9, 10. (a) What was the extent of the proclamation in Amos’ day, and what parallels this today? (b) As foreshadowed by Amos’ prophecy, how have so-called pagans come to regard Christendom?

⁹ This follows the pattern of Amos’ day, when the proclamation of doom was to be sounded also in Ashdod​—pagan center of worship in nearby Philistia—​and as far distant as Egypt. For the Sovereign Lord Jehovah had spoken, saying: “Publish it on the dwelling towers in Ashdod and on the dwelling towers in the land of Egypt, and say: ‘Be gathered together against the mountains of Samaria, and see the many disorders in the midst of her and cases of defrauding inside her. And they have not known how to do what is straightforward,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘those who are storing up violence and despoiling in their dwelling towers.’”​—Amos 3:9, 10.

15. How did Jehovah cause “an adversary” to execute judgment on Samaria?

¹⁵ What will be the finale of the confrontation between the world’s superpowers? Jehovah has something to say about it, as we read at Amos 3:11: “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘There is an adversary even round about the land, and he will certainly bring your strength down from you, and your dwelling towers will actually be plundered.’” Who is this “adversary”? Back in Amos’ day the “adversary” was the Assyrian World Power. Assyria’s mighty army was maneuvered by Jehovah and used by him as a symbolic “rod” to execute judgment on apostate Samaria, as described at Isaiah 10:5, 6: “Aha, the Assyrian, the rod for my anger, and the stick that is in their hand for my denunciation! Against an apostate nation I shall send him, and against the people of my fury I shall issue a command to him, to take much spoil and to take much plunder and to make it a trampling place like the clay of the streets.”

17. What does the book of Amos, as well as other prophecies, say about the plundering of false religion?

¹⁷ Thus it will happen just as Jehovah states at Amos 3:15: “‘And the houses of ivory will have to perish, and many houses will have to come to their finish,’ is the utterance of Jehovah.”