Amos 4:1
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. 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.
Hear this word is directed to the people of Samaria amid the prosperity and injustice of Israel under Jeroboam II. The phrase kine of Bashan is a rebuke likening the powerful to well-fed cattle of Bashan. It condemns the wealthy and powerful of Samaria for oppressing the poor and crushing the needy while indulging in luxury and demanding drink. Women as well as men joined in the shameless drunkenness of Israel, inviting others to drink and revel.
It belongs to God's recounting of Israel's crooked ways before chastisement fell in its severest form, forcing home conviction of sin and of righteousness and of judgment and giving individuals opportunity to repent before the stroke fell upon the nation. It reveals love and mercy mingled with justice and long-suffering, showing that God's relation to His church and to the world and His manner of dealing have ever been the same in principle. It belongs to Amos's six-page message whose truths call for sustained meditation and obedience, made one's own not through a quick reading but through a life of courageous practice.