Charles Ellicott Commentary Amos 4:11

"I have overthrown [cities] among you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a brand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith Jehovah." — Amos 4:11 (ASV)

Overthrown. — Another terrible calamity, an earthquake, is referred to, and perhaps a volcanic eruption. Dr. Pusey enumerates a long series of earthquakes that afflicted Palestine, though not the central parts of the country, from the time of Julian to the twelfth century. The allusion to Sodom and Gomorrah gives a hint of the fierce licence and vice that had prevailed in some parts of the Northern Kingdom and called for chastisement.

Some of you. — More accurately among you.

Brand plucked ... — People would cast such a brand back into the fire. Behold the goodness and severity of God.