Though Amos affirmed the special quality of God's relationship with Israel, he stressed that it entailed a special ethical responsibility (3.1–2). Historically, the agent of this divine punishment would be the Assyrian army (not mentioned in Amos, but see Isa 10.5–11). The frequent references to exile in Amos (e.g., 3.11; 6.7; 7.17) reflect a grim threat: the Assyrian imperial practice of deporting and transplanting conquered peoples.
