¹Hear this word which the Lord has spoken concerning you, you sons of Israel, concerning all the family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying,

²“Only you have I known,

Of all the families of the earth,

Which is why I will visit on you

All your iniquities.

³Can two walk together,

Unless they have met by appointment?

⁴Does the lion roar in the forest

When it has no prey?

Does the young lion sound its voice from its den

If it has not caught anything?

⁵Does a bird fall into a snare on the ground

When there is no bait set for it?

Does the snare snap up from the ground

When it has trapped nothing at all?

⁶Is the ramshorn ever sounded in the city

Without the people fearing?

Is there ever a calamity in the city

Which the Lord did not cause?

⁷For the Lord, the Lord, does not do anything,

Except after he has revealed his secret

To his servants, the prophets.

⁸When the lion roars,

Who will not fear?

And when the Lord, the Lord, speaks,

Who will not prophesy?

⁹Proclaim it to the palaces in Ashdod

And to the palaces in the land of Egypt,

And say,

‘Be gathered on the mountains of Samaria,

And see the great consternation within it,

And the oppressed in its midst.’

¹⁰For they do not know how to do what is right,

Says the Lord

– Those who treasure up violence and spoil in their palaces.

¹¹Therefore this is what the Lord, the Lord, says:

‘There will be an adversary,

And he will be around the land,

And he will sap your strength from you,

And your palaces will be plundered.’

¹²This is what the Lord says:

‘As the shepherd saves two legs or a piece of an ear

From the mouth of the lion,

So the sons of Israel will be saved

– Those dwelling in Samaria,

In the corner of a bed

Or on a damask couch.

¹³Hear and testify in the house of Jacob,

Says the Lord, the Lord God of hosts.

¹⁴For on the day when I visit the transgressions of Israel on them,

I will also visit the altars of Beth-El,

And the horns of the altars will be cut off,

And they will fall to the ground.

¹⁵And I will strike the winter house against the summer house,

And the ivory houses will cease to exist,

And many other houses will come to an end,

Says the Lord.