Amos 6:11

11 Look, the LORD is giving an order; he will shatter the great house into bits and the little house into pieces.

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 remain in one house, then they will die.

10 If a relative, someone who burns the dead, picks up the body to bring it out of the house, and says to someone inside the house, "Is anyone else with you?" the answer will be, "No." Then the relative will say, "Hush! We mustn't mention the name of the LORD."

11 Look, the LORD is giving an order; he will shatter the great house into bits and the little house into pieces.

12 Do horses run on rocks? 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 Lo-debar, who say, "Haven't we by our own strength taken Karnaim for ourselves?"