Amos 4:1

Hear this word Amos 4:1; Amos 5:1.

ye kine of Bashan Bashan was the fertile region on the E. of Jordan, bounded on the S. by the Jarmuk, and a line passing through Edrei to Salecah, on the W. by Geshur and Maacah, on the N. extending towards Hermon (cf. Joshua 12:1; Joshua 12:5), and on the E. as far as the Jebel Hauran, some 40 miles E.S.E. of the Sea of Galilee. The soil of Bashan consists in many parts of a rich disintegrated lava, and is extremely fertile. The name (which here, as usually in Heb., has the article) means probably a stoneless and fertile plain(see Wetzstein in Delitzsch's Job, Exodus 2, pp. 557 f.). Its pasture-grounds are alluded to in Micah 7:14, and its oak-forests (Isaiah 2:13; Zechariah 11:2) in Golan on the W., and on the slopes of the Jebel Hauran on the E., are still often mentioned by travellers: its strong and well-nourished herds (Deuteronomy 32:14; Ezekiel 39:18) are in Psalms 22:12 symbols of the Psalmist's wild and fierce assailants. The wealthy ladies of Samaria are here called kine of Bashan, because they live a life of purely animal existence, proudly and contentedly going their own way, resenting interference, and intent solely upon their own food and enjoyment.

which oppress the poor, which crush the needy The same two words in parallelism, 1 Samuel 12:3-4; Deuteronomy 28:33: cf. the corresponding substantives, Jeremiah 22:17. The word rendered oppresshas often the force of defraud, Leviticus 19:13; Deuteronomy 24:14 (note the context), 1 Samuel 12:3-4 (where it is so rendered); cf. oppression, Jeremiah 22:17. The wages, or other dues, unjustly withheld from the poor, enabled the ladies of Samaria the more readily to indulge their own luxurious and expensive tastes.

masters R.V. lords, i.e. husbands (Genesis 18:12; Psalms 45:11 &c.). They press their husbands to supply them with the means for enjoying a joint carouse.