Amos 3

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.^*