Amos 6:8-14

The Pride of Israel

8 The Lord GOD has sworn by Himself—the LORD, the God of Hosts, has declared: “I abhor Jacob’s pride and detest his citadels, so I will deliver up the city and everything in it.”

9 And if there are ten men left in one house, they too will die.

10 And when the relative who is to burn the bodies ^[a] picks them up to remove them from the house, he will call to one inside, “Is anyone else with you?” “None,” that person will answer. “Silence,” the relative will retort, “for the name of the LORD must not be invoked.”

11 For the LORD gives a command: “The great house will be smashed to pieces, and the small house to rubble.”

12 “Do horses gallop on the cliffs? Does one plow the sea ^[b] with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood—

13 you who rejoice in Lo-debar ^[c] and say, ‘Did we not take Karnaim ^[d] by our own strength?’

14 For behold, I will raise up a nation against you, O house of Israel,” declares the LORD, the God of Hosts, “and they will oppress you from Lebo-hamath to the Brook 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]. Or to make a funeral fire to honor the dead
• [b]. Literally Does one plow (there)
• [c]. Lo-debar means nothing.
• [d]. Karnaim means horn, a symbol of strength.