“Now listen to this, and announce it throughout all Israel,” says the Lord, the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies.
Parallel translations
- WEB “Listen, and testify against the house of Jacob,” says the Lord Yahweh, the God of Armies.
- KJV Hear ye, and testify in the house of Jacob, saith the Lord GOD, the God of hosts,
- BSB Hear and testify against the house of Jacob, declares the Lord GOD, the God of Hosts.
- NKJV Hear and testify against the house of Jacob,” Says the Lord God, the God of hosts,
- NASB “Hear and testify against the house of Jacob,” Declares the Lord God, the God of armies.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God, the Lord of Armies, calls for testimony against the house of Jacob. A formal indictment against Israel is being declared.
Overview
The summons to 'listen and testify' frames the coming words as legal witness against Israel's sin. The title 'God of Armies' (LORD of hosts) underscores his sovereign power to execute the verdict. This introduces the specific judgment on Israel's false worship that follows. God himself stands as both witness and judge over his people.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Acts 20:21testifying both to Jews and to Greeks repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus.
- Deut 8:19It shall be, if you shall forget Yahweh your God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you today that you shall surely perish.
- Acts 2:40With many other words he testified, and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation!”
- 2 Kgs 17:13Yet Yahweh testified to Israel, and to Judah, by every prophet, and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.”
- Ezek 2:7You shall speak my words to them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear; for they are most rebellious.
- Eph 4:17This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind,
- 2 Chr 24:19Yet he sent prophets to them, to bring them again to Yahweh, and they testified against them; but they would not listen.
- Acts 18:5–6But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the Spirit, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.
- Amos 5:27Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus,” says Yahweh, whose name is the God of Armies.
- Josh 22:22“The Mighty One, God, Yahweh, the Mighty One, God, Yahweh, he knows; and Israel shall know: if it was in rebellion, or if in trespass against Yahweh (don’t save us today),
- Isa 1:24Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, the Mighty One of Israel, says: “Ah, I will get relief from my adversaries, and avenge myself on my enemies;
- 1 Th 4:6that no one should take advantage of and wrong a brother or sister in this matter; because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as also we forewarned you and testified.
- 2 Kgs 17:15They rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified to them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom Yahweh had commanded them that they should not do like them.
- Deut 30:18–19I denounce to you today, that you will surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you pass over the Jordan to go in to possess it.
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Christ at the center
Amid judgment on injustice, Amos promises the raising up of David's fallen tent — read by James in Acts 15 as the ingathering of the nations into the kingdom of the risen Christ.
How Amos 3:13 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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