4:2Carmel means “fertile field.” It was a very fertile area. A drought capable of drying up this area would have to be quite severe,
Life Application Study BibleAmosChapter 4
Amos 4
New Living Translation · Life Application Study Bible · Original pages: 1441, 1442, 1443
1“Bring us another drink!”
2The Sovereign LORD has sworn this by his holiness:“The time will come when you will be led awaywith hooks in your noses.Every last one of you will be dragged awaylike a fish on a hook!3:9 Hebrew Ashdod. 3:12 Or So it will be when the Israelites in Samaria are rescued / with only a broken bed and atattered pillow. 3:13 Hebrew the house of Jacob. The names “Jacob” and “Israel” are often interchanged throughoutthe Old pestament, referring sometimes to the individual patriarch and sometimes to the nation. 4:4 Hebrew youcows of Bashan.
3You will be led out through the ruins of the wall; you will be thrown from your fortresses,*” says the LORD.
4“Go ahead and offer sacrifices to the idols at Bethel.Keep on disobeying at Gilgal.Offer sacrifices each morning,and bring your tithes every three days.
5Present your bread made with yeastas an offering of thanksgiving.Then give your extra voluntary offeringsso you can brag about it everywhere!This is the kind of thing you Israelites love to do,”says the Sovereign LORD.
6“I brought hunger to every cityand famine to every town.But still you would not return to me,”says the LORD.
7“T Kept the rain from fallingwhen your crops needed it the most.I sent rain on one townbut withheld it from another.Rain fell on one field,while another field withered away.
8People staggered from town to town looking for water,but there was never enough.But still you would not return to me,”says the LORD.
9“I struck your farms and vineyards with blight and mildew. Locusts devoured all your fig and olive trees. But still you would not return to me,” says the Lor.
10“T sent plagues on youlike the plagues I sent on Egypt long ago.I killed your young men in warand led all your horses away.*The stench of death filled the air!But still you would not return to me,”says the Lor.
11“T destroyed some of your cities,as I destroyed* Sodom and Gomorrah.Those of you who survivedwere like charred sticks pulled from a fire.But still you would not return to me,”says the LORD.
12“Therefore, I will bring upon you all the disasters I have announced. Prepare to meet your God in judgment, you people of Israel!” 13For the LORD is the one who shaped the mountains, stirs up the winds, and reveals his thoughts to mankind. He turns the light of dawn into darkness and treads on the heights of the earth. The LORD God of Heaven's Armies is his name!
Textual footnotes
- horses.
- 4:3 Or thrown out toward Harmon, possibly a reference to Mount Hermon.
- 4:41 Hebrew as when God destroyed.
Life Application Notes 3 notes
4:4Amos sarcastically invited the people to sin in Bethel and Gilgal, where they worshiped idols instead of God. Bethel was where God had renewed his covenant to Abraham with Jacob (Genesis 28:10-22). At this time, Bethel was the religious center of the northern kingdom, and Jeroboam had placed an idol there to discourage the people from traveling to Jerusalem in the southern kingdom to worship (1 Kings 12:26-29). Gilgal was Israel’s first campground after entering the Promised Land (Joshua 4:19). Here Joshua had renewed the covenant and the rite of circumcision, and the people had celebrated the Passover (Joshua 5:2-11). Saul was crowned israel’s first king in Gilgal (1 Samuel 11:15).
4:6-13No matter how God warned the people—through famine. drought, blight, locusts, plagues, or war—they still ignored him. Because the Israelites didn’t get the message, they would have to meet God face to face in judgment. No longer would they ignore God; they would have to face the one they had rejected, the one they had refused to obey when he commanded them to care for the poor. One day each of us will meet God face to face to give account for what we have done or refused to do. Are you prepared to meet him?
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Study feature · page 1442
4:10 Or
and slaughtered your captured
Study feature · page 1443
3The Sovereign LORD says:
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