Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink.
The Lord GOD has sworn by his holiness, that, see, the days shall come on you, that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks.
And you shall go out at the breaches, every cow at that which is before her; and you shall cast them into the palace, said the LORD.
Come to Bethel, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes after three years:
And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, and proclaim and publish the free offerings: for this likes you, O you children of Israel, said the Lord GOD.
And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have you not returned to me, said the LORD.
And also I have withheld the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain on one city, and caused it not to rain on another city: one piece was rained on, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered.
So two or three cities wandered to one city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied: yet have you not returned to me, said the LORD.
I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmerworm devoured them: yet have you not returned to me, said the LORD.
I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses; and I have made the stink of your camps to come up to your nostrils: yet have you not returned to me, said the LORD.
I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have you not returned to me, said the LORD.
Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel: and because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel.
For, see, he that forms the mountains, and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought, that makes the morning darkness, and treads on the high places of the earth, The LORD, The God of hosts, is his name.
Canonical academic citations for Amos 4 (AKJV) — copy in your preferred format.
Amos 4 (AKJV). Prime Bible, accessed August 12, 2026. https://primebible.com/akjv/amos/4.
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The pampered “cows of Bashan” and idolatrous worshipers at Bethel will be led away with hooks; despite famine, drought, blight, pestilence, and fire Israel refused to return, so they must ‘prepare to meet your God’ who forms mountains and winds.
Oracles against social injustice and empty ritualism.
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