3 Listen! This is your doom! It is spoken by the Lord against both Israel and Judah—against the entire family I brought from Egypt:
2 “Of all the peoples of the earth, I have chosen you alone. That is why I must punish you the more for all your sins. 3 For how can we walk together with your sins between us?
4 “Would I be roaring as a lion unless I had a reason? The fact is, I am getting ready to destroy you. Even a young lion, when it growls, shows it is ready for its food. 5 A trap doesn’t snap shut unless it is stepped on; your punishment is well deserved. 6 The alarm has sounded—listen and fear! For I, the Lord, am sending disaster into your land.
7 “But always, first of all, I warn you through my prophets. This I now have done.”
8 The Lion has roared—tremble in fear. The Lord God has sounded your doom—I dare not refuse to proclaim it.
9 “Call together the Assyrian and Egyptian leaders, saying, ‘Take your seats now on the mountains of Samaria to witness the scandalous spectacle of all Israel’s crimes.’ 10 My people have forgotten what it means to do right,” says the Lord. “Their beautiful homes are full of the loot from their thefts and banditry. 11 Therefore,” the Lord God says, “an enemy is coming! He is surrounding them and will shatter their forts and plunder those beautiful homes.”
12 The Lord says, “A shepherd tried to rescue his sheep from a lion, but it was too late; he snatched from the lion’s mouth two legs and a piece of ear. So it will be when the Israelites in Samaria are finally rescued—all they will have left is half a chair and a tattered pillow.
13 “Listen to this announcement and publish it throughout all Israel,” says the Lord, the Lord Almighty: 14 “On the same day that I punish Israel for her sins I will also destroy the idol altars at Bethel. The horns of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground.
15 “And I will destroy the beautiful homes of the wealthy—their winter mansions and their summer houses too—and demolish their ivory palaces.”