3:1 Hear this word, people of Israel, the word the Lord has spoken against you - against the whole family I brought up out of Egypt:
3:2 “You only have I chosen of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your sins.”
3:3 Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?
3:4 Does a lion roar in the thicket when it has no prey? Does it growl in its den when it has caught nothing?
3:5 Does a bird swoop down to a trap on the ground when no bait is there? Does a trap spring up from the ground if it has not caught anything?
3:6 When a trumpet sounds in a city, do not the people tremble? When disaster comes to a city, has not the Lord caused it?
3:7 Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.
3:8 The lion has roared - who will not fear? The Sovereign Lord has spoken - who can but prophesy?
3:9 Proclaim to the fortresses of Ashdod and to the fortresses of Egypt: “Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria; see the great unrest within her and the oppression among her people.”
3:10 “They do not know how to do right,” declares the Lord, “who store up in their fortresses what they have plundered and looted.”
3:11 Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “An enemy will overrun your land, pull down your strongholds and plunder your fortresses.”
3:12 This is what the Lord says: “As a shepherd rescues from the lion’s mouth only two leg bones or a piece of an ear, so will the Israelites living in Samaria be rescued, with only the head of a bed and a piece of fabric* from a couch.**” / *The meaning of the Hebrew for this phrase is uncertain. / **Or Israelites be rescued, those who sit in Samaria on the edge of their beds and in Damascus on their couches.
3:13 “Hear this and testify against the descendants of Jacob,” declares the Lord, the Lord God Almighty.
3:14 “On the day I punish Israel for her sins, I will destroy the altars of Bethel; the horns of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground.
3:15 I will tear down the winter house along with the summer house; the houses adorned with ivory will be destroyed and the mansions will be demolished,” declares the Lord.