Charles Ellicott Commentary Amos 4:7-8

"And I also have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest; and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered. So two or three cities wandered unto one city to drink water, and were not satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith Jehovah." — Amos 4:7-8 (ASV)

Three months to the harvest.— The withdrawal of rain at this period (February and March) is at the present day most calamitous to the crops in Palestine.

Caused it to rain ...—The tenses should be understood as expressing repeated action and could be advantageously rendered in the present tense: cause it to rain ... is rained upon, etc. The inhabitants of the most suffering districts wander, distracted and weary, to a more favoured city, and find no sufficiency. Compare the graphic description in Jeremiah 14:1-6. Moreover, the specifics of affliction in particular localities reveal the purpose of God rather than the operation of universal laws.