Amoschapter 4
13 verses · KJVAmos book hub →
Key verse
Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.
It stands in Prepare to meet your God, O Israel, verses 12 to 13.
The chapter
Chapter summary
'Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan': Samaria's pampered women who crush the needy and say to their lords, Bring, and let us drink. Then bitter parody of pilgrimage: 'Come to Beth-el, and transgress; to Gilgal, and multiply transgression': sacrifice every morning, tithe every three days, 'for this pleaseth you, O ye children of Israel.' Five disciplines follow, each closing with the same refrain, 'yet have ye not returned unto me, saith Jehovah': famine, drought, blight and locust, plague and sword, overthrow like Sodom: 'and ye were as a brand plucked out of the burning.' Hence the summons: 'prepare to meet thy God, O Israel' (4:12).
Context
Prophecy · Amos · Amos overview
The world behind this chapter
Amos 4The history
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 rest of the history, and what it meant to them
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.
What it meant to them
The hearers' religious life was thriving. Attendance was up, giving was generous, festivals were crowded. Amos's charge is that all of it was worship of themselves, offered to a God they had not obeyed in a single matter of justice.
The last verse names who is speaking, and it is deliberately overwhelming: the one who forms the mountains, creates the wind, and makes the morning darkness. A people who had shrunk God to the size of a shrine were being introduced to him again.
Sources cited
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews, Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
- Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament: The Minor Prophets
Where the chapter sits
Amos 4 falls in Sermons against Israel (chapters 3–6). The cows of Bashan, the summer-house-and-winter-house wealthy, those who drink wine in bowls, comfortable Israel indicted.
Before it: Oracles against the nations, chapters 1–2. After it: Five visions and restoration promise, chapters 7–9.
The whole shape of Amos→The structure of this chapter
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. Cows of Bashan dragged away with hooksvv. 1-3
ye kine of Bashan: Amos names the wealthy women of Samaria kine of Bashan, cattle fattened on that region's famous pasture, sleek and demanding, who press their husbands for wine while the poor go crushed beneath them. The bench reads the insult as aimed at appetite rather than at sex as such, a whole class fed fat on extortion. The oath answers the picture with hooks and fishhooks, the captors leading the fattened women out through breaches in the wall the way a fisherman strings his catch, each led out in her turn to be cast beyond the ruined palace.
Amos 4:1
“Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan,.... Or "cows of Bashan" (n); a country beyond Jordan, inhabited by the tribes of Gad and Reuben, and the half tribe of Manasseh, very fruitful of pasturage, and where abundance of fat cattle were brought up; to whom persons of distinction, and of the first rank, are here compared.”
2 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Amos 4:1
“Hear ye this, ye kine of Bashan - The pastures of Bashan were very rich, and it had its name probably from its richness of soil . The Batanea of later times was a province only of the kingdom of Bashan, which, with half of Gilead, was given to the half tribe of Manasseh.”
Amos 4:1
“This accounts for masculine forms in the Hebrew being intermixed with feminine; the latter being figurative, the former the real persons meant. say to their masters--that is, to their king, with whom the princes indulged in potations (Ho 7:5), and whom here they importune for more wine. "Bring" is singular, in the Hebrew implying that one "master" alone is meant.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Amos 4:2
“The Lord--the same Hebrew as "masters" (Am 4:1). Israel's nobles say to their master or lord, Bring us drink: but "the Lord" of him and them "hath sworn," &c. by his holiness--which binds Him to punish the guilty (Ps 89:35). he will take yon away--that is God by the instrumentality of the enemy. with hooks--literally, "thorns" (compare 2Ch 33:11).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Amos 4:2
“He will take you away with hooks - Two modes of fishing are here alluded to: 1. Angling with rod, line, and baited hook. 2. That with the gaff, eel-spear, harpoon, or such like; the first used in catching small fish, by which the common people may be here represented; the second, for catching large fish, such as leave the sea, and come up the rivers to deposit their spawn; or such as are caught in the sea, as sharks, whales, dolphins, and even the hippopotamus, to which the more powerful and opulent inhabitants may be likened.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Amos 4:3
“Ye shall go out through the breaches - Samaria, the place of their ease and confidence, being broken through, they should go forth one by one, “each straight before her,” looking neither to the right nor to the left, as a herd of cows go one after the other through a gap in a fence. Help and hope have vanished, and they hurry pell-mell after one another, reckless and desperate, as the animals whose life of sense they had chosen.”
