And that will happen to you at Bethel. Why? Because you did so many evil things. \{When that day\} begins, the king of Israel will be fully destroyed.”
And now the Lord says, “In three years (the way a hired helper counts time) all those people and the things they are proud of will be gone. There will be a few people left, but there will not be many.”
So your armies will hear the noise of battle. And all your fortresses {\cf2\super [112]} will be destroyed. It will be like the time Shalman {\cf2\super [113]} destroyed Beth Arbel. At that time of war, mothers were killed with their children.
The people from Samaria {\cf2\super [100]} worship the calves at Beth-Aven. {\cf2\super [101]} Those people will really cry. Those priests will really cry. Why? Because their beautiful \{idol\} is gone. It was carried away.
Does this mean that something that is good brought death to me? No! But sin used something that is good to bring death to me. This happened so that I could see what sin is really like. It happened to show that sin is something very, very bad. And the command was used to show this.