Amos 4:6
in Amos 4“I beset all your cities with cleanness of teeth and all your towns with lack of bread, yet you did not return to Me,” declares the LORD.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places; yet have ye not returned unto me, saith Jehovah.
KJV
And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.
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This verse in Amos 4
Commentary
9 notes on this verse(Verse 4 and following) Come to Bethel, and act wickedly: to Gilgal, and multiply transgression, and bring your morning sacrifices, your tithes for three days. And offer praise with leaven (Vulgate: with fermented dough), and call for voluntary offerings, and proclaim. For thus you have desired, O children of Israel, says the Lord God. Therefore, I have given you the stench of decay in all your cities and the lack of bread in all your places; and you have not returned to me, says the Lord. You entered Bethel and acted wickedly in Gilgal, multiplying your impious acts.
This site's exposition
cleanness of teeth
on Amos 4:6-8
The first two of five disciplines begin here, each closing on one refrain: "cleanness of teeth," and "lack of bread." "I sent rain on one city but withheld it from another," a drought that stops at a boundary and so shows a hand at work.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening4 voices
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.
An I - The Lord who gave many blessings to win you to repentance, hath also tried what might be done by judgments. Cleanness of teeth - This is a description of famine.
And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities,.... Meaning a famine, having no food to foul them with, or to stick in them.
They are invited yet at length to humble themselves before God, since it is impossible for them to make their part good against him,
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
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.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
Ho 7:10); the monotonous repetition of the same burden marking their pitiable obstinacy. cleanness of teeth--explained by the parallel, "want of bread." The famine alluded to is that mentioned in 2Ki 8:1 [GROTIUS]. Where there is no food to masticate, the teeth are free from uncleanness, but it is the cleanness of want.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
And I, I too have given you - Such had been their gifts to God, worthless, because destitute of that which alone God requires of His creatures, a loving, simple, single-hearted, loyal obedience. So then God had but one gift which He could bestow, one only out of the rich storehouse of His mercies, since all besides were abused - chastisement. Yet this too is a great gift of God, a pledge of His love, who willed not that they should perish; an earnest of greater favors, had they used it. It is a great gift of God, that He should care for us, so as to chasten us. The chastisements too were no ordinary chastisements, but those which God forewarned in the law, that He would send, and, if they repented, He would, amid the chastisements, forgive. This famine God had sent everywhere, “in all their cities,” and “in all their places,” great and small. Israel thought that its calves, that is, nature, gave them these things. “She did not know,” God saith, “that I gave her corn and wine and oil;” but said, “These are my rewards that my lovers have given me” Hos 2:8, Hos 2:12. In the powers and operations of “nature,” they forgat the God and Author of nature. It was then the direct corrective of this delusion, that God withheld those powers and functions of nature. So might israel learn, if it would, the vanity of its worship, from its fruitlessness. Some such great famines in the time of Elijah and Elisha 1 Kings 17; 18; 2Ki 8:1-6 Scripture records; but it relates them, only when God visibly interposed to bring, or to remove, or to mitigate them. Amos here speaks of other famines, which God sent, as He foretold in the law, but which produced no genuine fruits of repentance. And ye returned not unto Me - He says not, that they “returned not at all,” but that they “returned not wholly, quite back to God” . […]
The words behind it
17 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְגַם־ | vegam- | and also | H1571 → | 769 times |
| אֲנִי֩ | ʾani | I | H589 → | |
| נָתַ֨תִּי | natati | I gave | H5414 → | 2011 times |
| לָכֶ֜ם | lakhem | to you | ||
| נִקְי֤וֹן | nikyon | cleanness of | H5356 → | |
| שִׁנַּ֙יִם֙ | shinayim | teeth | H8127 → | 55 times |
| בְּכָל־ | bekhol | in all | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| עָ֣רֵיכֶ֔ם | ʾareikhem | cities your | H5892 → | 1090 times |
| וְחֹ֣סֶר | vechoser | and lack of | H2640 → | |
| לֶ֔חֶם | lechem | bread | H3899 → | 298 times |
| בְּכֹ֖ל | bekhol | in all | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| מְקוֹמֹֽתֵיכֶ֑ם | mekomoteikhem | places your | H4725 → | |
| וְלֹֽא־ | velo'- | and not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| שַׁבְתֶּ֥ם | shavtem | you returned | H7725 → | 1056 times |
| עָדַ֖י | ʾadai | to me | H5704 → | 1261 times |
| נְאֻם־ | neum- | [the] utterance of | H5002 → | 376 times |
| יְהוָֽה׃ | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
וְגַם־and also
vegam-H1571 →769 times
אֲנִי֩I
ʾaniH589 →
נָתַ֨תִּיI gave
natatiH5414 →2011 times
לָכֶ֜םto you
lakhem
נִקְי֤וֹןcleanness of
nikyonH5356 →
שִׁנַּ֙יִם֙teeth
shinayimH8127 →55 times
בְּכָל־in all
bekholH3605 →5413 times
עָ֣רֵיכֶ֔םcities your
ʾareikhemH5892 →1090 times
וְחֹ֣סֶרand lack of
vechoserH2640 →
לֶ֔חֶםbread
lechemH3899 →298 times
בְּכֹ֖לin all
bekholH3605 →5413 times
מְקוֹמֹֽתֵיכֶ֑םplaces your
mekomoteikhemH4725 →
וְלֹֽא־and not
velo'-H3808 →5168 times
שַׁבְתֶּ֥םyou returned
shavtemH7725 →1056 times
עָדַ֖יto me
ʾadaiH5704 →1261 times
נְאֻם־[the] utterance of
neum-H5002 →376 times
יְהוָֽה׃Yahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Haggai 2:17I struck you—all the work of your hands—with blight, mildew, and hail, but you did not turn to Me, declares the LORD.
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 28:22
The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, and with blight and mildew; these will pursue you until you perish.
- Haggai 1:11
I have summoned a drought on the fields and on the mountains, on the grain, new wine, and oil, and on whatever the ground yields, on man and beast, and on all the labor…
- Haggai 1:9
You expected much, but behold, it amounted to little. And what you brought home, I blew away. Why? declares the LORD of Hosts. Because My house still lies in ruins, while each of you…
- Amos 4:8–11
People staggered from city to city for water to drink, but they were not satisfied; yet you did not return to Me,” declares the LORD.
- Deuteronomy 28:22
Through
Leviticus 26:26When I cut off your supply of bread, ten women will bake your bread in a single oven and dole out your bread by weight, so that you will eat but not be satisfied.
it leads to
- Micah 6:14
You will eat but not be satisfied, and your hunger will remain with you. What you acquire, you will not preserve; and what you save, I will give to the sword.
- Isaiah 3:1
For behold, the Lord GOD of Hosts is about to remove from Jerusalem and Judah both supply and support: the whole supply of food and water,
- Micah 6:14
Through
Jeremiah 5:3O LORD, do not Your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain. You finished them off, but they refused to accept discipline. They have made their faces harder than…
it leads to
- Jeremiah 2:30
“I have struck your sons in vain; they accepted no discipline. Your own sword has devoured your prophets like a voracious lion.”
- Jeremiah 7:28
Therefore you must say to them, ‘This is the nation that would not listen to the voice of the LORD their God and would not receive correction. Truth has perished; it has disappeared from…
- Jeremiah 2:30
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Amos
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Amos; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.