“Therefore, that is what I will do to you, O Israel, and since I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!
Parallel translations
- WEB “Therefore thus will I do to you, Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, Israel.
- KJV Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.
- NKJV “Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel; Because I will do this to you, Prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”
- NASB “Therefore so I will do to you, Israel; Because I will do this to you, Prepare to meet your God, Israel.”
- NLT “Therefore, I will bring upon you all the disasters I have announced. Prepare to meet your God in judgment, you people of Israel!”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Because Israel would not repent, God will bring final judgment, and he warns: 'Prepare to meet your God.' A direct, inescapable encounter with God awaits.
Overview
After listing the rejected warnings, God announces decisive action. The solemn summons to 'prepare to meet your God' calls Israel to reckon with the Lord himself, no longer through partial chastisements but in full confrontation. It is both a threat of judgment and an implicit call to repent before it is too late. Every person must ultimately meet God, making readiness through faith in Christ the most urgent of all concerns.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- 1 Th 5:2–4For you are fully aware that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
- Jas 4:1–10What causes conflicts and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from the passions at war within you?
- Amos 9:1–4I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and He said: “Strike the tops of the pillars so that the thresholds shake. Topple them on the heads of all the people, and I will kill the rest with the sword. None of those who flee will get away; none of the fugitives will escape.
- Mark 13:32–37No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
- Ezek 13:5You did not go up to the gaps or restore the wall around the house of Israel so that it would stand in the battle on the Day of the LORD.
- Isa 47:3Your nakedness will be uncovered and your shame will be exposed. I will take vengeance; I will spare no one.”
- Amos 5:4–15For this is what the LORD says to the house of Israel: “Seek Me and live!
- Luke 21:3–36“Truly I tell you,” He said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others.
- Luke 14:31–32Or what king on his way to war with another king will not first sit down and consider whether he can engage with ten thousand men the one coming against him with twenty thousand?
- Matt 24:44For this reason, you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect.
- Hos 13:8Like a bear robbed of her cubs I will attack them, and I will tear open their chests. There I will devour them like a lion, like a wild beast would tear them apart.
- Ezek 22:30I searched for a man among them to repair the wall and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, so that I should not destroy it. But I found no one.
- Amos 4:2–3The Lord GOD has sworn by His holiness: “Behold, the days are coming when you will be taken away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks.
- Matt 5:25Reconcile quickly with your adversary, while you are still on the way to court. Otherwise, he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison.
- Rev 3:3Remember, then, what you have received and heard. Keep it and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know the hour when I will come upon you.
- Amos 2:14Escape will fail the swift, the strong will not prevail by his strength, and the mighty will not save his life.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Amid judgment on injustice, Amos promises the raising up of David's fallen tent — read by James in Acts 15 as the ingathering of the nations into the kingdom of the risen Christ.
How Amos 4:12 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.