the LORD.

¹² "Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel;
because I will do this to you,
prepare to meet your God, O Israel!"

¹³ For behold, he who forms the mountains
and creates the wind
and declares to mankind what his thought is,
who makes the morning darkness
and treads on the heights of the earth —
the LORD, the God of hosts, is his name.