Hear this word that Yahweh has spoken against you, children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up out of the land of Egypt, saying:
"Which I brought up out of Egypt ..." The thing which Amos was called to do lay totally beyond the thought-pattern of God's "chosen people," who had assumed that their unusual privileges endowed upon them a status of exemption from any unusual requirements.  It was inconceivable to them that their God would punish them for wickedness, no matter how great it was; God was thought to be their tower of strength always, no matter what they did.  It was surely a difficult task which Amos discharged in "getting through" to the people with that attitude.  It was this difficulty which led him to authentication of his message in  Amos 3:3-8.  This is also probably the reason why, in these chapters, "The prophet shows in greater detail the depth to which Israel had fallen and the inevitability of God's righteous judgment upon them as a result."[3]