Thus saith Jehovah Like as the shepherd rescueth out of the jaw of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear; so shall the children of Israel be rescued that sit in Samaria in the corner of a couch, and upon the damask of a bed.
Amos worked as a herdsman, and he draws his picture from that trade: a lion takes a sheep, and the shepherd comes back with almost nothing. He aims it at people living in comfort in Samaria — is such a rescue ruin, or mercy?
The chapter opens with God addressing Israel and Judah as one family. Why would God judge the nation He had drawn closest to Himself?
Amos 3 speaks of both Judah and Israel, "the whole family," counting it as one, though division had come in. Then comes the momentous statement: this family was the only one God had known — the only one He had taken into relationship with Himself. Therefore God would punish them for their iniquities. Privilege sets the measure of responsibility. Judgements would come, yet a remnant would be left — a small remnant indeed!
Why those particular scraps? Gaebelein explains the shepherd's practice behind the picture.
Then the herdsman speaks in a parable familiar to him from his life as a shepherd. When a beast of prey devours a sheep, the shepherd must bring proof of it. So he is anxious to recover part of the killed animal. He tries to snatch from the devouring lion either the legs of the sheep, or even a small piece of the ear, to show that the lion ate the rest. It would be the same with the people in their luxurious living. Only a small remnant is to escape the coming slaughter by the lion, the Gentile world power.
The rescue sounds small on purpose. Two legs and a piece of an ear are not a sheep. They only prove that a sheep once existed.
There should be left but a few little fragments of them, like the scraps of a lamb that might be taken out of the lion's mouth after he had devoured it.
Darby also notes what surrounds this warning in the chapter: God does not strike without notice. If His voice is heard, there is a reason for it, and "He would do nothing without revealing it to His servants the prophets."
The verse names people sitting in the corner of a couch and on part of a bed. Kelly weighs their comfort against the size of what the shepherd saves. He works from an older translation, which reads "in Damascus a couch" where the ESV has "part of a bed".
Out of that strong people, who enjoyed the pride of life in the corner of a bed (or divan) and a couch, only the merest scrap of a remnant would be rescued… Possibly Damascus itself is meant as the couch, by a strong figure of speech. The Lord will not permit the utter destruction of His people. He will allow an extreme judgment because of their sin. But He will preserve a remnant, and out of it His grace will make a strong nation. Such is the destiny yet for Israel.
The verse names a shepherd doing the rescuing. Barker sees mercy showing through a chapter otherwise given to judgment.
Judgment, not blessing, is the theme Amos dwells on in the first part of his prophecy. Yet the very pronouncing of doom on the guilty nation is what brings in a reference to One who would deliver a remnant. He comes before us here as the Shepherd-Deliverer.
Everything hangs on who does the pulling out. The survivors are not stronger or faster than the rest. The Shepherd carries them out of a mouth that had already closed on them.
The adversary would take the nation as a whole as prey, but a small handful would escape. Israel's Shepherd would deliver "a piece of an ear" from the mouth of the lion, and in connection with this remnant God's promises would be fulfilled. There could not be even this little remnant without the delivering grace and power of the Shepherd. When they are restored to their land and blessed with the bounty of God, they will own that they owe it all to Him. They have been in the lion's mouth, and, while multitudes have perished, they have been delivered. And Christ is the One who has done it.
- Known, therefore judged. Israel was the one family God had taken into relationship with Himself. That is why judgment falls: privilege sets the measure of responsibility.
- Warned, never ambushed. God does nothing without first revealing it to His servants the prophets. The roar comes after the word.
- Two legs and an ear. The scraps proved to others that the lion had destroyed the animal. The rescue is that small — and the comfortable people of Samaria are the ones pulled out.
- Extreme, but not final. God allows judgment to go to its limit because of sin, yet never to total destruction; a remnant is preserved.
- The Shepherd gets the credit. Without His delivering grace and power there would be no remnant at all. Restored Israel will own that they owe it all to Him — and Christ is the One who did it.
Hear ye, and testify in the house of Jacob, saith the Lord Jehovah, the God of hosts,
Amos 3:13 is a courtroom call. God calls witnesses to listen, and then to testify against His own people. And the One who calls them names Himself with a title of total power.
The call to testify reaches beyond Israel. Earlier in the chapter the Lord sends His prophets to two foreign powers:
The speaker is the Lord. He tells the prophets to cry out in the palaces of Ashdod in Philistia and in Egypt, so that they may see and know the wicked acts of Samaria, and so bear witness against Israel. In this way the Lord exposed them to their enemies.
The kingdom had split in two. God still counts the people as one family, and that closeness is what now works against them:
Amos 3 speaks of both Judah and Israel, "the whole family," counting them as one, even though division had come in. Then comes the weighty statement that this family was the only one God had known — the only one He had taken into relationship with Himself. So God would punish them for their sins. This shows that privilege sets the measure of responsibility.
A people meant to bear witness to God are now the ones testified against. One writer draws out what that place of testimony demands:
If we stand in the place of testimony — testimony to God — then that testimony must agree with the heart and the principles of God. It must not misrepresent His character. Our walk must match our position. And the more direct this testimony is, the more jealous God will be about His glory and our faithfulness. Judgment begins at His house.
The summons comes from "the Lord GOD, the God of hosts." That title entered Scripture at a particular point, and for a reason:
We do not meet this name until 1 Samuel 1:3. It came in with prophetic testimony. Faith took hold of the LORD's glory at a time when Israel had corrupted themselves and were weak and low. Scripture shows that there is a mighty heavenly host, and rulers and powers in the unseen world. God is the God of them all. He is also God of all the forces of nature, which He has often used to punish His enemies.
