First Pronouncement of Punishment

¹Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O Israelites, against the whole family I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying:[#Am 2:10]

²You alone have I known

of all the families of the earth;

therefore I will punish you

for all your iniquities.

³Do two people walk together,

if they have not agreed?

⁴Does a lion roar in the forest,[#Ps 104:21; Hos 11:10]

if it has no prey?

Does a young lion cry out from its den,

if it has not caught something?

⁵Does a bird fall into a trap on the ground,

if there was no snare for it?

Does a trap spring up from the ground,

if it has not caught something?

⁶If the trumpet blasts in the city,

are not the people frightened?

If there is disaster against a city,

is it not the Lord who has done it?

⁷Surely the Lord God does nothing

without revealing His purpose

to His servants the prophets.

⁸The lion has roared;

who will not fear?

The Lord God has spoken;

who can but prophesy?

⁹Proclaim to the fortresses in Ashdod,[#1Sa 5:1]

and the fortresses in the land of Egypt, and say:

“Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria,

and see the great disorders within her,

and the oppression in her midst.”

¹⁰They do not know how to do right, says the Lord ,[#Jer 4:22]

storing up violence and destruction in their fortresses.

¹¹Therefore thus says the Lord God :

An enemy will surround your land;

he will tear down your defenses,

and your fortresses will be plundered.

¹²Thus says the Lord :

As the shepherd rescues out of the mouth of the lion

a pair of legs or a piece of an ear,

so will the Israelites be rescued,

those who live in Samaria,

with the corner of a bed

or a piece of a couch.

¹³Hear and testify against the house of Jacob, says the Lord God , the God of Hosts:

¹⁴Surely on the day I punish the transgressions of Israel,

I will also punish the altars of Bethel;

the horns of the altar will be cut off

and fall to the ground.

¹⁵I will destroy the winter house

as well as the summer house,

and the houses of ivory will perish;

the great houses will come to an end,

says the Lord .