Two Weeks on the Old Testament
Reading #14: Amos 4- A prophet's stern warning
1 Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria, you
women who oppress the poor and crush the needy and say to your
husbands, "Bring us some drinks!"
2 The Sovereign LORD has sworn by his holiness: "The time
will surely come when you will be taken away with hooks, the last
of you with fishhooks.
3 You will each go straight out through breaks in the wall, and
you will be cast out toward Harmon," declares the LORD.
4 "Go to Bethel and sin; go to Gilgal and sin yet more.
Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three
years.
5 Burn leavened bread as a thank offering and brag about your
freewill offerings-- boast about them, you Israelites, for this
is what you love to do," declares the Sovereign LORD.
6 "I gave you empty stomachs [3] in every city and lack of
bread in every town, yet you have not returned to me,"
declares the LORD.
7 "I also withheld rain from you when the harvest was still
three months away. I sent rain on one town, but withheld it from
another. One field had rain; another had none and dried up.
8 People staggered from town to town for water but did not get
enough to drink, yet you have not returned to me," declares
the LORD.
9 "Many times I struck your gardens and vineyards, I struck
them with blight and mildew. Locusts devoured your fig and olive
trees, yet you have not returned to me," declares the LORD.
10 "I sent plagues among you as I did to Egypt. I killed
your young men with the sword, along with your captured horses. I
filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps, yet you have
not returned to me," declares the LORD.
11 "I overthrew some of you as I overthrew Sodom and
Gomorrah. You were like a burning stick snatched from the fire,
yet you have not returned 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, O Israel."
13 He who forms the mountains, creates the wind, and reveals his
thoughts to man, he who turns dawn to darkness, and treads the
high places of the earth-- the LORD God Almighty is his name.