Login Go Premium

Amos 3

¹Listen to this message that the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel—against the entire family I rescued from Egypt:

²“From among all the families on the earth, I have been intimate with you alone. That is why I must punish you for all your sins.”

Witnesses against Guilty Israel

³Can two people walk together without agreeing on the direction?

⁴Does a lion ever roar in a thicket without first finding a victim? Does a young lion growl in its den without first catching its prey?

⁵Does a bird ever get caught in a trap that has no bait? Does a trap spring shut when there’s nothing to catch?

⁶When the ram’s horn blows a warning, shouldn’t the people be alarmed? Does disaster come to a city unless the Lord has planned it?

⁷Indeed, the Sovereign Lord never does anything until he reveals his plans to his servants the prophets.

⁸The lion has roared— so who isn’t frightened? The Sovereign Lord has spoken— so who can refuse to proclaim his message?

⁹Announce this to the leaders of Philistia and to the great ones of Egypt: “Take your seats now on the hills around Samaria, and witness the chaos and oppression in Israel.”

¹⁰“My people have forgotten how to do right,” says the Lord. “Their fortresses are filled with wealth taken by theft and violence.

¹¹Therefore,” says the Sovereign Lord, “an enemy is coming! He will surround them and shatter their defenses. Then he will plunder all their fortresses.”

¹²This is what the Lord says: “A shepherd who tries to rescue a sheep from a lion’s mouth will recover only two legs or a piece of an ear. So it will be for the Israelites in Samaria lying on luxurious beds, and for the people of Damascus reclining on couches.

¹³“Now listen to this, and announce it throughout all Israel,” says the Lord, the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies.

¹⁴“On the very day I punish Israel for its sins, I will destroy the pagan altars at Bethel. The horns of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground.

¹⁵And I will destroy the beautiful homes of the wealthy— their winter mansions and their summer houses, too— all their palaces filled with ivory,” says the Lord.

Amos 3 (NLT)

Click verse numbers to view individual verses with commentary

View interlinear text with original Hebrew/Greek →

Amos

Chapter 3

3 of 9