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Amos 1:3-5
New Catholic Bible
Amos 1:3-5
New Catholic Bible
For Three Crimes of Damascus
3 [a]These are the words of the Lord:
For three crimes of Damascus, and for four,
I will not revoke my decree.
Because they threshed Gilead
with threshing-sledges of iron,
4 I will send fire on the house of Hazael,
and it will devour the palaces of Ben-hadad.[b]
5 I will demolish the gate bars of Damascus
and destroy the inhabitants in the Valley of Aven,
as well as the sceptered ruler of Beth-eden;[c]
the people of Aram will be exiled to Kir,
says the Lord.
Footnotes
- Amos 1:3 In the course of liturgical celebrations, the prophets often cursed the enemies of Israel. In the curses uttered by Amos, God judges the peoples, not on the basis of Israel’s interests, but in the name of a morality that obliges all human groups. Amos’s ethical sense is exemplary.
- Amos 1:4 Hazael . . . Ben-hadad: Kings of Damascus (see 2 Ki 8:7-15; 13:3).
- Amos 1:5 Beth-eden: “Valley of delights,” a sarcastic name for Damascus. Kir: the place of origin of the Arameans (see Amos 9:7).
