Amos 6:8-14

Yahweh Abhors Israel’s Pride

8 My Lord Yahweh has sworn by himself, {declares} Yahweh, the God of hosts: "I abhor the pride of Jacob and I hate his citadel fortresses and I will deliver [the] city and its fullness!"

9 And then if ten people remain in one house, they too will die.

10 And [if] one's relative, who burns [the body], lifts it up and brings the body out of the house and he will say to someone in the innermost part of the house, "[Are there] any more with you?" and he will say, "None," then he will say, "Silence," because [we] must not invoke the name of Yahweh.

11 Look, Yahweh [is] going to command and the great house will be destroyed [to] bits and the little house [to] pieces.

12 Do horses run on rocks, or does one plow the sea with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison and [the] fruit of righteousness into wormwood!

13 [You] who rejoice over Lo-Debar, who say, "Have we not taken Karnaim for ourselves by our strength?"

14 Indeed, I [am] going to raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, {declares} Yahweh, the God of hosts. And they shall oppress you from Lebo-hamath up to the wadi of the Arabah.

Amos 6:8-14 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.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "a declaration of"
• [b]. Or "does one plow them with oxen"
• [c]. Literally "a declaration of"