Amos 3–4

Israel’s Guilt and Punishment

³Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt:^*

²You only have I known

of all the families of the earth;

therefore I will punish you

for all your iniquities.^*

³Do two walk together

unless they have made an appointment?^*

⁴Does a lion roar in the forest

when it has no prey?

Does a young lion cry out from its den

if it has caught nothing?^*

⁵Does a bird fall into a snare on the earth

when there is no trap for it?

Does a snare spring up from the ground

when it has taken nothing?

⁶Is a trumpet blown in a city,

and the people are not afraid?

Does disaster befall a city

unless the Lord has done it?^*

⁷Surely the Lord God does nothing

without revealing his secret

to his servants the prophets.^*

⁸The lion has roared;

who will not fear?

The Lord God has spoken;

who can but prophesy?^*

⁹Proclaim to the strongholds in Ashdod

and to the strongholds in the land of Egypt,

and say, “Assemble yourselves on Mount^m Samaria,

and see what great tumults are within it

and what oppressions are in its midst.”^*

¹⁰They do not know how to do right, says the Lord,

those who store up violence and robbery in their strongholds.^*

¹¹Therefore thus says the Lord God:

An adversary shall surround the land

and strip you of your defense,

and your strongholds shall be plundered.^*

¹²Thus says the Lord: As the shepherd rescues from the mouth of the lion two legs or a piece of an ear, so shall the people of Israel who live in Samaria be rescued, with the corner of a couch and partⁿ of a bed.^*

¹³Hear and testify against the house of Jacob,

says the Lord God, the God of hosts:^*

¹⁴On the day I punish Israel for its transgressions,

I will punish the altars of Bethel,

and the horns of the altar shall be cut off

and fall to the ground.

¹⁵I will tear down the winter house as well as the summer house,

and the houses of ivory shall perish,

and the great houses^o shall come to an end,

says the Lord.^*

⁴Hear this word, you cows of Bashan

who are on Mount Samaria,

who oppress the poor, who crush the needy,

who say to their husbands, “Bring something to drink!”^*

²The Lord God has sworn by his holiness:

The time is surely coming upon you

when they shall take you away with hooks,

even the last of you with fishhooks.^*

³Through breaches in the wall you shall leave,

each one straight ahead,

and you shall be flung out into Harmon,^p

says the Lord.

⁴Come to Bethel—and transgress;

to Gilgal—and multiply transgression;

bring your sacrifices every morning,

your tithes every three days;^*

⁵bring a thank offering of leavened bread

and proclaim freewill offerings, publish them;

for so you love to do, O people of Israel!

says the Lord God.^*

Israel Rejects Correction

⁶I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities

and lack of bread in all your places;

yet you did not return to me,

says the Lord.^*

⁷And I also withheld the rain from you

when there were still three months to the harvest;

I would send rain on one city

and send no rain on another city;

one field would be rained upon,

and the field on which it did not rain withered;

⁸so two or three towns wandered to one town

to drink water and were not satisfied;

yet you did not return to me,

says the Lord.^*

⁹I struck you with blight and mildew;

I laid waste^q your gardens and your vineyards;

the locust devoured your fig trees and your olive trees;

yet you did not return to me,

says the Lord.^*

¹⁰I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt;

I killed your young men with the sword;

I carried away your horses;^r

and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils;

yet you did not return to me,

says the Lord.^*

¹¹I overthrew some of you

as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,

and you were like a brand snatched from the fire;

yet you did not return to me,

says the Lord.^*

¹²Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel;

because I will do this to you,

prepare to meet your God, O Israel!^*

¹³For the one who forms the mountains, creates the wind,

reveals his thoughts to mortals,

makes the morning darkness,

and treads on the heights of the earth—

the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name!^*