Most of the oracles in Amos 1:1–15 and Amos 2:1–16 follow a set pattern:1
The messenger introduction (this is what the Lord says)
The certainty of deserved punishment
Evidence of the crimes committed
An announcement of the judgment to come
A concluding formula (says the Lord)
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.