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3:3–8 Yahweh uses a series of rhetorical questions, where the expected answer is “no,” to emphasize that judgment is just as certain as the predictable reactions evoked by the questions.
Seven questions in Amos 3:3–6 are interrupted by the acknowledgment of Yahweh’s sovereignty required by the question in v. 6. The final questions in v. 8 emphasize the prophet’s role as a mere messenger for God who is unable to resist the call to preach (compare Jer 20:8–9).
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3:8 The style shift in v. 8 alerted Amos’s audience (reader) that he had reached the climax. He turned from hypothetical situations (vv. 3–6) to statements of fact. “The lion has roared,” the first statement of fact, is the cause of “fear.” Here the lion’s roar strikes fear in humans, “who will not fear?” The effect of the lion’s roar in v. 4 was on other animals.
Since “the lion has roared” is parallel to “the Sovereign Lord has spoken,” both expressions refer to God. This usage accords with the parallel statements in 1:2, “The Lord from Zion will roar, and from Jerusalem he will give his voice” (author’s translation). Amos had heard the lion’s roar of the Lord’s judgment upon Israel.
That roar struck “fear” in Amos. He knew the lion’s roar signaled a kill. Amos spoke God’s message in Israel because he had heard the Lord speak. The prophet’s message was not his own. He only spoke what he heard the Lord speak. With this rhetorical unit Amos would justify his appearance in Israel as spokesman for God. S. Paul captures Amos’s point: “The prophet speaks when commanded but, once commanded, must speak.” Gitay explains the significance of this point as adding to Amos’s credibility.
Amos did not enjoy his task of conveying unpleasant words. He was simply “one of the audience, one who [had] no choice but to prophesy.” D. Hubbard’s concluding paragraph on the unit contains a striking statement about how Amos “won his points”: “He has done so by leading his hearers through a catechism of common-sense questions to his double conclusion that reinforces all that he said in the beginning verses of this chapter: Yahweh will bring disaster on his people (v. 6b), and Amos has no choice but to announce it” (v. 8b).
(3) The Downfall and Devouring of Israel (3:9–12)
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.”
10 “They do not know how to do right,” declares the Lord, “who hoard plunder and loot in their fortresses.”
11 Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “An enemy will overrun the land; he will pull down your strongholds and plunder your fortresses.”
12 This is what the Lord says: “As a shepherd saves from the lion’s mouth only two leg bones or a piece of an ear, so will the Israelites be saved, those who sit in Samaria on the edge of their beds and in Damascus on their couches.” Having prepared his audience for the message and justified his ministry of judgment in Israel, Amos then spelled out the crimes the Lord would punish.
This oracle has a mixture of forms. The call for witnesses suggests the covenant lawsuit form (v. 9) and serves as an introduction to the second half of the message in this chapter (cf. v. 1). Emphasis on the word of the Lord is a feature of the messenger form (vv. 10–11). Samaria was the likely location of the prophet’s proclamation, and Samaria’s leading citizens probably were the prophet’s target audience.
Smith, B. K., & Page, F. S. (1995). Amos, Obadiah, Jonah (Vol. 19B, pp. 75–77). Broadman & Holman Publishers.
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