Amos 4:1

Amos opened this second message as he did the first (ch. 3), with the cry, "Hear this word." He addressed the wealthy women of Samaria, calling them "cows of Bashan." Bashan was a very luxuriant region of Transjordan east and northeast of the Sea of Chinnereth (Galilee) where cattle had plenty to eat and grew fat (cf. Psalms 22:12; Jeremiah 50:19; Ezekiel 39:18; Micah 7:14). These women, along with their men, were oppressing (threatening) the poor and crushing (harassing) the needy. The women were even ordering their husbands to wait on them and bring them drinks. The Hebrew word ’adonim, translated "husbands," means "lords" or "masters." By using it Amos was stressing the role reversal that existed. The picture is of spoiled, lazy women ordering their husbands to provide them with luxuries that the men had to oppress the poor to obtain (cf. Deuteronomy 28:56-57; Isaiah 32:9-13).

"What is luxury? The word ’luxury’ comes from a Latin word that means ’excessive.’ It originally referred to plants that grow abundantly (our English word ’luxurious’), but then it came to refer to people who have an abundance of money, time, and comfort, which they use for themselves as they live in aimless leisure. Whenever you are offered ’deluxe service,’ that’s the same Latin word: service above and beyond what you really need." [Note: Wiersbe, p. 352.]