Amos 4,7 | New International Version

Israel has not returned to God

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 breaches in the wall. You will be cast out towards 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 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, destroying 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, Israel, prepare to meet your God.’

13 He who forms the mountains, who creates the wind, and who reveals his thoughts to mankind, who turns dawn to darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth – the Lord God Almighty is his name.

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English Standard Version

1 “Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, ‘Bring, that we may drink!’

2 The Lord God has sworn by his holiness that, behold, the days are coming upon you, when they shall take you away with hooks, even the last of you with fishhooks.

3 And you shall go out through the breaches, each one straight ahead; and you shall be cast out into 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 sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened, and proclaim freewill offerings, publish them; for so you love to do, O people of Israel!” declares the Lord God.

Israel Has Not Returned to the Lord

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 yet three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city; one field would have rain, and the field on which it did not rain would wither;

8 so two or three cities would wander to another city to drink water, and would not be satisfied; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord.

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

10 “I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword, and carried away your horses,* and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord.

11 “I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a brand* plucked out of 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 man what is his thought, who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth— the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name!

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