Amos 3

Israel's Guilt and Punishment

1 Hear this word that the LORD has spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying:

2 "You a only have I known of all the families of the earth;
b Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities."

3 Can two walk together, unless they are agreed? 4 Will a lion roar in the forest, when he has no prey?
Will a young lion 1 cry out of his den, if he has caught nothing? 5 Will a bird fall into a snare on the earth, where there is no 2 trap for it?
Will a snare spring up from the earth, if it has caught nothing at all? 6 If a 3 trumpet is blown in a city, will not the people be afraid?
c If there is calamity in a city, will not the LORD have done it?

7 Surely the Lord GOD does nothing,
Unless d He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets. 8 A lion has roared!
Who will not fear?
The Lord GOD has spoken!
e Who can but prophesy?

9 "Proclaim in the palaces at 4 Ashdod,
And in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say:
'Assemble on the mountains of Samaria;
See great tumults in her midst,
And the 5 oppressed within her. 10 For they f do not know to do right,'
Says the LORD,
'Who store up violence and 6 robbery in their palaces.' "

11 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD:
"An adversary shall be all around the land;
He shall sap your strength from you,
And your palaces shall be plundered."

12 Thus says the LORD:
"As a shepherd 7 takes from the mouth of a lion
Two legs or a piece of an ear,
So shall the children of Israel be taken out
Who dwell in Samaria -
In the corner of a bed and 8 on the edge 9 of a couch!

13 Hear and testify against the house of Jacob,"
Says the Lord GOD, the God of hosts, 14 "That in the day I punish Israel for their transgressions,
I will also visit destruction on the altars of g Bethel;
And the horns of the altar shall be cut off
And fall to the ground. 15 I will 10 destroy h the winter house along with i the summer house;
The j houses of ivory shall perish,
And the great houses shall have an end,"
Says the LORD.

  1. Cross References
    Genesis 18:19
    "For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the LORD, to do righteousness and justice, that the LORD may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him."
    Exodus 19:5
    Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.
    Exodus 19:6
    'And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel."
    Deuteronomy 7:6
    For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.
    Psalms 147:19
    He declares His word to Jacob, His statutes and His judgments to Israel.
  2. Cross References
    Jeremiah 14:10
    Thus says the LORD to this people: "Thus they have loved to wander; They have not restrained their feet. Therefore the LORD does not accept them; He will remember their iniquity now, And punish their sins.
    Ezekiel 20:36
    Just as I pleaded My case with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will plead My case with you," says the Lord GOD.
    Daniel 9:12
    And He has confirmed His words, which He spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us a great disaster; for under the whole heaven such has never been done as what has been done to Jerusalem.
    Matthew 11:22
    But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you.
    Romans 2:9
    Tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek.
  3. Cross References
    Isaiah 45:7
    I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the LORD, do all these things.
  4. Cross References
    Genesis 6:13
    And God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
    Genesis 18:17
    And the LORD said, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing.
    Jeremiah 23:22
    But if they had stood in My counsel, And had caused My people to hear My words, Then they would have turned them from their evil way And from the evil of their doings.
    Daniel 9:22
    And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, "O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you skill to understand.
    John 15:15
    No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.
  5. Cross References
    Jeremiah 20:9
    Then I said, "I will not make mention of Him, Nor speak anymore in His name." But His word was in my heart like a burning fire Shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, And I could not.
    Micah 3:8
    But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the LORD, And of justice and might, To declare to Jacob his transgression And to Israel his sin.
    Acts 4:20
    "For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard."
    1 Corinthians 9:16
    For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!
  6. Cross References
    Psalms 14:4
    Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, Who eat up my people as they eat bread, And do not call on the LORD?
    Jeremiah 4:22
    "For My people are foolish, They have not known Me. They are silly children, And they have no understanding. They are wise to do evil, But to do good they have no knowledge."
    Amos 5:7
    You who turn justice to wormwood, And lay righteousness to rest in the earth!
    Amos 6:12
    Do horses run on rocks? Does one plow there with oxen? Yet you have turned justice into gall, And the fruit of righteousness into wormwood.
  7. Cross References
    2 Kings 23:15
    Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he broke down; and he burned the high place and crushed it to powder, and burned the wooden image.
    Hosea 10:5 - 8
    The inhabitants of Samaria fear Because of the calf of Beth Aven. For its people mourn for it, And its priests shriek for it - Because its glory has departed from it.
    Hosea 10:14
    Therefore tumult shall arise among your people, And all your fortresses shall be plundered As Shalman plundered Beth Arbel in the day of battle - A mother dashed in pieces upon her children.
    Hosea 10:15
    Thus it shall be done to you, O Bethel, Because of your great wickedness. At dawn the king of Israel Shall be cut off utterly.
    Amos 4:4
    Come to Bethel and transgress, At Gilgal multiply transgression; Bring your sacrifices every morning, Your tithes every three days.
  8. Cross References
    Jeremiah 36:22
    Now the king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month, with a fire burning on the hearth before him.
  9. Cross References
    Judges 3:20
    So Ehud came to him (now he was sitting upstairs in his cool private chamber). Then Ehud said, "I have a message from God for you." So he arose from his seat.
  10. Cross References
    1 Kings 22:39
    Now the rest of the acts of Ahab, and all that he did, the ivory house which he built and all the cities that he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
    Psalms 45:8
    All Your garments are scented with myrrh and aloes and cassia, Out of the ivory palaces, by which they have made You glad.
New King James Version (NKJV) Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
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