Amos 6:11

11 For lo! the Lord shall command, and shall smite the greater house with fallings, and the less(er) house with carvings, either (with) breakings.

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 that if ten men be left in one house, and they shall die. (and if only ten men be left in one house, they shall still all die.)

10 And his neighbour shall take him, and shall burn him, that he bear out (the) bones of the house. And he shall say to him, that is in the privy place of the house, Whether there is yet (any) with thee? And he shall answer, An end is. And he shall say to him, Be thou still, and think thou not on the name of the Lord. (And his friend, or his relative, shall take him up, to bury him, and he shall carry his bones out of the house. And he shall say to him who is in the private place of the house, Is there anyone left in there with thee? And he shall answer, No. And he shall say to him, Be thou silent, and do not thou even say the Lord's name.)

11 For lo! the Lord shall command, and shall smite the greater house with fallings, and the less(er) house with carvings, either (with) breakings.

12 Whether horses may run in stones, either it may be eared with wild oxen? For ye turned doom into bitterness, and the fruit of rightwiseness into wormwood. (Can horses run on stones, or can the sea be plowed with oxen? For ye turned justice into bitterness, and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood.)

13 And ye be glad in nought, and ye say, Whether not in our strength we took to us horns? (And ye be happy over nothing, and ye say, Did we not get our power by our own strength?)