When Israel met with God (Exodus 19:17), they saw an awesome display of the divine presence accompanied by thunder, lighting, thick clouds, trumpet blasts, and smoke from a fiery presence (Exodus 19:16–25). Amos’s language assumes this sense of overwhelming, life‑threatening awe. Yet his words are not an invitation to worship.1
12 “Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”