4:1 Listen to this message, you cows of Bashan who live on Mount Samaria! You oppress the poor; you crush the needy. You say to your husbands, “Bring us more to drink!”

Cows of Bashan were the fattest cows in Israel. Samaria is the capital city of Israel and the center of calf worship and Baal worship. The cows of Bashan were the wives of Samaria who encouraged their husband to oppress the poor so that they could live in luxury.

4:2 The sovereign Lord confirms this oath by his own holy character: “Certainly the time is approaching when you will be carried away in baskets, every last one of you in fishermen’s pots.

Amos predicted that Israel would be carried away into captivity by the Assyrians.

4:3 Each of you will go straight through the gaps in the walls; you will be thrown out toward Harmon.” The Lord is speaking!

When Assyria attacks, there will be so many holes in the wall. Assyrian soldiers will force these society women to go through these holes. Those who resist will be taken to Harmon with hooks in their noses. They will be thrown over the cliff like dead Bashan cows.

4:4 “Go to Bethel and rebel! At Gilgal rebel some more! Bring your sacrifices in the morning, your tithes on the third day!

Gilgal was only a few miles north of Bethel. At Gilgal, they were offering sacrifices to demonic gods as well.

4:5 Burn a thank offering of bread made with yeast! Make a public display of your voluntary offerings! For you love to do this, you Israelites.” The sovereign Lord is speaking!

Israel was offering the proper sacrifices, but to the wrong god. All of their sacrifices were being offered to demons. They were outwardly religious, but inwardly pagan.

4:6 “But surely I gave you no food to eat in any of your cities; you lacked food everywhere you live. Still you did not come back to me.” The Lord is speaking!

The Israelites possessed clean white teeth, because of the famine in which God brought upon them. There was no food to dirty up their teeth.

4:7 “I withheld rain from you three months before the harvest. I gave rain to one city, but not to another. One field would get rain, but the field that received no rain dried up.

God brought drought before the harvest, which hopefully would lead Israel to turn to God in prayer. This tactic did not work, so God gave rain to one city and not another so that Israel would know that these droughts were judgments from God.

4:8 People from two or three cities staggered into one city to get water, but remained thirsty. Still you did not come back to me.” The Lord is speaking!

Instead of praying to God for rain, the people would simply travel to another city to receive water.

4:9 “I destroyed your crops with blight and disease. Locusts kept devouring your orchards, vineyards, fig trees, and olive trees. Still you did not come back to me.” The Lord is speaking!

Since the drought did not cause Israel to turn back to God, then God tried sending locust plagues to eat away their food supplies.

4:10 “I sent against you a plague like one of the Egyptian plagues. I killed your young men with the sword, along with the horses you had captured. I made the stench from the corpses rise up into your nostrils. Still you did not come back to me.” The Lord is speaking!

God sent a supernatural locust plague to them, followed by war, but neither of these tactics turned Israel back to God.

4:11 “I overthrew some of you the way God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. You were like a burning stick snatched from the flames. Still you did not come back to me.” The Lord is speaking!

God sent supernatural fire from the sky on some of their cities but these people still did not turn back to God.

4:12 “Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel. Because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, Israel!

Since none of these other tactics work, God will have to kill them and talk to them face-to-face.

4:13 For here he is! He formed the mountains and created the wind. He reveals his plans to men. He turns the dawn into darkness and marches on the heights of the earth. The Lord, the God who commands armies, is his name!”

Amos presented God as being omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. He is omnipotent, because He created the mountains and even the invisible wind. He is omniscient, because He reveals all plans to men. He is omnipresent, because He is everywhere at once. Israel’s lifeless idols cannot compare to God.