Amos 3

 

Amos 3

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

² “You only have I chosen of all the families of the earth;
therefore I will punish you for all your sins.”

³ Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?

⁴ Does a lion roar in the thicket when it has no prey?
Does it growl in its den when it has caught nothing?

⁵ Does a bird swoop down to a trap on the ground
when no bait is there? Does a trap spring up from the ground if it has not caught anything?

⁶ When a trumpet sounds in a city, do not the people tremble? When disaster comes to a city, has not the Lord caused it?

⁷ Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.

⁸ The lion has roared—who will not fear? The Sovereign Lord has spoken—who can but prophesy?

⁹ Proclaim to the fortresses of Ashdod and to the fortresses of Egypt: “Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria; see the great unrest within her
and the oppression among her people.”

¹⁰ “They do not know how to do right,” declares the Lord, “who store up in their fortresses what they have plundered and looted.”

¹¹ Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “An enemy will overrun your land, pull down your strongholds and plunder your fortresses.”

¹² This is what the Lord says: “As a shepherd rescues from the lion’s mouth only two leg bones or a piece of an ear, so will the Israelites living in Samaria be rescued,
with only the head of a bed and a piece of fabric from a couch.”

¹³ “Hear this and testify against the descendants of Jacob,” declares the Lord, the Lord God Almighty.

¹⁴ “On the day I punish Israel for her sins, I will destroy the altars of Bethel; the horns of the altar will be cut off
and fall to the ground.

¹⁵ I will tear down the winter house along with the summer house; the houses adorned with ivory will be destroyed and the mansions will be demolished,”
declares the Lord.