Amos 4:2-3

Sovereign Yahweh had not just said what He would do, but He had sworn that He would do it. When God swore He provided an additional guarantee, in addition to His word, that He would indeed do something (cf. Genesis 22:16-17; Isaiah 62:8; Jeremiah 44:26; Hebrews 6:16-18). He made this solemn declaration in harmony with His holiness. As surely as God is separate from humankind and cannot tolerate sin, these women would surely suffer His judgment one day.

An enemy would cart them off as butchers carry beef with large meat hooks and as fishermen carry fish with hooks. This description may imply that the enemy would tie them in lines with ropes and lead them away since this is how fishermen strung their fish on lines. Carved reliefs that archaeologists have found show Assyrians leading people by a rope attached to a ring in the jaw or lip of their captives. [Note: See Leonard W. King, Annals of the Kings of Assyria, pp. 116-20, 125-26.] Alternatively it may mean that their dead bodies would be disposed of as so much meat. [Note: J. H. Hayes, Amos, pp. 140-41.] The enemy would carry the bodies of these women (living or dead) off through breaches in Samaria’s walls. The women would be carried off without any complications; each one would go straight ahead to captivity or to burial through any one of the many passageways made through the broken walls.

The enemy would take them to Harmon, perhaps an alternative spelling of Mt. Hermon. Some scholars believe the meaning of "Harmon" is uncertain, though it appears to be the name of some site. Mt. Hermon was to the north of Bashan, so these cows of Bashan would end up near Bashan. This is, in fact, the direction the Assyrians took the Israelite captives as they deported them to Assyria.

"Those who oppress the poor and crush the needy in order to support an extravagant lifestyle can expect God’s harsh judgment to fall upon them." [Note: Smith, p. 86.]