Amos 4:2-12

2 ¹The Lord GOD has sworn by his holiness that, behold, the days are coming upon you, ²when they shall take you away with hooks, ³even the last of you with fishhooks.

3 ⁴And you shall go out through the breaches, each one straight ahead; and you shall be cast out into Harmon," declares the LORD.

4 ⁵"Come to Bethel, and transgress; to ⁶Gilgal, and multiply transgression; ⁷bring your ⁸sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days;

5 offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of ⁹that which is leavened, and proclaim ¹⁰freewill offerings, publish them; ¹¹for 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 ¹²lack of bread in all your places, ¹³yet you did not return to me," declares the LORD.

7 "I also ¹⁴withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest; ¹⁵I 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 ¹⁶would wander to another city to drink water, and would not be satisfied; ¹⁷yet you did not return to me," declares the LORD.

9 ¹⁸"I struck you with blight and mildew; your many gardens and your vineyards, your fig trees and your olive trees ¹⁹the locust devoured; ²⁰yet you did not return to me," declares the LORD.

10 "I sent among you a pestilence ²¹after the manner of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword, and ²²carried away your horses,^[a] and ²³I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils; ²⁴yet you did not return to me," declares the LORD.

11 "I overthrew some of you, ²⁵as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were ²⁶as a brand^[b] plucked out of the burning; ²⁷yet 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!"

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Amos 4:2-12 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO AMOS 4

In this chapter, the great ones, or the people of Israel, are threatened with calamities for their oppression of the poor, Am 4:1-3; and in an ironic manner are reproved for their idolatry, Am 4:4,5; then follows an enumeration of several judgments that had been upon them, yet had had no effect on them, to bring them to repentance, nor even mercies, Am 4:6-11; and notwithstanding all this, in a wonderful gracious manner, they are called upon to prepare to meet their God, who is described by his power, greatness, and goodness, Am 4:12,13.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 27

1. Psalms 89:35
2. [Jeremiah 16:16; Habakkuk 1:15]; See 2 Kings 19:28
3. [Jeremiah 16:16; Habakkuk 1:15]; See 2 Kings 19:28
4. [Ezekiel 12:5, 12]
5. [Amos 5:5; Ezekiel 20:39; Matthew 23:32]
6. [Amos 5:5; Hosea 4:15; Hosea 9:15; Hosea 12:11]
7. [Amos 5:5; Ezekiel 20:39; Matthew 23:32]
8. Numbers 28:3, 4; [Jeremiah 7:21]
9. Leviticus 7:13
10. Exodus 35:29; Leviticus 22:18, 21; Deuteronomy 12:6
11. [Psalms 81:11, 12]
12. [Deuteronomy 28:57; Lamentations 2:12]
13. Jeremiah 15:7; Haggai 2:17
14. Jeremiah 3:3; [Joel 2:23]
15. [Exodus 9:26]
16. [Amos 8:12]
17. [See ver. 6 above]
18. Deuteronomy 28:22; Haggai 2:17
19. Joel 1:4
20. [See ver. 6 above]
21. Deuteronomy 28:27, 60; [Exodus 12:29; Psalms 78:50; Isaiah 10:24, 26]
22. 2 Kings 13:7
23. [Joel 2:20]
24. [See ver. 6 above]
25. [Isaiah 13:19]
26. Zechariah 3:2; [Jude 23]
27. [See ver. 6 above]

Footnotes 2

[a]. Hebrew along with the captivity of your horses
[b]. That is, a burning stick

The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.