Amos

¹ Listen to this, Israel. God is calling you to account—and I mean all of you, everyone connected with the family that he delivered out of Egypt. Listen!

² I picked you. Therefore, because of your special calling, I'm holding you responsible for all your sins."

³ if they aren't going to the same place?

⁴ if there's no carcass to devour? Does a young lion growl with pleasure if he hasn't caught his supper?

⁵ if it hasn't been hit with a stone? Does a trap spring shut if nothing trips it?

⁶ aren't people alarmed? And when disaster strikes the city, doesn't God stand behind it?

⁷ without first telling his prophets the whole story.

⁸ who isn't frightened? God has spoken— what prophet can keep quiet?

⁹ announce to the forts of Egypt— Tell them, "Gather on the Samaritan mountains, take a good, hard look: what a snake pit of brutality and terror!

¹⁰ "They stockpile violence and blight.

¹¹ He'll strip you of your power and plunder your forts."

¹² "In the same way that a shepherd trying to save a lamb from a lion Manages to recover just a pair of legs or the scrap of an ear, So will little be saved of the Israelites who live in Samaria— A couple of old chairs at most, the broken leg of a table.

¹³ this is God's Word, God-of-the-Angel-Armies!

¹⁴ pay for the sin-altars of worship at Bethel, The horned altars will all be dehorned and scattered around.

¹⁵ smash the summer palace—all your fancy buildings. The luxury homes will be demolished, all those pretentious houses." God's Decree.