Amos 6:3-13

3 You are trying to avoid the time when trouble will come. But you are only bringing closer the Assyrian rule of terror.
4 You lie down on beds that are decorated with ivory. You rest on your couches. You eat the best lambs and the fattest calves.
5 You pluck away on your harps as David did. You play new songs on musical instruments.
6 You drink wine by the bowlful. You use the finest lotions. But Joseph's people will soon be destroyed. And you aren't even sad about it.
7 So you will be among the first to be taken away as prisoners. You won't be able to enjoy good food. You won't lie around on couches anymore.
8 The LORD and King has taken an oath in his own name. He is the LORD God who rules over all. He announces, "I hate the pride of Jacob's people. I can't stand their forts. I will hand the city of Samaria and everything in it over to their enemies."
9 Ten men might be left in one house. If they are, they will die there.
10 Relatives might come to burn the dead bodies. If they do, they'll have to carry them out of the house first. They might ask someone still hiding there, "Is anyone here with you?" If the answer is no, the relatives will say, "Be quiet! We must not pray in the LORD's name."
11 The LORD has already given an order. He will smash large houses to pieces. He will crush small houses to bits.
12 Horses don't run on rocky ground. People don't plow there with oxen. But you have turned fair treatment into poison. You have turned the fruit of right living into bitterness.
13 You are happy because you captured the town of Lo Debar. You say, "We were strong enough to take Karnaim too."

Amos 6:3-13 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO AMOS 6

This chapter seems to be directed both to the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and the ten tribes of Israel, under the names of Zion and Samaria, and to the principal men in both; who are reproved and threatened for their carnal security and self-confidence, being in no fear of the evil day, though they had no reason for it no more than other people, Am 6:1-3; are charged with wantonness, luxury, intemperance, and want of sympathy with those in distress, Am 6:4-6; therefore are threatened to be carried captive first, and their city to be delivered up; which, for the certainty of it, is not only said, but swore to, Am 6:7,8; and a great mortality in every house, and the destruction of all houses, both great and small, Am 6:9-11; and since a reformation of them seemed impracticable, and not to be expected, but they gloried in their wealth, and boasted of their strength, therefore they should be afflicted by a foreign nation raised against them, which affliction should be general, from one end of the country to the other, Am 6:12-14.

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