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Israel’s Guilt and Punishment

3Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt:
² You only have I known
   of all the families of the earth;
therefore I will punish you
   for all your iniquities.

³ Do two walk together
   unless they have made an appointment?
⁴ Does a lion roar in the forest,
   when it has no prey?
Does a young lion cry out from its den,
   if it has caught nothing?
⁵ Does a bird fall into a snare on the earth,
   when there is no trap for it?
Does a snare spring up from the ground,
   when it has taken nothing?
⁶ Is a trumpet blown in a city,
   and the people are not afraid?
Does disaster befall a city,
   unless the Lord has done it?
⁷ Surely the Lord God does nothing,
   without revealing his secret
   to his servants the prophets.
⁸ The lion has roared;
   who will not fear?
The Lord God has spoken;
   who can but prophesy?

⁹ Proclaim to the strongholds in Ashdod,
   and to the strongholds in the land of Egypt,
and say, ‘Assemble yourselves on Mount^* Samaria,
   and see what great tumults are within it,
   and what oppressions are in its midst.’
¹⁰ They do not know how to do right, says the Lord,
   those who store up violence and robbery in their strongholds.
¹¹ Therefore, thus says the Lord God:
An adversary shall surround the land,
   and strip you of your defence;
   and your strongholds shall be plundered.

12 Thus says the Lord: As the shepherd rescues from the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so shall the people of Israel who live in Samaria be rescued, with the corner of a couch and part^* of a bed.

¹³ Hear, and testify against the house of Jacob,
   says the Lord God, the God of hosts:
¹⁴ On the day I punish Israel for its transgressions,
   I will punish the altars of Bethel,
and the horns of the altar shall be cut off
   and fall to the ground.
¹⁵ I will tear down the winter house as well as the summer house;
   and the houses of ivory shall perish,
and the great houses^* shall come to an end,

says the Lord.