Amos Chapter 3

Witnesses Summoned Against Israel

1Hear 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.”

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

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

5Does 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?

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

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

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

9Proclaim 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.”

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

12This 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.

15I 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.