Thus says the LORD;
For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron:
All Commentaries on Amos 1:3 Go To Amos 1
Jerome
AD 420
You must slay the allurements to vice while they are still only thoughts and dash the little ones of the daughter of Babylon against the stones where the serpent can leave no trail. Be wary and lay claim to the Lord’s promise: “Let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.” For elsewhere also the Scripture testifies, “I will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.” That is to say, God will not punish us at once for our thoughts and resolves but will send retribution upon their offspring or upon the evil deeds and habits of sin, which arise out of the offspring. As he says by the mouth of Amos, “For three transgressions of such and such a city and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof.”