1 more voice on this verse
Amos 4:3
“Rather, "ye shall cast yourselves into the palace," so as to escape from it out of the city [CALVIN]. The palace, the scene of the princes' riots (Am 3:10, 15; 4:1), is to be the scene of their ignominious flight.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
B. Come to Bethel and transgress: you love it sovv. 4-5
Come to Beth–el, and transgress: The invitation is irony dressed as liturgy: come to Bethel and transgress, at Gilgal multiply transgression, bring sacrifices and tithes as if devotion at the wrong altar could please the Lord who set up neither. Beth-el and Gilgal were the kingdom's own shrines, rivals to Jerusalem since Jeroboam's calves, and the mock summons names worship performed with real enthusiasm and no obedience. Leaven forbidden in Leviticus 2:11 offered here as thanksgiving, and free offerings publicly proclaimed, are read by the bench as religion loved for its show, for this liketh you closing the verse on the worshippers' own taste rather than God's command.
Amos 4:4
“Come to Bethel and transgress,.... and what follows, are ironic and sarcastic speeches, not giving liberty to sin, but in this way reproving for it: Bethel was one of the places where the calves were placed and worshipped: and here they are bid to go thither, and go on with and continue in their idolatrous worship, by which they transgressed the law of God, and mark what would be the issue of it.”
Amos 4:5
“And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven - But amid this boastful service, all was self-will. In little or great, the calf-worship at Bethel, or the use of leaven in the sacrifice, they did as they willed. The prophet seems to have joined purposely the fundamental change, by which Jeroboam substituted the worship of nature for its God, and a minute alteration of the ritual, to show that one and the same temper, self-will, reigned in all, dictated all they did.”
1 more voice on this verse
Amos 4:5
“Though unleavened cakes were to accompany the peace offering sacrifice of animals, leavened bread was also commanded (Le 7:12, 13), but not as a "meat offering" (Le 2:11). this liketh you--that is, this is what ye like.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
C. Yet you have not returned to me
1. (vv. 6-8)
Amos 4:6
“Cleanness of teeth - Scarcity of bread, as immediately explained. Ye shall have no trouble in cleaning your teeth, for ye shall have nothing to eat. Yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord - This reprehension is repeated live times in this chapter; and in it are strongly implied God’s longsuffering, his various modes of fatherly chastisement, the ingratitude of the people, and their obstinate wickedness. The famine mentioned here is supposed to be that which is spoken of 2Ki 8:1; but it is most likely to have been that mentioned by Joel, chaps. 1 and 2.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Amos 4:6
“Or, I have given you emptiness of teeth, nothing to fill your mouths with. " Bread, the staff of life, has been wanting, for you have sown much and brought in little, " as Hag. i. Some think this refers to that seven years' famine that was in Elisha's time, which we read of 2 Kings viii.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Amos 4:7
“And I, I too have withholden the rain - Jerome, dwelling in Palestine, says, that “this rain, when “three months yet remained until harvest,” was the “latter rain,” of the very greatest necessity for the fields of Palestine and the thirsty ground, lest, when the blade is swelling into the crop, and gendering the wheat, it should dry up through lack of moisture.”
1 more voice on this verse
Amos 4:7
“Now, [1.] By this it appeared that the withholding of the rain was not casual, but by a divine direction and disposal, and that the cloud which waters the earth is turned round about by the counsels of God, to do whatsoever he commands it, whether for correction, or for his land, or for his mercy, Job xxxvii.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Amos 4:8
Two or three cities wandered into one city - Those then who were punished, were more than those who were reprieved. The word “wandered” literally, “trembled,” expresses the unsteady reeling gate of those exhausted, in quest of food . They staggered through weakness, and uncertain, amid the general drought, whither to betake themselves. This was done, not in punishment but to heal. God paused, in order to give them opportunity to repent; in deed, His long-suffering only showed to themselves and to others, that they would not; “and ye returned not not Me; saith the Lord.”
cleanness of teeth: The first two of five disciplines begin here, each closing on the same refrain: cleanness of teeth, famine so complete there is nothing left to chew, and want of bread in every place, then withheld rain measured out city by city, one field watered and its neighbor left to wither. The bench reads the selective drought as deliberate proof against any claim of accident, since a rain that stops at a boundary line argues a hand rather than a season. Yet have ye not returned unto me: the refrain the chapter turns on, each plague a summons refused.
2. (vv. 9-11)
Amos 4:9
“Their vineyards and gardens yielded their increase in great abundance, so did their fig-trees and olive-trees; but the palmer-worm devoured them before the fruits were ripe, and fit to be gathered in. This was either the same judgment with that which we read of Joel i. 4-6 , or a less judgment of the same nature, sent before to give warning of that.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 more voices on this verse
Amos 4:9
“I have smitten you with blasting - Literally, “an exceeding scorching,” such as the hot east wind produced, and “an exceeding mildew,” a blight, in which the ears turn untimely a pale yellow, and have no grain. Both words are doubly intensive. They stand together in the prophecy of Moses Deu 28:22, among the other scourges of disobedience; and the mention of these would awaken, in those who would hear, the memory of a long train of other warnings and other judgments.”
