# Amos 4 (New King James Version)
God's Punishments Have Not Reformed Israel

##### Chapter 4
###### 1 Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who _are_ on the mountain of Samaria,  
Who oppress the poor,  
Who crush the needy,  
Who say to your husbands, "Bring _wine,_ let us drink!"  

###### 2 The Lord God has sworn by His holiness:  
"Behold, the days shall come upon you  
When He will take you away with fishhooks,  
And your posterity with fishhooks.  

###### 3 You will go out _through_ broken _walls,_  
Each one straight ahead of her,  
And you will be cast into Harmon,"  
Says the Lord.

###### 4 "Come to Bethel and transgress,  
At Gilgal multiply transgression;  
Bring your sacrifices every morning,  
Your tithes every three days.  

###### 5 Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven,  
Proclaim _and_ announce the freewill offerings;  
For this you love,  
_You_ children of Israel!"  
Says the Lord God.Israel Did Not Accept Correction

###### 6 "Also I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities,  
And lack of bread in all your places;  
Yet you have not returned to Me,"  
Says the Lord.

###### 7 "I also withheld rain from you,  
When _there were_ still three months to the harvest.  
I made it rain on one city,  
I withheld rain from another city.  
One part was rained upon,  
And where it did not rain the part withered.  

###### 8 So two _or_ three cities wandered to another city to drink water,  
But they were not satisfied;  
Yet you have not returned to Me,"  
Says the Lord.

###### 9 "I blasted you with blight and mildew.  
When your gardens increased,  
Your vineyards,  
Your fig trees,  
And your olive trees,  
The locust devoured _them;_  
Yet you have not returned to Me,"  
Says the Lord.

###### 10 "I sent among you a plague after the manner of Egypt;  
Your young men I killed with a sword,  
Along with your captive horses;  
I made the stench of your camps come up into your nostrils;  
Yet you have not returned to Me,"  
Says the Lord.

###### 11 "I overthrew _some_ of you,  
As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,  
And you were like a firebrand plucked from the burning;  
Yet you have not returned to Me,"  
Says the Lord.

###### 12 "Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel;  
Because I will do this to you,  
Prepare to meet your God, O Israel!"

###### 13 For behold,  
He who forms mountains,  
And creates the wind,  
Who declares to man what his thought _is,_  
And makes the morning darkness,  
Who treads the high places of the earth--  
The Lord God of hosts _is_ His name.