Amos 6:11

11 For the LORD has given the command, and he will smash the great house into pieces and the small house into bits.

Amos 6:11 in Other Translations

11 For, behold, the LORD commandeth, and he will smite the great house with breaches, and the little house with clefts.

11 For behold, the LORD commands, and the great house shall be struck down into fragments, and the little house into bits.

11 When the LORD gives the command, homes both great and small will be smashed to pieces.

11 Note well: God issues the orders. He'll knock large houses to smithereens. He'll smash little houses to bits.

11 For the Lord commands: The large house will be smashed to pieces, and the small house to rubble.

Amos 6:11 Meaning and Commentary

Amos 6:11

For, behold, the Lord commandeth
Hath determined and ordered the judgment before, and what follows: Kimchi paraphrases it, hath decreed the earthquake, as in ( Amos 3:15 ) ; of which he understands the following: and he will smite the great house with breaches;
or "droppings" ^F8; so that the rain shall drop through: and the little house with clefts;
so that it shall fall to ruin; that is, he shall smite the houses both of great and small, of the princes, and of the common people, either with an earthquake, so that they shall part asunder and fall; or, being left without inhabitants, shall of course become desolate, there being none to repair their breaches. Some understand, by the "great house", the ten tribes of Israel; and, by the "little house", the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin; to which sense the Targum seems to incline,

``he will smite the great kingdom with a mighty stroke, and the little kingdom with a weak stroke.''

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FOOTNOTES:

F8 (Myoyor) "guttis, [seu] stillis", Piscator; (qekadev) , "quae est minuta et rorans pluvia", Drusius.

Amos 6:11 In-Context

9 If ten people are left in one house, they too will die.

10 And if the relative who comes to carry the bodies out of the house to burn them asks anyone who might be hiding there, “Is anyone else with you?” and he says, “No,” then he will go on to say, “Hush! We must not mention the name of the LORD.”

11 For the LORD has given the command, and he will smash the great house into pieces and the small house into bits.

12 Do horses run on the rocky crags? Does one plow the sea with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness—

13 you who rejoice in the conquest of Lo Debarand say, “Did we not take Karnaim by our own strength?”

Cross References

• 1. S Isaiah 34:5
• 2. S Amos 3:15
• 3. Isaiah 55:11