Amos, Chapter 4

1. Hear this word, you cows of Bashan On the hill of Samaria -- Who defraud the poor, Who rob the needy; Who say to your husbands, "Bring, and let's carouse!"    2. My Lord GOD swears by His holiness: Behold, days are coming upon you When you will be carried off in baskets, And, to the last one, in fish baskets,    3. And taken out [of the city] -- Each one through a breach straight ahead -- And flung on the refuse heap -- declares the LORD.    4. Come to Bethel and transgress; To Gilgal, and transgress even more: Present your sacrifices the next morning And your tithes on the third day;    5. And burn a thank offering of leavened bread; And proclaim freewill offerings loudly. For you love that sort of thing, O Israelites -- declares my Lord GOD.    6. I, on My part, have given you Cleanness of teeth in all your towns, And lack of food in all your settlements. Yet you did not turn back to Me -- declares the LORD.    7. I therefore withheld the rain from you Three months before harvesttime: I would make it rain on one town And not on another; One field would be rained upon While another on which it did not rain Would wither.    8. So two or three towns would wander To a single town to drink water, But their thirst would not be slaked. Yet you did not turn back to Me -- declares the LORD.    9. I scourged you with blight and mildew; Repeatedly your gardens and vineyards, Your fig trees and olive trees Were devoured by locusts. Yet you did not turn back to Me -- declares the LORD.    10. I sent against you pestilence In the manner of Egypt; I slew your young men with the sword, Together with your captured horses, And I made the stench of your armies Rise in your very nostrils. Yet you did not turn back to Me -- declares the LORD.    11. I have wrought destruction among you As when God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah; You have become like a brand plucked from burning. Yet you have not turned back to Me -- declares the LORD.    12. Assuredly, Because I am doing that to you, Even so will I act toward you, O Israel -- Prepare to meet your God, O Israel!    13. Behold, He who formed the mountains, And created the wind, And has told man what His wish is, Who turns blackness into daybreak, And treads upon the high places of the earth -- His name is the LORD, the God of Hosts.