Amos 4:8 kjv
So two or three cities wandered unto one city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.
Amos 4:8 nkjv
So two or three cities wandered to another city to drink water, But they were not satisfied; Yet you have not returned to Me," Says the LORD.
Amos 4:8 niv
People staggered from town to town for water but did not get enough to drink, yet you have not returned to me," declares the LORD.
Amos 4:8 esv
so two or three cities would wander to another city to drink water, and would not be satisfied; yet you did not return to me," declares the LORD.
Amos 4:8 nlt
People staggered from town to town looking for water,
but there was never enough.
But still you would not return to me,"
says the LORD.
Amos 4 8 Cross References
| Verse | Text | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Amos 4:7 | "Yet,” declares the Lord, “I sent hail instead of rain..." | Judgment withheld and intensified |
| Amos 4:8 | "My hand of discipline struck them..." | The consequences of disobedience |
| Amos 4:8 | "...and famine swept the land." | The totality of the devastation |
| Amos 4:8 | "Then I sent plagues of locusts to devour your crops..." | Further compounding the destruction |
| Amos 4:8 | "...and the grapes and olives in your fields." | Specificity of the agricultural loss |
| Amos 4:8 | "But even then, you did not return to Me." | The persistent refusal to repent |
| Deuteronomy 28:23 | "The heavens over your head shall be bronze, and the earth under your feet shall be iron." | God's promised punishment for disobedience |
| Deuteronomy 11:17 | "...and the Lord’s anger will burn against you, and he will close the heavens, so that there will be no rain..." | The prophetic warning of drought |
| Isaiah 5:6 | "I will make them desolate, a land not pruned or cultivated, and briars and thorns will grow there." | The curse upon an unfaithful land |
| Jeremiah 14:1-6 | The prophet laments a devastating drought | A similar experience of drought as a divine judgment |
| Joel 1:4 | "What the locust swarm has left, the great locust swarm has eaten..." | Locusts as an instrument of judgment |
| Leviticus 26:19-20 | "I will break the pride of your power and make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. Your strength will be spent in vain..." | The consequence of walking contrary to God |
| Psalm 81:11-12 | "But my people would not listen to me; Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own counsels." | God allowing people to face the consequences of their willful sin |
| 2 Kings 17:13-14 | "The Lord warned Israel and Judah through every prophet and every seer, saying, 'Turn from your evil ways...'" | The consistent prophetic call to repentance |
| Acts 7:51 | "You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ear, you always resist the Holy Spirit..." | New Testament echo of persistent disobedience |
| Romans 2:4-5 | "Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath..." | The hardening of the heart leads to further judgment |
| Luke 11:16 | "Others, to test him, kept demanding from him a sign from heaven." | Seeking signs rather than heeding warnings |
| John 12:40 | "He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so that they might not see with their eyes, or understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them." | Divine sovereignty in hardening hearts that persist in sin |
| Haggai 1:10-11 | "Therefore the heavens above you have withheld their dew..." | Drought as a consequence of neglecting God's house |
| Proverbs 28:13 | "Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy." | The path to mercy through confession and forsaking sin |
Amos 4 verses
Amos 4 8 Meaning
You are condemned to a severe drought. The land will not yield its produce, not even the rainfall essential for sustenance. Despite these hardships, you have not returned to Me.
Amos 4 8 Context
Chapter 4 of Amos details God's relentless judgment upon Israel for their pervasive sin and impenitence. Despite experiencing various calamities – drought, famine, and plague – the people continued in their wickedness. This verse specifically highlights the persistent failure of Israel to return to God, underscoring the spiritual blindness and hardness of heart that characterized their nation. The context is a series of pronouncements from God, illustrating the successive stages of judgment designed to provoke repentance, which have been met with stubborn refusal.
Amos 4 8 Word Analysis
- אַף (aph): Also, and, moreover, but, yet. Introduces a concessive clause.
- אֲנִי (ani): I. Emphasis on God’s direct action.
- מִדָּבֵּר (mid'dabber): Plague, pestilence. From the root דבר (dabar), meaning "to speak" or "to deal," signifying a harmful occurrence or affliction.
- בָּעֲרִים (ba'arim): Destroyers, pestilences, deadly diseases. Implies consuming or devastating outbreaks.
- כְּפַל (k'phal): Double, multiply. Suggests intensified suffering.
- עֹלְלֹתֵיכֶם (ol'leoteichem): your young olive trees. Specificity in the destruction.
- וְחִלַּת (v'khil'lat): and your fig trees, and your pomegranates. Continuous affliction affecting even the precious crops.
- וְעָשַׁר (v'a'shar): and your vineyards. Further enumeration of agricultural loss.
- כִּגָּב (kiggav): like the mildew, blight, palmerworm. Destructive insect or disease affecting vegetation.
- יְדִי (y'di): my hand. God's active intervention and discipline.
- שַׂדּוֹת (s'dot): fields. The broader agricultural land.
- לֹא (lo): not. Negation of their turning.
- שַׁבְתֶּם (shavtem): you returned. The act of repentance or returning to God.
- עוֹד (od): yet, still, again. Emphasizes the continued lack of repentance.
- אֵלַי (elai): to Me. Direct object, indicating the object of their return is God.
Words-group analysis
- "I struck your gardens and your vineyards with blight": This phrase indicates God's direct and targeted judgment upon the agricultural produce of Israel. The use of specific crop types (olive, fig, pomegranate) and blight emphasizes the severity and scope of the divine punitive action.
- "your young olive trees with mildew, your vineyards with palmerworm": This further accentuates the comprehensive nature of the devastation. The terms "mildew" and "palmerworm" represent devastating natural forces or plagues, which God unleashed to afflict them.
- "Yet you did not return to me": This concluding statement is the most poignant. Despite experiencing the severe consequences of their actions, the Israelites failed to acknowledge their sin, repent, and turn back to God, thereby prolonging their suffering and inviting further judgment.
Amos 4 8 Bonus Section
The "striking" of gardens and vineyards with "blight," "mildew," and "palmerworm" can be understood in a broader theological sense as the stripping away of material blessings that Israel had come to associate with their gods or their own prosperity, rather than with Yahweh. These agricultural curses represent a removal of the visible evidence of God's covenantal favor, which was conditioned on obedience. The inability to "return" signifies a deep-seated resistance to God's authority and a spiritual malady that even evident suffering could not cure, leading to a severe hardening of heart.
Amos 4 8 Commentary
Amos confronts Israel with a severe indictment. He meticulously lists the calamities they have faced: drought, widespread hunger, the ravification of their crops by locusts, and blighting diseases like mildew and palmerworm. These are not random occurrences, but divine punishments enacted by God's own hand. The repetition of these destructive events was intended to be a gracious but firm call to repentance. However, the repeated phrase, "Yet you did not return to me," reveals the tragic extent of Israel's spiritual rebellion and the hardening of their hearts. They suffered, but they did not learn. They were afflicted, but they did not turn to their Creator and Sustainer. This unresponsiveness to divine discipline demonstrated their deep-seated apostasy and set the stage for even greater judgment.