But it was no laughing matter for Amos. His heart was wrung with woe
from his own people. He waited for the uproar to subside, and then
went on to the very point which he had come to make:

"Thus saith God,
For three transgressions of Israel,
Yea, for four, I will not revoke its punishment.
Because they sell the righteous for money,
And the needy for a pair of shoes;
Who trample on the head of the poor,
And turn aside the way of the humble.
Upon garments taken in pledge they stretch themselves beside
every altar,
And the wine of those who have been fined they drink in the house
of their God."

Jeers and threatening cries were hurled at Amos from all directions,
but he stood his ground.

With the art of a master orator he won back his displeased audience.
Passionately he poured forth the story of Israel and its relationship
to God--a story he knew so well--and brought the people back to
breathless attention. He recounted the wonders God had done with and
for Israel from the days when He brought them out of Egypt, poor,
miserable slaves, until this day of their wealth and glory.

Here someone stepped out from the crowd and took up the argument for
the people. If all this beautiful story is true, he claimed, then God
may punish and destroy all the nations that Amos had mentioned; but
Israel, to whom God had shown special favors, even up to this day, God