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3. Witnesses Against Israel

¹ Hear this word, people of Israel, the word the LORD has spoken against you—against the whole family I brought up out of Egypt:

    ² “You only have I chosen
   of all the families of the earth;
therefore I will punish you
   for all your sins.”

    ³ Do two walk together
   unless they have agreed to do so?
⁴ Does a lion roar in the thicket
   when it has no prey?
Does it growl in its den
   when it has caught nothing?
⁵ Does a bird swoop down to a trap on the ground
   when no bait is there?
Does a trap spring up from the ground
   if it has not caught anything?
⁶ When a trumpet sounds in a city,
   do not the people tremble?
When disaster comes to a city,
   has not the LORD caused it?

    ⁷ Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing
   without revealing his plan
   to his servants the prophets.

    ⁸ The lion has roared—
   who will not fear?
The Sovereign LORD has spoken—
   who can but prophesy?

    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 store up in their fortresses
   what they have plundered and looted.”

¹¹ Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says:

   “An enemy will overrun your land,
   pull down your strongholds
   and plunder your fortresses.”

¹² This is what the LORD says:

   “As a shepherd rescues from the lion’s mouth
   only two leg bones or a piece of an ear,
so will the Israelites living in Samaria be rescued,
   with only the head of a bed
   and a piece of fabric The meaning of the Hebrew for this phrase is uncertain. from a couch. Or Israelites be rescued, / those who sit in Samaria / on the edge of their beds / and in Damascus on their couches.”

¹³ “Hear this and testify against the descendants of Jacob,” declares the Lord, the LORD God Almighty.

    ¹⁴ “On the day I punish Israel for her sins,
   I will destroy the altars of Bethel;
the horns of the altar will be cut off
   and fall to the ground.
¹⁵ I will tear down the winter house
   along with the summer house;
the houses adorned with ivory will be destroyed
   and the mansions will be demolished,” declares the LORD.

It now follows, The lion roars who would not fear? The Lord Jehovah speaks, who would not prophesy? In this verse the Prophet reproved the Israelites for their usual contentions with the Prophets when their sins were sharply reprehended. Thus indeed are men wont to do; they consider not that Prophets are sent from above, and that there is a charge committed to them. Hence, when Prophets are severe in their words, the world clamors and wrangles: “What do these men intend? Why do they urge us so much? Why do they not allow us to rest quietly? for they provoke against us the wrath of God.” Whenever then men are roused, they immediately menace God’s Prophets with strife and contention, and regard not threatening as coming from God himself. This vice the Prophet now condemns: The lion roars, he says, who would not fear? God speaks, who would not prophesy? “Ye think that I am your adversary; but ye can gain nothing by quarreling with me: were I silent, the voice of God would of itself be formidable enough. The evil then proceeds not from my mouth, but from God’s command; for I am constrained, willing or unwilling, to obey God: he has chosen me to be a Prophet, and has showed what he intends that I should proclaim. What can I do, he says? I am not at liberty to invent revelations; but I faithfully bring forth to you what has been delivered to me by the Lord. How great then is your madness, that ye contend with me, and consider not that your strife and contention is with God himself?” We now see what the Prophet meant, and also understand, why he adduced the four similitudes, of which we have already spoken. I now proceed with the remaining context.