Amo 1:2-3 | TNotes | STEP | 1:2 This message speaks of judgment at the day of the Lord. • Mount Zion (the Temple in Jerusalem) was the logical source of a message from the Lord . • Mount Carmel rises from the Mediterranean Sea and is well watered even in time of drought. If all the grass on Mount Carmel withered, it would be the sign of a catastrophic drought.

b1:3–2:16►

d1 Kgs 22:3►

fIsa 41:15►

gMic 4:13►

‏ Amos 1:2-3

1:2 ^a This message speaks of judgment at the day of the Lord.

• Mount Zion (the Temple in Jerusalem) was the logical source of a message from the Lord.

• Mount Carmel rises from the Mediterranean Sea and is well watered even in time of drought. If all the grass on Mount Carmel withered, it would be the sign of a catastrophic drought.
Summary for Amos 1:3-2:16: 1:3–2:16 ^b The eight judgments of this prophecy proceed from the most obvious enemy, Damascus, to the least obvious, Israel itself. The sequence would have engaged Israel’s attention as they heard God’s judgment against their enemies, but Amos eventually confronted the people with God’s judgment on them.
Summary for Amos 1:3-5: 1:3-5 ^c Damascus, the capital of Aram, was brutal in its treatment of the people of Gilead, Israel’s territory east of the Jordan. By the time Ahab died (853 BC), Damascus had captured Ramoth in Gilead (1 Kgs 22:3 ^d). Around 801 BC, Assyria captured Damascus, and the city never again held the power it had wielded in its prime. 1:3 ^e have sinned again and again: Literally have committed three sins, even four. This expression is used for a repeated act of rebellion against the natural order established by God. The Hebrew phrase does not denote a strict count but a pattern of repeated violations.

• beat down my people: Threshing grain involved separating the heads of the grain from their hulls by pulling wooden sledges with sharp teeth over the cut grain (Isa 41:15 ^f; see Mic 4:13 ^g). This description provides a graphic picture of the brutality of the people of Damascus.