Amos 3–4

Chapter 3

¹Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up out of the land of Egypt:

²“You only have I known

of all the families of the earth;

therefore I will punish you

for all your iniquities.

³“Do two walk together,

unless they have made an appointment?

⁴Does a lion roar in the forest,

when he has no prey?

Does a young lion cry out from his den,

if he has taken nothing?

⁵Does a bird fall in 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 evil 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 Assyria,^f

and to the strongholds in the land of Egypt,

and say, “Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria,

and see the great tumults within her,

and the oppressions in her midst.”

¹⁰“They 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 bring down your defenses from you,

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 dwell in Samaria be rescued, with the corner of a couch and part^g of a bed.”

¹³“Hear, and testify against the house of Jacob,”

says the Lord GOD, the God of hosts,

¹⁴“that on the day I punish Israel for his 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 smite the winter house with the summer house;

and the houses of ivory shall perish,

and the great houses shall come to an end,”

says the Lord.

Chapter 4

¹“Hear this word, you cows of Bashan,

who are in the mountain of Samaria,

who oppress the poor, who crush the needy,

who say to their husbands, ‘Bring, that we may drink!’

²The Lord GOD has sworn by his holiness

that, behold, the days are coming upon you,

when they shall take you away with hooks,

even the last of you with fishhooks.

³And you shall go out through the breaches,

every one straight before her;

and you shall be cast forth into Harmon,”

says the Lord.

⁴“Come to Bethel, and transgress;

to Gilgal, and multiply transgression;

bring your sacrifices every morning,

your tithes every three days;

⁵offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened,

and proclaim freewill offerings, publish them;

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

says the Lord GOD.

⁶“I 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.

⁷“And I also withheld the rain from you

when there were yet three months to the harvest;

I would send rain upon one city,

and send no rain upon another city;

one field would be rained upon,

and the field on which it did not rain withered;

⁸so two or three cities wandered to one city

to drink water, and were not satisfied;

yet you did not return to me,”

says the Lord.

⁹“I smote you with blight and mildew;

I laid wasteⁱ

your gardens and your vineyards; your fig

trees and your olive trees the locust devoured;

yet you did not return to me,”

says the Lord.

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

I slew your young men with the sword;

I carried away your horses;^j

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

yet you did not return to me,”

says the Lord.

¹¹“I overthrew some of you,

as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,

and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning;

yet you did not return to me,”

says the Lord.

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

because I will do this to you,

prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”

¹³For lo, he who forms the mountains, and creates the wind,

and declares to man what is his thought;

who makes the morning darkness,

and treads on the heights of the earth—

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