Amos 4:6

“I afflicted all your cities with cleanness of teeth and all your towns with lack of bread, yet you did not return to Me,” declares the LORD.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — The LORD speaks to the northern kingdom of Israel through the prophet Amos. He delivers this warning immediately after condemning the people's hollow religious rituals in the preceding verse.

The words — The Hebrew phrase נִקְי֤וֹן שִׁנַּ֙יִם֙ (nik.Yon shi.Na.yim) literally renders as "cleanness of teeth," which the text uses to describe severe famine. This idiom conveys starvation so acute that no one possesses food to chew.

The thread — This sequence of divine correction followed by stubborn refusal appears in Haggai 2:17, Jeremiah 5:3, and Isaiah 9:13. These passages consistently pair God's punitive actions with the people's refusal to repent.

Why it lands — The text states that material deprivation is a deliberate warning, not a random occurrence. It requires the reader to acknowledge that repeated correction is ineffective without a genuine return to God.

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

וְגַם־ve./gam-and/ also אֲנִי֩'a.NiI נָתַ֨תִּיna.Ta.tiI gaveלָכֶ֜םla./Khemto/ youנִקְי֤וֹןnik.Yoncleanness of שִׁנַּ֙יִם֙shi.Na.yimteeth בְּכָל־be./kholin/ all עָ֣רֵיכֶ֔ם'a.rei./Khemcities/ your וְחֹ֣סֶרve./Cho.serand/ lack of לֶ֔חֶםLe.chembread בְּכֹ֖לbe./Kholin/ all מְקוֹמֹֽתֵיכֶ֑םme.ko.mo.tei./Khemplaces/ your וְלֹֽא־ve./lo'-and/ not שַׁבְתֶּ֥םshav.Temyou returned עָדַ֖י'a.Da/ito/ me נְאֻם־ne.'um-[the] utterance of יְהוָֽה׃Yah.wehYahweh

King James Version

And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.

Cross-references

Haggai 2:17 I struck you—all the work of your hands—with blight, mildew, and hail, but you did not turn to Me, declares the LORD.
Jeremiah 5:3 O LORD, do not Your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain. You finished them off, but they refused to accept discipline. They have made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent.
Isaiah 9:13 But the people did not return to Him who struck them; they did not seek the LORD of Hosts.
Revelation 16:10 And the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness, and men began to gnaw their tongues in anguish
Leviticus 26:26 When I cut off your supply of bread, ten women will bake your bread in a single oven and dole out your bread by weight, so that you will eat but not be satisfied.
Hosea 5:15 Then I will return to My place until they admit their guilt and seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.”
Revelation 2:21 Even though I have given her time to repent of her immorality, she is unwilling.
Deuteronomy 28:38 You will sow much seed in the field but harvest little, because the locusts will consume it.
1 Kings 17:1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was among the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there will be neither dew nor rain in these years except at my word!”
1 Kings 18:2 So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab. The famine was severe in Samaria,