Amos4chapter 4

Bashan was the high plateau east of the Jordan, famous throughout the region for its pasture and for the size of the cattle raised on it. Calling the women of Samaria cows of Bashan was not a joke about weight; it was a comment about being fattened on the best grazing while the herdsmen went hungry.

The invitation to worship is sarcasm with the details right. Bethel and Gilgal were the two main northern shrines, and the practices named — bringing a sacrifice each morning, tithes every three days, a thank offering of leavened bread, freewill offerings loudly announced — describe enthusiastic, generous, above-and-beyond religion. Amos says: come and sin some more, and publish it, for this is what you love.

The five disasters that follow read like a checklist from the covenant curses in the Law, and each is described from the inside. Cleanness of teeth is a polite phrase for nothing to chew. Rain withheld three months from harvest is the latter rain that fills the grain, and rain falling on one city and not another is exactly how spotty a bad year looks. Blight and mildew ruin standing grain, locusts finish the gardens, and plague comes with the armies.

The refrain after each one — yet you did not return to me — is the structure of the chapter. Five warnings, five refusals, and then the summons: prepare to meet your God, O Israel.