Amos 3–4

Israel’s Guilt and Punishment

3Hear this word that Yahweh has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole clan that I brought up from the land of Egypt:^{a 2}“You only have I chosen^b of all the clans of the earth. Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. ³Do two walk together unless they have met? ⁴Does a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey?^c Does a fierce, young lion cry out from his den unless he has caught something? ⁵Does a bird fall into a trapping net on the earth when there is no snare for it? Does a trapping net spring up from the ground unless it has certainly caught something? ⁶Or is a horn blown in a city and people are not afraid? Or does a disaster occur in the city and Yahweh has not done it? ⁷Surely my Lord does not do anything unless he has revealed his secret to his servants the prophets. ⁸A lion has roared! Who is not afraid? My Lord Yahweh has spoken, who will not prophesy? ⁹Proclaim to the citadel fortresses in Ashdod and the citadel fortresses in the land of Egypt and say: “Gather on the mountains of Samaria and see the great panic in her midst and the oppression in her midst!” ¹⁰“They do not know how to do right,” declares Yahweh,^d “those who store up violence and destruction in their citadel fortresses.” ¹¹Therefore, thus says my Lord Yahweh, “A foe shall surround the land and bring down your strongholds, and your citadel fortresses shall be plundered.” ¹²Thus says Yahweh, “Just as the shepherd rescues two legs or a piece of an ear from the mouth of the lion, so shall the people^e of Israel who dwell in Samaria, with the corner of a couch and the damask of a bed.” ¹³“Listen and testify against the house of Jacob,” declares^f my Lord Yahweh, the God of hosts. ¹⁴“For on the day I punish Israel for its transgression,^g I will also punish the altars of Bethel and the horns of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground. ¹⁵I will ruin the winter house as well as the summer house, and the houses of ivory will perish and the great houses shall come to an end,” declares^h Yahweh.

Social and Spiritual Corruption

4Hear this word, you cows of Bashan who live on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the powerless, who crush the poor, who say to their husbands, “Bring something so that we may drink!” ²My Lord Yahweh has sworn by his holiness that, “Behold, the days are coming upon you when they^a will take you away with hooks, even the last of you with fishing hooks. ³And you shall leave through breaches in the wall, each one in front of her. You will be dragged off toward Harmon,”^b declares^c Yahweh. ⁴“Come to Bethel and transgress; to Gilgal and multiply transgression!^d Bring your sacrifices in the morning and your tithes on the third day.^{e 5}And bring a thank offering of leavened bread, and proclaim freewill offerings, pronounce them, for so you love to do, O people^f of Israel,” is the declaration of my Lord Yahweh. ⁶“And I^g in turn gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities and lack of bread in all your places. Yet you did not return to me,” is the declaration of Yahweh. ⁷“And I also withheld the rain from you when there were still three months to the harvest. And I would send rain on one city and send no rain on another city. One tract of land will be rained on, and the tract of land on which it does not rain^h will dry up. ⁸So two or three cities wandered to one city to drink water and they were not satisfied, yet you did not return to me,” is the declaration of Yahweh. ⁹“I struck you with blight and with mildew. Frequently the cutting locust devoured your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees, yet you did not return to me,” is the declaration of Yahweh. ¹⁰“I sent among you a plague in the manner of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword, along with the captivity of your horses. And I made the stench of your camps go up into your nostrils, yet you did not return to me,” is the declaration of Yahweh. ¹¹“I overthrew some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a stick snatched from the fire, and yet you did not return to me,” is the declaration of Yahweh. ¹²“Therefore, thus I will do to you, O Israel. Because I will do this to you, O Israel, prepare to meet your God! ¹³Yes, here is the one who forms the mountains, and the one who creates the wind, and the one who reveals to humankind what his thoughts are, the one who turns dawn into darkness, and the one who treads on the heights of the earth; Yahweh, the God of hosts, is his name!”