The next verse names the target: the horns of the altar. Cutting them off can sound like simple vandalism. One writer explains why it was far worse:
In 3:14 he mentions "the horns of the altar," which God had commanded them to make, Exodus 27:2. Amos threatens, "the horns of the altar shall be cut off and fall to the ground." But why is this a threat? What harm would follow from removing the ornaments of the altar? To see it, remember this. Under the law of Moses, to make atonement for a person or for the nation, the priest had to put the blood of the sacrifice on the horns of the altar.
The judgment then moves from their worship to their comfort:
God will visit the transgressions of Israel. In that visit He will overthrow the idol altars of Bethel. All their prosperity and luxury would then end. Instead of living in winter and summer houses, they would become homeless.
If privilege sets the measure of responsibility, then those who have received most stand in the most serious place:
This is an especially solemn thing for us to weigh. The Christian of all people has the greatest privileges. So if he is unfaithful, he faces the severest correction. There has never been such an unfolding of grace and truth as the one that came by Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yet the warning itself is mercy. It comes first, so that some may escape:
The God who will judge in righteousness deals graciously. He does not soften judgment by grace, much less cancel it. He brings in grace before the judgment, to rescue from it those who bow to Him.
- Known — God took this one family into relationship as He did no other. Everything else rests on that.
- Measured — privilege sets the measure of responsibility. The closer the relationship, the more jealous God is for His glory.
- Summoned — the call to testify comes from "the God of hosts," and even foreign nations are called to hear the case.
- Exposed — the priest put atoning blood on the horns of the altar. Cutting them off takes away the place of atonement, and the luxury houses fall with it.
- Warned — the announcement comes before the blow. God brings in grace ahead of judgment, to rescue those who bow to Him.
that in the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel upon him, I will also punish the altars of Bethel; and the horns of the altar shall be cut off, and fall to the ground.
God announces a day when He will punish Israel, and the first thing He strikes is an altar. Why does judgment start at the place of worship? And what do the people lose when the horns of an altar fall?
Israel was the one nation God had drawn near to Himself. That closeness raises the standard rather than lowering it:
Of all the families of the earth, Jehovah had known these alone. So He would punish them for their sins — a solemn but very simple principle. If we stand in the place of testimony to God, that testimony must agree with the heart and the principles of God. It must not misrepresent His character. Our walk must match our position. And the more direct that testimony is, the more jealous God will be about His glory and our faithfulness. Judgment begins at His house.
Bethel's altar had a known history. A king built it to keep his people away from Jerusalem:
When the kingdom split in two, Bethel fell to Israel. Jeroboam set up one of the golden calves there, to stop the Israelites from going to Jerusalem to worship. An altar went up and sacrifices were offered to the idol. But a man of God condemned it, and the altar was torn apart.
The threat only lands once you know what the horns did:
The horn is a symbol of strength. So when the blood was sprinkled on the horns, the altar's whole strength came into view in full. That strength had been against the sinner. Now it works for him. So the horns became a place of refuge, a safe place no one could touch. It sheltered everyone who had a right to that protection through the sprinkled blood.
Cutting the ornaments off an altar sounds like a small loss. One writer answers by pointing back to the law of atonement:
Amos threatens, "the horns of the altar shall be cut off and fall to the ground." But how is this a threat? What harm was likely to follow if someone removed the ornaments of the altar? To understand this, remember the law of Moses. To make atonement for one person or for the whole nation, the blood of the sacrifice had to be put on the horns of the altar... This one threat assumes the people knew these rules well. They valued them so much that losing them counted as a punishment.
Another writer sets this beside God's sentence on Judah, where the horns carry sin instead of blood:
In Jeremiah 17:1 the horns appear again, in God's solemn sentence on Judah, as He is about to remove him from his inheritance. Judah can no longer turn to the accepted witness of atonement on the horns. Instead of blood there, his sin is now engraved on them. So also in Amos: no blood of atonement can be displayed, for the sinner is then to bear his own guilt.
Bethel's altars belonged to idols, so their horns could never shelter anyone:
They might put the blood of sacrifice to idols on the horns of their altars. The horns would only be a witness against them, and would themselves be cut off. That showed there was no strength for mercy in the idol or in his altar.
God speaks in the first person here: I will punish. Nothing in the blow falls outside His hand:
Others may look at the human instruments; but there is nothing apart from Him. The highest authority, the Lord Jesus Himself, said that not a sparrow falls to the ground without our Father. How much less can a judgment that swallows a city happen without Him? Since He does all things, He knows all. And since He knows, He tells what He sees fit about each judgment. He tells it to those who listen to Him and make His mind known.
- Known, therefore judged. God had known Israel alone among all the families of the earth. That nearness is why He punishes their sins — judgment begins at His house.
- Known, therefore warned. God does not strike in silence. He tells what He sees fit about each judgment to those who listen to Him. The blow through Amos is His act, not the work of the human instruments people see.
- Known, therefore struck. Jeroboam set up Bethel's worship to keep the people away from Jerusalem. Those altars are the first target when God moves in judgment.
- The horns matter. Blood on the horns made atonement visible. The altar's whole strength turned from against the sinner to for him, and the altar became a refuge.
- Refuge lost. When the horns fall, no atonement can be shown. The sinner bears his own guilt — and the idol's altar never had strength for mercy anyway.