Amos' Judgment of Other Nations

Before talking to the Israelites about their own sins, Amos grabs their attention by first condemning their enemies, nations including Aram, Philistia, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, and Moab.The People's Bible has an interesting section about this:

"We may sometimes wonder how people who do not have the Bible can know right from wrong. Many people today, like the Arameans, Philistines, Tyrians, Edomites, Ammonites, and Moabites in the time of Amos, grow up in ignorance of the written Ten Commandments. The prophet's words of judgment against Israel's neighbors remind us that God's law requires a decent, upright life of every individual in every nation, 'for God does not show favoritism' (Romans 2:11). 'When Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature the things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also baring witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them' (Romans 2:14,15). When we use God's Word to remind people that all of us are sinners, their conscience agrees with the accusations of God's law. Of course, people sometimes silence those inner accusations by persistently disregarding them. May God keep the voice of conscience speaking plainly in every human heart, and may all sinners hear it, so that they recognize their need for forgiveness and seek the true God, their only Savior."