Albert Barnes Commentary Amos 3:6

"Shall the trumpet be blown in a city, and the people not be afraid? shall evil befall a city, and Jehovah hath not done it?" — Amos 3:6 (ASV)

Is there evil in the city and the Lord has not done it? - Evil is of two sorts, evil of sin, and evil of punishment. There is no other; for evil of nature, or evil of fortune, are evils by God’s Providence, punishing the evil of sin.

Augustine, Contra Adimantum, chapter 26: “Evil, which is sin, the Lord has not done; evil, which is punishment for sin, the Lord brings.” The Providence of God governing and controlling all things, man does the evil that he wills, so as to suffer the evil that he does not will. Only, evil that is by God’s Providence the punishment of sin is remedial in this life and through final impenitence alone becomes purely judicial.

Rib.: “Do not refer, the prophet would say, the ills which you suffer and will suffer, to any other causes, as people are accustomed to do. God, in His displeasure, sends them upon you. And that you may know this the more certainly, whatever He will send He will first reveal to the prophets and by them you will be forewarned. See then that you do not despise my words, or the words of the other prophets.

“People ascribe their sufferings to fortune, accident, any cause, rather than the displeasure of God. The intemperate will think anything the cause of their illness rather than their intemperance. People love the things of the world and cannot and will not be persuaded that so many evils are brought on them by the things which they love. So then God explains through the prophets the punishment which He purposes to bring on people.”