Calling them cows is an insult, even if it did become one of the more famous biblical insults hurled by an angry prophet at the people in power and their smug indifference.
When are insults an appropriate way to try and wake us up to the harsh reality of income inequality and injustice?
The gap between the rich and poor goes back to the beginning of civilization as we know it - with its perils from the get go even with so much progress.
This disturbing 3 min. vid from Time Magazine summarizes how the USA got to the current appalling disparity, but greed clearly didn’t begin with America or the Industrial Age.
Amos the prophet, some 2,800 years ago already described the details of how the rich get richer at the expense of the poor who get poorer. And he resorts to poetic insults to make his point and hurl hurtful words at the society he is criticizing, on behalf of the Higher Source.
The Kingdom of Israel enjoyed a few secure and affluent decades mid 8th Century BCE but the wealth only led to greater injustice, provoking the rage of the prophets like Amos who had courage to raise their voice and demand change.
Amos is considered one of the first to leave this legacy of protest in writing, likely copied down after he made fiery speeches in public places, heard by the people who may or may not have paid him any attention as they went on with their daily business.
Another one of his famous sayings is somewhere between parody and pathos, naming the people of Samaria as careless beasts only focused on their feed and need. It’s a powerful but also problematic proclamation, an insult that has intrigued many generations:
שִׁמְע֞וּ הַדָּבָ֣ר הַזֶּ֗ה פָּר֤וֹת הַבָּשָׁן֙ אֲשֶׁר֙ בְּהַ֣ר שֹׁמְר֔וֹן הָעֹשְׁק֣וֹת דַּלִּ֔ים הָרֹצְצ֖וֹת אֶבְיוֹנִ֑ים הָאֹמְרֹ֥ת לַאֲדֹנֵיהֶ֖ם הָבִ֥יאָה וְנִשְׁתֶּֽה׃
Hear this word, you cows of Bashan
On the hill of Samaria—
Who defraud the poor,
Who rob the needy;
Who say to your husbands,
“Bring wine, and let’s drink”
Amos 4:1
It seems clear that he’s referring to the wealthy women of Samarian society. But is there deeper meaning to the use of ‘cows of Bashan’ - a fertile region in the northern part of the kingdom, once referenced as the land of giants?
An early Aramaic translation from the Roman period replaced the word cows with “those who possess riches and dwell in the mountains of Samaria.” Rashi, the commentator living in the early 12th Century France focused on the feminine gender in the Hebrew verse and interpreted it as “The wives of officers and officials.” The medieval commentator Yosef Kara added: “These were Israelite women who resembled cows grazing on the Bashan mountains. Because that is where they grew fat, they rebelled and revolted, crushing the needy and oppressing the poor.”
The rage of Amos, an outsider from the south looking at the rich people of the north who look away from people’s needs is understood but is he also guilty of prophetic misogyny?
In ‘The Women’s Bible Commentary' Carol Ann Newsom and Sharon H. Ringe explain:
“Two aspects of these verses may sound more misogynistic to modern readers than they were originally intended. Amos may well have meant to deliver a stinging denunciation of what he understood to be the women’s attitudes and behavior toward the poor, but yet without any intent gratuitously to insult their bodies or their relationships with their husbands, as commentators often assume. “You cows of Bashan” was almost certainly not meant as derogatorily as it sounds in English, though the precise nuance in Amos’s mind is not clear.”
Either way, the insult was specific enough to survive through the ages, using the powerful weapon of potent words that is often all that can be used by the poor and prophetic in the face of indifference and inequality. Amos will go on to name the blame of the people with precise promises of what their fate will be, consequences of their criminal behavior. Cows or not, all will perish in disgrace. The only remedy he offers? Get back to your most humane and humanistic sense of sacred purpose - get beyond your base behavior and cling to virtues that embody the values of faith-based love.
His words keep echoing, the cows keep grazing, and we can keep hoping for some sense to transcend the traumas that the human race keeps piling up, generation after generation. Maybe insults are not enough to get real change to happen? Amos will keep on trying.
Go Below the Bible Belt. Link in bio. subscribe.Below the Bible Belt: 929 chapters, 42 months, daily reflections.
Become a free or paid subscriber and join Rabbi Amichai’s 3+ years interactive online quest to question, queer + re-read between the lines of the entire Hebrew Bible. Enjoy daily posts, weekly videos and monthly learning sessions. 2022-2025.
#Amos #Amos3 #ProphetAmos #הנביאעמוס# עמוס #BookofAmos #תריעשר #treiasar #minorprophets #Prophets #Neviim #Hebrewbible #Tanach #929 #labshul #belowthebiblebelt929 #truthtopower #incomeinequality #cowsofbashan #greed #poverty #rebuke #kingdomofIsrael #incomegap #stoptheviolence #peace #prayforpeace #nomorewar #hope
I appreciate your articles and am recommending them. .Would you be willing to recommend my devotionals? Thank you. billbranks.substack.com/welcome