9 Announce this to the leaders of Philistia and to the great ones of Egypt: "Take your seats now on the hills around Samaria, and witness the chaos and oppression in Israel." 10 "My people have forgotten how to do right," says the Lord . "Their fortresses are filled with wealth taken by theft and violence. 11 Therefore," says the Sovereign Lord, "an enemy is coming! He will surround them and shatter their defenses. Then he will plunder all their fortresses." 12 This is what the Lord says: "A shepherd who tries to rescue a sheep from a lion's mouth will recover only two legs or a piece of an ear. So it will be for the Israelites in Samaria lying on luxurious beds, and for the people of Damascus reclining on couches. 13 "Now listen to this, and announce it throughout all Israel, " says the Lord, the Lord God of Heaven's Armies. 14 "On the very day I punish Israel for its sins, I will destroy the pagan altars at Bethel. The horns of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground. 15 And I will destroy the beautiful homes of the wealthy- their winter mansions and their summer houses, too- all their palaces filled with ivory," says the Lord .
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Amos 3:9-15
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.