Fatten Up the Cow: Amos 4:1-3
When people are raised to see their fellow man as a source for increasing their own wealth, society has a problem. We all struggle against sin, but the sin learned in the home can be the most difficult to root out. It is imperative that households don’t become breeding grounds for sin.
Amos gets personal with one specific group in these verses. When Amos says, “you cows of Bashan,” Amos is speaking directly to the women. We know this for two reasons. First, Amos speaks only of cows, not bulls or steer. Second, Amos refers to people who talk to their husbands. Amos’ target in these verses are the wealthy women.
In the ancient world, most of the public presence would have been handled by the men. Therefore, the intended audience of the entire book are the men. The men lead the society. The men run the businesses. The men enforce unfair loans.
The reason Amos specifically points out the women, then, is to illustrate the system of oppression that forces the poor to remain poor starts in the home. All people are to blame, not just the men. The women enjoy their prosperity in their fancy homes on the hills. The women instruct their husbands to bring home more money so they can indulge in drinking, partying, and social affairs. The women encourage their men to plunder the common person to maintain their lifestyle.
There is a neat subtext to how Amos refers to the women as cows. People raise cows for milk and cheese. But people fatten cows for slaughter. That is precisely what Amos is getting at. In their lust for society life, these women are getting fat off their fellow human. They are living a life of opulence on the backs of their fellow Hebrews. They don’t realize, though, by fattening themselves up on their high society life they make themselves ideal for the slaughter. One of the reasons the Assyrians invade the nation of Israel is to carry off their wealth! The lust for wealth on the part of the elite draws them into the Assyrian slaughter.
In fact, the Assyrians had a stylistic way of deporting captured people. The Assyrians would take captured people, especially the elite, and pierce their noses and lips with rings. Then, ropes or chains would be attached to these rings so the people could be led away from their homes. The elite would be paraded around and humiliated to break them of their spirit. The Assyrians literally treated their captives like cattle, demeaning them and shaming them before the rest of the Assyrian populace.
Amos warns us about the dangers of high society lifestyle. He warns us how such a lifestyle is taught – even glorified – in the home. When people are raised to see their fellow man as a source for increasing their own wealth, society has a problem.