Amos 4:9
“I have smitten you with blasting and mildew,.... "Blasting" is what we commonly call "blights", generally occasioned by an east wind; and so Kimchi interprets the word here used; and the Vulgate Latin version renders it, "a burning wind"; which causes the buds and leaves of trees to shrivel up as if they were burnt with fire.”
Amos 4:10
“I sent death upon you on the way of Egypt, I killed your young men with the captivity of your horses. And I made the stench of your camps go up into your nostrils, and you did not return to me, says the Lord. LXX: I sent death upon you on the way of Egypt, and I killed your young men with the captivity of your horses. And I led your camps in fire in my anger, and yet you did not return to me, says the Lord.”
Jerome· written before 420· Commentary on Amospatristic
2 more voices on this verse
Amos 4:10
I have given up your young men to be slain, and their horses to be taken by the foe (compare 2Ki 13:7). stink of your camps--that is, of your slain men (compare Isa 34:3; Joe 2:20). to come up unto your nostrils--The Hebrew is more emphatic, "to come up, and that unto your nostrils."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Amos 4:10
“The pestilence is God's messenger; this he sent among them, with directions whom to strike dead, and it was done. It was a pestilence after the manner of Egypt; deaths were scattered among them by the hand of a destroying angel at midnight.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Amos 4:11
“Perhaps they were consumed with lightning, as Sodom was, or the houses were, in some other way, burnt to the ground, and the inhabitants in them. Sodom and Gomorrah are said to be condemned with an overthrow, and so made an example, 2 Pet. ii.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 more voices on this verse
Amos 4:11
“I have overthrown some of you - The earthquake is probably reserved to the last, as being the rarest, and so the most special, visitation. Frequent as earthquakes have been on the borders of Palestine, the greater part of Palestine was not on the line, which was especially shaken by them. The line, chiefly visited by earthquakes, was along the coast of the Mediterranean or parallel to it, chiefly from Tyre to Antioch and Aleppo.”
Amos 4:11
"God" is often repeated in Hebrew instead of "I." The earthquake here apparently alluded to is not that in the reign of Uzziah, which occurred "two years" later (Am 1:1). Traces of earthquakes and volcanic agency abound in Palestine. The allusion here is to some of the effects of these in previous times.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
blasting and mildew: take the crop the drought spared, the pestilence after the manner of Egypt takes the young men, and the last discipline is named outright: I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, the nation's own history turned into its own warning. The firebrand plucked out of the burning is read by the bench as a rescue too narrow to notice, a remnant spared from a judgment that reached the rest, and the refrain closes each plague exactly as before, yet have ye not returned unto me. Five disciplines in a row and not one turned the nation back.
D. Prepare to meet your God, O Israelvv. 12-13
prepare to meet thy God: The refrain breaks: since correction failed, the word changes from discipline to confrontation, therefore thus will I do unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel, a phrase the bench reads as summons to judgment rather than to worship. The doxology that follows, he that formeth the mountains and createth the wind, is the first of three such hymns scattered through the book (5:8-9, 9:5-6), each naming the Creator right where judgment is announced, so that the God Israel must meet is identified beyond appeal. The Lord, the God of hosts, is his name closes the chapter on the same divine name the whole book repeats as its anchor.
Amos 4:12
“Therefore thus will I do unto thee - I will continue my judgments, I will fight against you; and, because I am thus determined: - Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel - This is a military phrase, and is to be understood as a challenge to come out to battle. As if the Lord had said, I will attack you immediately. Throw yourselves into a posture of defense, summon your idols to your help: and try how far your strength, and that of your gods, will avail you against the unconquerable arm of the Lord of hosts!”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Amos 4:13
“The God whom Israel is to "prepare to meet" (Am 4:12) is here described in sublime terms. wind--not as the Margin, "spirit." The God with whom thou hast to do is the Omnipotent Maker of things seen, such as the stupendous mountains, and of things too subtle to be seen, though of powerful agency, as the "wind." declareth unto man . . . his thought-- (Ps 139:2).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Amos 4:13
“But if any one thinks that the word of the prophet is to be explained with reference to the Holy Spirit, because it is said, "declaring unto men his Christ," he will explain it more easily of the Lord's Sun of justice. For if it troubles you that he said Spirit, and therefore you think that this cannot well be explained of the mystery of the taking of human nature, read on in the Scriptures, and you will find that all agrees most excellently with Christ.”
Ambrose of Milan· written before 397· On the Holy Spirit, Book 2patristic
Amos 4:13
“For lo, He that formeth the mountains - Their God whom they worshiped was but nature. Amos tells them, who “their God” is, whom they were to prepare to meet. He describes Him as the Creator of that, which to man seems most solid, to go furthest back in times past. Before the everlasting mountains were, God is, for He made them. Yet God is not a Creator in the past alone.”
This page carries no textual note on Amos 4. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.