Bible Strands
Amos 3:5
Does a bird land in a snare where no bait has been set? Does a trap spring from the ground when it has nothing to catch?
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet Amos addresses his audience through a sequence of rhetorical questions about natural cause and effect, positioning this inquiry between warnings about a roaring lion and a sounding ram’s horn.
The words — `פַּח (pach)` denotes a bird-trap, while `מוֹקֵשׁ (mo.Kesh)` refers to a snare, both describing devices that only function when actively prepared.
The thread — The imagery of a trap catching the unwary appears in Ecclesiastes 9:12, while the principle that calamity follows divine action runs through Jeremiah 31:28 and Daniel 9:14.
Why it lands — It forces the reader to acknowledge that outcomes require prior conditions, demanding acceptance that the coming disaster has a specific, established cause rather than occurring by chance.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin is for him? shall one take up a snare from the earth, and have taken nothing at all?
Cross-references
- Ecclesiastes 9:12 For surely no man knows his time: Like fish caught in a cruel net or birds trapped in a snare, so men are ensnared in an evil time that suddenly falls upon them.
- Jeremiah 31:28 Just as I watched over them to uproot and tear down, to demolish, destroy, and bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” declares the LORD.
- Daniel 9:14 Therefore the LORD has kept the calamity in store and brought it upon us. For the LORD our God is righteous in all He does; yet we have not obeyed His voice.