Amós 4:1

La Biblia Reina-Valera

OID esta palabra, vacas de Basán, que estáis en el monte de Samaria, que oprimís los pobres, que quebrantáis los menesterosos, que decis á sus señores: Traed, y beberemos.

Parallel Translations

La Biblia de las Americas
Oíd esta palabra, vacas de Basán, que estáis en el monte de Samaria, las que oprimís a los pobres, quebrantáis a los menesterosos, y decís a vuestros maridos: Traed ahora, para que bebamos.

La Biblia Reina-Valera Gomez
O�d esta palabra, vacas de Bas�n, que est�is en el monte de Samaria, que oprim�s a los pobres, que quebrant�is a los menesterosos, que dec�s a sus se�ores: Traed, y beberemos.

Sagradas Escrituras (1569)
O�d esta palabra, vacas de Bas�n, que est�is en el monte de Samaria, que oprim�s a los pobres, que quebrant�is a los menesterosos, que dec�s a sus se�ores: Traed, y beberemos.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

ye kine: By the "kine of Bashan," some understand the proud, luxurious matrons of Israel; but it is probable the prophet speaks catachrestically, and means the wealthy, effeminate, and profligate rulers and nobles of Samaria. Deuteronomy 32:14, Deuteronomy 32:15, Psalms 22:12, Jeremiah 50:11, Jeremiah 50:27, Ezekiel 39:18

the mountain: Amos 6:1, 1 Kings 16:24

which oppress: Amos 2:6, Amos 2:7, Amos 3:9, Amos 3:10, Amos 5:11, Amos 8:4-6, Exodus 22:21-25, Deuteronomy 15:9-11, Psalms 12:5, Psalms 140:12, Proverbs 22:22, Proverbs 22:23, Proverbs 23:10, Proverbs 23:11, Ecclesiastes 4:1, Ecclesiastes 5:8, Isaiah 1:17-24, Isaiah 5:8, Isaiah 58:6, Jeremiah 5:26-29, Jeremiah 6:6, Jeremiah 7:6, Ezekiel 22:7, Ezekiel 22:12, Ezekiel 22:27, Ezekiel 22:29, Micah 2:1-3, Micah 3:1-3, Zechariah 7:10, Zechariah 7:11, Malachi 3:5, James 5:1-6

crush: Deuteronomy 28:33, Job 20:19,*marg. Jeremiah 51:34

Bring: Amos 2:8, Joel 3:3

Reciprocal: Exodus 3:9 - and I have Numbers 21:33 - Bashan Deuteronomy 24:14 - General 2 Kings 18:10 - they took it Proverbs 22:7 - rich Proverbs 28:16 - prince Proverbs 30:14 - to devour Isaiah 3:5 - the people Isaiah 3:14 - ye have eaten Isaiah 5:17 - the waste Jeremiah 5:5 - get me Jeremiah 5:28 - waxen Jeremiah 17:20 - General Ezekiel 18:12 - oppressed Ezekiel 34:16 - but I Hosea 12:7 - he loveth Hosea 13:16 - Samaria Joel 1:2 - Hear Zephaniah 3:1 - to the Luke 6:24 - woe James 2:6 - Do

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan,.... Or "cows of Bashan" n; a country beyond Jordan, inhabited by the tribes of Gad and Reuben, and the half tribe of Manasseh, very fruitful of pasturage, and where abundance of fat cattle were brought up; to whom persons of distinction, and of the first rank, are here compared. Aben Ezra, Jarchi, and Kimchi, interpret them of the wives of the king, princes, ministers of state, and great men; and so it may be thought that Amos, a herdsman, in his rustic manner, compliments the court ladies with this epithet, for their plumpness, wantonness, and petulancy. Though it may be the princes and great men themselves may be rather intended, and be so called for their effeminacy, and perhaps with some regard to the calves they worshipped; and chiefly because being fat and flourishing, and abounding with wealth and riches, they became wanton and mischievous; like fat cattle, broke down their fences, and would be under no restraint of the laws of God and man; entered into their neighbours' fields, seized on their property, and spoiled them of it. So the Targum paraphrases it,

"ye rich of substance.''

In like manner the principal men among the Jews, in the times of Christ, are called bulls of Bashan, Psalms 22:12;

that [are] in the mountains of Samaria; like cattle grazing on a mountain; the metaphor is still continued: Samaria was the principal city of Ephraim, the metropolis of the ten tribes, Isaiah 7:9; situated on a mountain; Mr. Maundrell o says, upon a long mount, of an oval figure, having first a fruitful valley, and then a ring of hills running about it. Here the kings of Israel had their palace, and kept their court, and where their princes and nobles resided. Ahab is said to be king of Samaria, 1 Kings 21:1;

which oppress the poor, which crush the needy; by laying heavy taxes upon them; exacting more of them than they are able to pay; lessening their wages for work done, or withholding it from them; or by taking from them that little they have, and so reducing them to the utmost extremity, and refusing to do them justice in courts of judicature:

which say to their masters, bring, and let us drink; Kimchi, who interprets these words of the wives of great men, supposes their husbands are here addressed, who are, and acknowledged to be, their masters or lords; see 1 Peter 3:6; whom they call upon to bring them money taken from the poor, or for which they have sold them, that they may have wherewith to eat and drink, fare sumptuously, and live in a grand manner, feasting themselves and their visitors: or these are the words of inferior officers to superior ones, desiring they might have leave to pillage the poor, that so they might live in a more gay and splendid manner, and in rioting and drunkenness, in chambering and wantonness. So the Targum,

"give us power, that we may spoil it.''

