Though the messenger speech form is prominent, the primary category of Amos 1:3-2:16 is oracles against nations.
Predictions of judgment against foreign nations are found in some form in every prophetic book, with Amos’s eight oracles being the longest among the Minor Prophets. These oracles rest on the assumption that there is one God, the Lord, and he has power and authority over all peoples.1 This assumption is articulated in Deuteronomy 32:8.
The final oracle against the nation of Israel is much longer than any of the others. It constitutes the climax to the entire group of oracles with Israel having become so guilty before the Lord that it is seen as being akin to a foreign nation.2
3 Thus says the LORD: “For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have threshed Gilead with threshing sledges of iron.