Amos 4:10
I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses; and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.
Amos's warning belongs to Israel under the prosperous reign of Jeroboam II, a message against idolatry and injustice in which privilege brings responsibility and failure to live by given light brings punishment. That punishment followed false worship at Bethel and rejection of the call to forsake it.
What was sent and yet left them unreturned was pestilence after the manner of Egypt with other calamities. The young men were slain with the sword and the horses were taken away. The stink of the camps was made to come up to the nostrils.
It was addressed to God's chosen professed people when they had despised His law and had not kept His commandments. Their ways were crooked, marked by perversity and injustice and inconstancy. They were wholly unprepared to meet Him except for punishment for evil deeds.
The pestilence and slaughter in war with other distress were set forth to force home conviction of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. They were sent to lead the people back to God and to teach trust in Him instead of trust in man and in false gods. The recital of past dealings joined to the call to return shows the same principle by which God ever deals with His church and with the world.
Even as punishment the afflictions were loving and merciful chastisement mingled with justice. They were the means used in all ages when children go astray, revealing long-suffering. Opportunity was given for individuals to repent and return before the stroke falls on the nation in its severest form, to reclaim a rebellious and stubborn people and to save them if possible.
Yet they did not return, though some were plucked as firebrands from the burning. The judgments divide people into two classes, some led to trust in God and to receive sure bread and water. Others pursue a wilful, disobedient course and refuse to return, and are forsaken of God and given over to those they trusted, in whom they find no help. For the unreturned nothing is left but direst measures to bring them to their senses.
As part of Amos's prophecy concerning the downfall of apostasy, the verse points forward to the last days and to the end announced in the call to prepare to meet God. Afflictions are a call to repentance and preparation. Contemporary epidemics and widespread disasters are signs that people have forgotten God and failed to serve Him and made void His law, and are evidence that Heaven's hand should be recognized and that they should turn back to God.
The stench of Israel's camps after pestilence and warfare and the loss of horses is an image of something offensive to the nostrils. So lifeless, perfunctory religion makes religion stink in the world's nostrils.