Bible Commentaries
Amos 3

Verse 2

3:2 You {a} only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.

(a) I have only chosen you to be mine among all other people, and yet you have forsaken me.

Verse 3

3:3 Can two walk together, except they be {b} agreed?

(b) By this the Prophet signifies that he speaks not of himself, but as God guides and moves him, which is called the agreement between God and his Prophets.

Verse 4

3:4 Will a {c} lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey? will a young lion cry out of his den, if he have taken nothing?

(c) Will God threaten by his Prophet, unless there is some great occasion?

Verse 5

3:5 {d} Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin [is] for him? shall [one] take up a {e} snare from the earth, and have taken nothing at all?

(d) Can anything come without God’s providence?

(e) Will his threatenings be in vain?

Verse 6

3:6 {f} Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there {g} be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done [it]?

(f) Will the Prophet’s threaten God’s judgments and the people not be afraid?

(g) Does any adversity come without God’s appointment? Isaiah 45:7

Verse 7

3:7 Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he {h} revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.

(h) God does not deal with the Israelites as he does with other people: for he always warns them before of his plagues by his Prophets.

Verse 8

3:8 The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord GOD hath spoken, who can but {i} prophesy?

(i) Because the people always murmured against the Prophets, he shows that God’s Spirit moved them to speak as they did.

Verse 9

3:9 Publish in the palaces at {k} Ashdod, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria, and behold the great tumults in the midst thereof, and the oppressed in the midst thereof.

(k) He calls the strangers, such as the Philistines and Egyptians, to be witness of God’s judgments against the Israelites for their cruelty and oppression.

Verse 10

3:10 For they know not to do right, saith the LORD, who store up violence and robbery {l} in their palaces.

(l) The fruit of their cruelty and theft appears by their great riches, which they have in their houses.

Verse 12

3:12 Thus saith the LORD; As the shepherd taketh {m} out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear; so shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria in the corner of a bed, and in {n} Damascus [in] a couch.

(m) When the lion has satisfied his hunger, the shepherd finds a leg or a piece of an ear, to show that the sheep have been torn by his teeth.

(n) Where they thought to have had a sure stronghold, and to have been in safety.