Amos 4:6

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, says the Lord.

Amos 4:6 Meaning and Commentary

Amos 4:6

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. This was not the famine in Samaria, ( 2 Kings 6:25 ) ; for that was only in that city, and for a short time, while besieged; whereas this was in all the cities in Israel; rather therefore it designs the famine predicted by Elisha, which should be upon the land for seven years, ( 2 Kings 8:1 ) ; and want of bread in all your places:
this is the same with the former clause, and explains it, and still makes the famine more general, not only in their cities, but in all their places of abode, their towns and villages: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord;
this judgment had no influence upon them, to bring them to a sense of their evils, particularly their idolatry, and to repentance them, and to reclaim them from them, and return them to the Lord, and to his worship, as the Targum paraphrases it.

Amos 4:6 In-Context

4 Come to Bethel—and transgress; to Gilgal—and multiply transgression; bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days;
5 bring a thank offering of leavened bread, and proclaim freewill offerings, publish them; for so you love to do, O people of Israel! says the Lord God.
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, says the Lord.
7 And I also withheld the rain from you when there were still three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city; one field would be rained upon, and the field on which it did not rain withered;
8 so two or three towns wandered to one town to drink water, and were not satisfied; yet you did not return to me, says the Lord.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.