Amos 4:1
Hear this word, ye fat kine that are in the mountains of Samaria: you that oppress the needy, and crush the poor: that say to your masters: Bring, and we will drink.
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Audite verbum hoc, vaccæ pingues, quæ estis in monte Samariæ, quæ calumniam facitis egenis et confringitis pauperes ; quæ dicitis dominis vestris : Afferte, et bibemus.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- Ἀκούσατε τὸν λόγον τοῦτον, δαμάλεις τῆς Βασανίτιδος αἱ ἐν τῷ ὄρει τῆς Σαμαρείας, αἱ καταδυναστεύουσαι πτωχοὺς καὶ καταπατοῦσαι πένητας, αἱ λέγουσαι τοῖς κυρίοις αὐτῶν Ἐπίδοτε ἡμῖν ὅπως πίωμεν.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- שִׁמְע֞וּ הַדָּבָ֣ר הַזֶּ֗ה פָּר֤וֹת הַבָּשָׁן֙ אֲשֶׁר֙ בְּהַ֣ר שֹֽׁמְר֔וֹן הָעֹשְׁק֣וֹת דַּלִּ֔ים הָרֹצְצ֖וֹת אֶבְיוֹנִ֑ים הָאֹמְרֹ֥ת לַאֲדֹֽנֵיהֶ֖ם הָבִ֥יאָה וְנִשְׁתֶּֽה
Haydock's commentary
Fat kine. He means the great ones that lived in plenty and wealth, (Challoner) and without restraint, (Isaias xv. 5., and Jeremias xlvi. 20.; Calmet) having no compassion for the poor. (Worthington)
The women who had too great an ascendency over their husbands, like Jezabel, may also be meant. (Theodoret; Grotius)
In many parts of the East the women affect being fat.
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Paulinus
8. Genesis, we shall be told, needs no explanation; its topics are too simple, the birth of the world, the origin of the human race, the division of the earth, the confusion of tongues, and the descent of the Hebrews into Egypt! Exodus, no doubt, is equally plain, containing as it does merely an account of the ten plagues, the decalogue, and sundry mysterious and divine precepts! The meaning of Leviticus is of course self-evident, although every sacrifice that it describes, nay more every word that it contains, the description of Aaron’s vestments, and all the regulations connected with the Levites are symbols of things heavenly! The book of Numbers too, are not its very figures, and Balaam’s prophecy, and the forty-two camping places in the wilderness so many mysteries? Deuteronomy also, that is the second law or the foreshadowing of the law of the gospel, does it not, while exhibiting …