Amos' first message explained that God would judge His people because they had oppressed others in spite of their uniquely privileged relationship with Yahweh. The prophet addressed this message initially to both Israel and Judah (vv. 1-2), but he focused it mainly on Israel (vv. 9, 12).
Amos called all the Israelites to hear a message from their Lord. He referred to them as those whom Yahweh had redeemed from Egypt reminding them of the unique privilege they enjoyed. He also mentioned that the Israelites, among all the peoples of the world, had a special relationship to the Lord.34This is an allusion to the covenant that God has made with the Israelites at Mt. Sinai (cf. Exod. 19:3-6; Deut. 28:1-14).35He had also revealed Himself to the Israelites as He had done to no other people. God said He would punish His people for their iniquities because they were sins against His unusual blessings (cf. v. 14).36Greater privilege always results in greater responsibility.
Amos asked seven rhetorical questions in verses 3-6 to help the Israelites appreciate the inevitability of their judgment. In each one the prophet pointed out that a certain cause inevitably produces a certain effect. The five questions in verses 3-5 expect a negative answer, and the two in verse 6 expect a positive one. Verses 7-8 draw the conclusion.
3:3-6 Two people do not travel together unless they first agree to do so. By implication, God and Israel could not travel together toward God's intended destination for the nation unless the Israelites agreed to do so on His terms (cf. v. 2).
3:4 A lion does not roar in the forest unless it has found prey. Young lions do not growl in their dens unless they have captured something and are protecting it (cf. 1:2).
3:5 Birds do not get snared in traps unless there is bait in the traps that attracts them. Animal traps do not snap shut unless something triggers them.
3:6 People do not tremble at the news of some coming danger unless someone blows a trumpet to warn them. Calamities do not occur in cities unless God has either initiated or permitted them.
"The seven examples of related events began innocuously, but become increasingly foreboding. The first example (Amos 3:3) had no element of force or disaster about it. The next two (v. 4), however, concerned the overpowering of one animal by another, and the two after that (v. 5) pictured man as the vanquisher of animal prey. In the final two examples (v. 6), people themselves were overwhelmed, first by other human instruments, then by God Himself. This ominous progression, to the point where God Himself is seen as the initiator of human calamity, brought Amos to a climactic statement (vv. 7-8)."37
3:7 A similar inevitable connection exists between two other events. God does nothing to His people unless He first warns them through one of His prophets (cf. Ps. 25:14; Jer. 23:18, 22).38
3:8 Amos drew the final comparison with allusion to his previous illustrations. The message of judgment coming from the Lord that Amos now brought the Israelites was like the roaring of a lion. Who would not fear such a lion as the sovereign Yahweh? Indeed, how could the mouthpiece of the lion not prophesy since Yahweh had spoken?
3:9 Amos called for announcements to be made to the large buildings (i.e., to the people living in them) of Ashdod in Philistia and to those in Egypt.39Amos may have chosen these nations because they had previously oppressed the Israelites. People who lived in citadels were the wealthy and the leaders of those areas.40They should come and stand on the mountains surrounding Samaria, the capital of the Northern Kingdom. There they would witness great tumults, not the peace and order that should have prevailed, and oppressions within Samaria. The Israelites were assaulting and robbing one another; the rich were taking advantage of the poor.
3:10 Yahweh announced that the Israelites had plundered, looted, and terrorized each other so long that they no longer knew how to do right (Heb. nekohah, straightness). The Israelites were different from their aggressors because they plundered and looted their own fortresses rather than those of a foreign enemy. It was as though the Israelites hoarded up violence and devastation as others, and they, did material wealth. Now the wealthy foreigners, infamous for their own similar sins, would see that the Israelites behaved even worse in their citadels.
Amos' announcement of Israel's coming judgment came in three waves (vv. 11, 12, and 13-15).
3:11 Sovereign Yahweh announced that an enemy that would surround the land of Israel would destroy and loot its impressive fortresses. That enemy proved to be Assyria, which besieged and destroyed Samaria and overran all Israel in 722 B.C.
3:12 Yahweh also predicted that only a small remnant of the people would survive. The situation would be similar to when a shepherd snatched a remaining fragment of a sheep, a couple of leg bones or a small piece of an ear, from the mouth of an attacking wild animal. It would be like when someone stole everything in a house and the owner could only hold onto a piece of his bed or a bedspread. Similarly an overpowering enemy would steal away the people of Samaria, and only a few would escape.
The figure of a shepherd represented Yahweh in Israel's literature (e.g., Ps. 23:1; et al.). The people would have seen Him as the one who would rescue the remnant as well as the one who would allow the enemy to overpower them.
3:13 Sovereign Yahweh almighty, the suzerain warrior who led the most vast and powerful of all armies, urged Amos to hear His word and to bear testimony against the house of Jacob. The reference to Jacob recalls the devious nature of this ancestor whose character the present generation of Israelites manifested. It also recalls God's gracious promises to Jacob. The Israelites, as bad as they were, were God's people, not just the people of King Jeroboam.
3:14 God now promised to destroy the pagan altars that Jeroboam I had erected at Bethel at the same time He destroyed the people of Israel (cf. 1 Kings 12:26-30). This altar, and the one in Dan, had taken the place of the one in Jerusalem for most of the Israelites. The one in Bethel was the most popular religious center in Israel. There the Israelites practiced apostate worship. The horns of this altar, symbolic of the strength of its deity, would be cut off and would fall to the ground showing its impotence. The horns of an altar were also places of asylum in the ancient Near East (1 Kings 1:50), so their cutting off pictures no asylum for the Israelites when God's judgment came.
3:15 God also promised to destroy the Israelites' winter and summer homes. The fact that many Israelite families could afford two houses and yet were oppressing their poorer brethren proved that they lived in selfish luxury. They had embellished their great houses with expensive ivory decorations (cf. 1 Kings. 21:1, 18; 22:39; Ps. 45:8). The two great sins of the Israelites, false religion (v. 14) and misuse of wealth and power (v. 15), would be the objects of God's judgment.
"The enduring principle here is that God will destroy elaborate altars, expensive houses, and other accoutrements of an extravagant lifestyle when these items are acquired through oppression, fraud, and strong-arm tactics. The idolatry of the people led to their opulent lifestyles. Life apart from God may yield temporary material gain, but it will surely result in eternal loss."41