Or rather these words are directed to the masters of the poor, who had power over them, had them in their clutches, in whose debt they were; or they had something against them, and therefore these corrupt judges, and wicked magistrates, desire they might be brought before them; who for a bribe would give the cause against them, right or wrong, so long as they got something to feast themselves with; or they are spoken by the rich, to the masters of the poor, to whom they had sold them, to bring them the purchase money, that they might indulge and gratify their sensual appetites; see Amos 2:6.

n פרות הבשן "vaccae Basan", Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Vatablus, Drusius, Mercerus, Grotius, Cocceius. o Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem, p. 59. Ed. 7.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Hear ye this, ye kine of Bashan - The pastures of Bashan were very rich, and it had its name probably from its richness of soil . The Batanea of later times was a province only of the kingdom of Bashan, which, with half of Gilead, was given to the half tribe of Manasseh. For the Bashan of Og included Golan Deuteronomy 4:43, (the capital of the subsequent Gaulonitis, now Jaulan) Beeshterah Joshua 21:27, (or Ashtaroth) 1 Chronicles 6:71, very probably Bostra (see ab. on 1 Chronicles 1:12), and Elrei Deuteronomy 1:4, in Hauran or Auranitis; the one on its southern border, the other perhaps on its northern boundary toward Trachonitis . Its eastern extremity at Salkah Deuteronomy 3:10; Joshua 13:11, (Sulkhad) is the southern point of Batanea (now Bathaniyyeh); Argob, or Trachonitis , (the Lejah) was its north eastern fence.

Westward it reached to Mount Hermon Deuteronomy 3:8; Joshua 12:5; Joshua 13:11; 1 Chronicles 5:23. It included the subsequent divisions, Gaulonitis, Auranitis, Batanea, and Trachonitis. Of these the mountain range on the northwest of Jaulan is still “everywhere clothed with oak-forests.” The Ard-el-Bathanyeh , “the country of Batanea or Bashan, is not surpassed in that land for beauty of its scenery, the richness of its pastures, and the extent of its oak forests.” “The Arabs of the desert still pasture their flocks on the luxuriant herbage of the Jaulan” . Its pastures are spoken of by Micah Micah 7:14 and Jeremiah Jeremiah 50:19. The animals fed there were among the strongest and fattest Deuteronomy 32:14. Hence, the male animals became a proverb for the mighty on the earth Exodus 39:18, the bulls furnished a type for fierce, unfeeling, enemies Psalms 22:12. Amos however, speaks of “kine;” not, as David, of “bulls.” He upbraids them not for fierceness, but for a more delicate and wanton unfeelingness, the fruit of luxury, fullness of bread, a life of sense, which destroy all tenderness, dull the mind, “banker out the wits,” deaden the spiritual sense.

The female name, “kine,” may equally brand the luxury and effeminacy of the rich men, or the cruelty of the rich women, of Samaria. He addresses these “kine” in both sexes, both male and female . The reproachful name was then probably intended to shame both; men, who laid aside their manliness in the delicacy of luxury; or ladies, who put off the tenderness of womanhood by oppression. The character of the oppression was the same in both cases. It was done, not directly by those who revelled in its fruits, but through the seduction of one who had authority over them. To the ladies of Samaria, “their lord” was their husband, as the husband is so called; to the nobles of Samaria, he was their king, who supplied their extravagances and debaucheries by grants, extorted from the poor.

Which oppress - Literally, “the oppressing!” The word expresses that they habitually oppressed and crushed the poor. They did it not directly; perhaps they did not know that it was done; they sought only, that their own thirst for luxury and self-indulgence should be gratified, and knew not, (as those at ease often know not now,) that their luxuries are continually watered by the tears of the poor, tears shed, almost unknown except by the Maker of both. But He counts willful ignorance no excuse. “He who doth through another, doth it himself,” said the pagan proverb. God says, they did “oppress,” were “continually oppressing, those in low estate,” and “crushing the poor” (a word is used expressing the vehemence with which they “crushed” them.) They “crushed” them, only through the continual demand of pleasures of sense, reckless how they were procured; “bring and let us drink.” They invite their husband or lord to joint self-indulgence.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

CHAPTER IV

Israel reproved for their oppression, 1-3;

idolatry, 4, 5;

and for their impenitence under the chastising hand of God,

6-11.

The omniscience and uncontrollable power of God, 12, 13.

NOTES ON CHAP. IV

Verse Amos 4:1. Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan — Such an address was quite natural from the herdsman of Tekoa. Bashan was famous for the fertility of its soil, and its flocks and herds; and the prophet here represents the iniquitous, opulent, idle, lazy drones, whether men or women, under the idea of fatted bullocks, which were shortly to be led out to the slaughter.