To be addressed, and that by God Himself, as cows, cows of Basilan (the grazing country east of the Jordan where many cattle were raised), must have been humiliating to the rulers of the kingdom of Israel, but it fitly expressed their state as He saw them. Of true intelligence they now had none, gone far from their God in all their ways.
In chapter 2:6-7) Israel is rebuked for despising the poor, and here a second time their treatment of them is spoken of; we find the subject mentioned again, in chapter 5 (verse 11). It is of man’s selfish heart to neglect and deal unjustly with the poor, but such conduct does not pass unnoticed by the all-seeing eyes of God. The leaders of Samaria (the ten-tribe kingdom) thought themselves secure in their houses of ivory, their winter houses and summer houses, but the Lord Jehovah had sworn by His holiness concerning this unholy people (verses 2-3).
Bethel and Gilgal were names that formerly spoke of God’s deep interest in His people; at Bethel He had spoken to Jacob when a wanderer from his father’s home; at Gilgal the reproach of Egypt was rolled away, when the Israelites entered the promised land. But now these were places of transgression; Bethel had become Beth-aven, house of idols instead of house of God, and Gilgal, as we judge from verse 4, was an even greater center of idolatry.
God had visited Israel because of their perverseness, and five measures He had employed are spoken of; it will be seen that these increased in severity from the first to the last (verses 6-11), but His complaint is that none of them moved the people to return to Him. Therefore (verse 12) He would meet them in judgment more intense; “Prepare to meet thy God.”