←Amos 4→BSB

you fat cows (literally you cows of Bashan): Bashan was famous for its fierce, fat bulls (Ps 22:12; Ezek 39:18). Amos uses the feminine form (cows) to paint a picture of Israel’s upper class wives, who cared little for the poor. Their only concern was to extract enough wealth from the needy to support their own consumption.

• has sworn this by his holiness: Holiness speaks of God as existing outside of and independent of creation; his nature is wholly other than what he has created. The oath is similar to 6:8; 8:7.
• hooks: The Assyrians were known for their inhumane treatment of war captives (see 2 Chr 33:11; cp. 2 Kgs 19:28). A stela (stone pillar with an inscription) discovered in northern Syria shows the Assyrian king Esarhaddon holding cords that pass through the lips of two war captives. A recent scholar has suggested that hooks referred to the rings inserted into the noses of cattle to manage them.

The wall of Samaria that these women trusted for security could not protect them.

• Amos lampoons the Israelites’ worthless piety.
• Bethel, the site of Jacob’s famous vision of the ladder with angels descending and ascending (Gen 28:11–22), was the southern seat of the religion established by Jeroboam I (see Amos 3:14; 1 Kgs 12:28–29). Gilgal, Israel’s campsite after they crossed the Jordan (Josh 4:19–5:9), had become a popular shrine by the time of Amos and Hosea (Hos 4:15; 9:15; 12:11).
• sacrifices each morning . . . tithes every three days: Israelite males were to appear before the Lord at the sanctuary three times each year (Exod 23:14–19; 34:23; Deut 16:16–17). Tithes were typically paid annually (Deut 14:22–29), with a special tithe paid every three years (see Deut 14:28; 26:12). Amos is making the point that the Israelites were religious to the point of absurdity, but they balked at being godly (Amos 5:15; Hos 6:6; Mic 6:8; see Luke 11:42).

Leavened bread (that is, sourdough fermented by wild yeast) was for daily consumption. The more primitive unleavened bread (made without yeast) became a sacred symbol, commemorating Israel’s affliction as slaves in Egypt (Deut 16:3), the Passover (Exod 12:17–20), and their hasty departure from that land (Exod 12:34, 39). Unleavened bread thus became altar bread (Lev 6:17; 7:12). However, bread made with yeast could accompany a peace offering of thanksgiving (Lev 7:13).

God had used plagues to convince Egypt to let Israel go (Exod 7:14–12:30; 9:2–3; Ps 91:6; Hab 3:5); he promised to bring the plagues of Egypt on Israel if they continued to turn away from him to worship pagan gods (Deut 28:27, 60).

• As with the plagues on Egypt (4:10), the plagues on Israel increased in magnitude and intensity (cp. 4:12).
• as I destroyed: The thought that God would treat his own people in the same way as he had treated Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19:24–25) was shocking to their theology.

This is one of the two great thematic verses in Amos (the second is 5:24). Since Israel would not repent, it must meet . . . God in judgment.

This verse appears to be a hymn fragment, possibly sung by the worshipers at Bethel (for other hymn fragments, see 5:8–9; 9:5–6). Israel had been treating God as a baal—a local god with limited power. But the God they professed to worship and whom they would face in judgment is all-powerful.