Bible Strands
Amos 4:1
Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy, who say to your husbands, “Bring us more to drink.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Amos delivers this message to the wealthy women of Samaria on Mount Samaria as part of a prophetic judicial declaration. The pronouncement immediately precedes the Lord GOD’s sworn oath of impending captivity in the following verse.
The words — The Hebrew שִׁמְע֞וּ (shim.'U) means "hear," and פָּר֤וֹת (pa.Rot) literally means "cows" or "heifers." The text identifies these women as "cows of Bashan" before describing their actions of oppressing the poor and demanding more drink from their husbands.
The thread — The location "Mount Samaria" appears in Amos 6:1 to mark the seat of elite complacency, while "Bashan" recurs in Psalms 22:12 with "strong bulls" and in Ezekiel 39:18 regarding a consumed audience. Ezekiel 39:18 addresses a human group that will eat the flesh of princes, not God Himself.
Why it lands — The text states that social privilege and domestic demands do not shield the oppressor from divine judgment. It requires the reader to acknowledge that comfort-seeking behavior directly enables the exploitation of the vulnerable.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink.
Cross-references
- Psalms 22:12 Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.
- Amos 6:1 Woe to those at ease in Zion and those secure on Mount Samaria, the distinguished ones of the foremost nation, to whom the house of Israel comes.
- Ezekiel 39:18 You will eat the flesh of the mighty and drink the blood of the princes of the earth as though they were rams, lambs, goats, and bulls—all the fattened animals of Bashan.
- Amos 5:11 Therefore, because you trample on the poor and exact from him a tax of grain, you will never live in the stone houses you have built; you will never drink the wine from the lush vineyards you have planted.
- Ecclesiastes 4:1 Again I looked, and I considered all the oppression taking place under the sun. I saw the tears of the oppressed, and they had no comforter; the power lay in the hands of their oppressors, and there was no comforter.
- Deuteronomy 15:9 Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought in your heart: “The seventh year, the year of release, is near,” so that you look upon your poor brother begrudgingly and give him nothing. He will cry out to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin.
- Deuteronomy 28:33 A people you do not know will eat the produce of your land and of all your toil. All your days you will be oppressed and crushed.
- 1 Kings 16:24 He bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver and built a city there, calling it Samaria after the name of Shemer, who had owned the hill.
- Job 20:19 For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor; he has seized houses he did not build.
- Psalms 12:5 “For the cause of the oppressed and for the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says the LORD. “I will bring safety to him who yearns.”