Amos 3

Chap. III. Ver. 1-15. God’s judgments denounced more especially against Israel.—This chapter begins with reproving the twelve tribes in general, and then partook the kingdom of Israel, whose capital was Samaria. He tells them, that while they were at variance with God, they had no right to expect favour from him; but ought rather to tremble at his threatenings, as men do at the roaring of a lion. Nor should they flatter themselves with exemption from punishment on account of privileges which they had abused. We must never infer, from former deliverances, that we may therefore go on to sin with impunity. On the contrary, to Israel God says, “You only have I known of all the families of the earth;”

that is, you only have I distinguished by peculiar favours, and, you, warning from these awful judgments, from which only a small remnant should escape, like the remains of a lamb from the mouth of a lion. The close of the chapter shows, that the Israelites at this time had indulged in every Asiatic luxury; town and country houses, embellished with ivory, with divans and Damascenes of the most costly elegance.

Chap. III. Ver. 1—10. Jonah’s preaching and its success.—Our Lord confirms the fact, that the Ninevites repented at the preaching of Jonah, though a stranger and a foreigner, whilst [his] own preaching to the Jews, accompanied as it was with many miracles, produced upon the nation, as such, no salutary