31 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 "Out of all the families on earth, I picked you. Therefore, because of your special calling, I'm holding you responsible for all your sins." 3 Do two people walk hand in hand if they aren't going to the same place? 4 Does a lion roar in the forest if there's no carcass to devour? Does a young lion growl with pleasure if he hasn't caught his supper? 5 Does a bird fall to the ground if it hasn't been hit with a stone? Does a trap spring shut if nothing trips it? 6 When the alarm goes off in the city, aren't people alarmed? And when disaster strikes the city, doesn't God stand behind it? 7 The fact is, God, the Master, does nothing without first telling his prophets the whole story. 8 The lion has roared - who isn't frightened? God has spoken - what prophet can keep quiet?
9 Announce to the forts of Assyria, 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 can't - or won't - do one thing right." God said so. "They stockpile violence and blight.
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Matthew Henry's Commentary on Amos 3:1-10
Commentary on Amos 3:1-8
(Read Amos 3:1-8)
The distinguishing favours of God to us, if they do not restrain from sin, shall not exempt from punishment. They could not expect communion with God, unless they first sought peace with him. Where there is not friendship, there can be no fellowship. God and man cannot walk together, except they are agreed. Unless we seek his glory, we cannot walk with him. Let us not presume on outward privileges, without special, sanctifying grace. The threatenings of the word and providence of God against the sin of man are certain, and certainly show that the judgments of God are at hand. Nor will God remove the affliction he has sent, till it has done its work. The evil of sin is from ourselves, it is our own doing; but the evil of trouble is from God, and is his doing, whoever are the instruments. This should engage us patiently to bear public troubles, and to study to answer God's meaning in them. The whole of the passage shows that natural evil, or troubles, and not moral evil, or sin, is here meant. The warning given to a careless world will increase its condemnation another day. Oh the amazing stupidity of an unbelieving world, that will not be wrought upon by the terrors of the Lord, and that despise his mercies!
Commentary on Amos 3:9-15
(Read Amos 3:9-15)
That power which is an instrument of unrighteousness, will justly be brought down and broken. What is got and kept wrongfully, will not be kept long. Some are at ease, but there will come a day of visitation, and in that day, all they are proud of, and put confidence in, shall fail them. God will inquire into the sins of which they have been guilty in their houses, the robbery they have stored up, and the luxury in which they lived. The pomp and pleasantness of men's houses, do not fortify against God's judgments, but make sufferings the more grievous and vexatious. Yet a remnant, according to the election of grace, will be secured by our great and good Shepherd, as from the jaws of destruction, in the worst times.