1 Listen to this word which the LORD has spoken against you, children of Israel, against the entire clan that I led up out of the land of Egypt:
2 Of all the clans of the earth, you alone have I known; that is why I will call you to account for all your iniquities.
3 Will two walk together without having arranged it?
4 Does a lion roar in the thicket when it has no prey? Does a young lion growl from its den if it has taken nothing?
5 Does a bird drop onto a trap on the ground when no snare is set for it? Does a trap spring up from the ground without catching anything?
6 If a horn sounds in a city, do the people not tremble? If calamity strikes a city, has not the LORD done it?
7 For the Lord GOD does not do a thing unless he has disclosed his counsel to his servants the prophets.
8 A lion has roared; who would not be afraid? The Lord GOD has spoken; who would not prophesy?
9 Make it heard in the strongholds of Ashdod and in the strongholds of the land of Egypt, and say, "Gather on the mountains of Samaria and look at the wild disorder inside her and the oppression in her midst."
10 "They have no idea how to act honestly," declares the LORD, "they who pile up violence and plunder in their strongholds."
11 Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD: A foe will encircle the land; he will strip your strength from you, and your strongholds will be looted.
12 Thus says the LORD: Just as a shepherd snatches out of a lion's mouth a pair of legs or a bit of an ear, so will the children of Israel be snatched out, those who sit in Samaria in the corner of a couch and on the silk cushions of a bed.
13 Listen, and bear witness against the house of Jacob, declares the Lord GOD, the God of hosts:
14 in the day I call Israel to account for his transgressions, I will call the altars of Bethel to account as well; the horns of the altar will be hacked off and drop to the ground.
15 I will smash the winter house together with the summer house; the ivory houses will be ruined, and the great houses will be swept away, declares the LORD.