Amos 6

8. the excellency of Jacob--( Psalms 47:4 ). The sanctuary which was the great glory of the covenant-people [VATABLUS], ( Ezekiel 24:21 ). The priesthood, and kingdom, and dignity, conferred on them by God. These, saith God, are of no account in My eyes towards averting punishment [CALVIN].
hate his palaces--as being the storehouses of "robbery" ( Amos 3:10 Amos 3:15 ). How sad a change from God's love of Zion's gates ( Psalms 87:2 ) and palaces ( Psalms 48:3 Psalms 48:13 ), owing to the people's sin!
the city--collectively: both Zion and Samaria ( Amos 6: Amos 6:1 ).
all that is therein--literally, "its fulness"; the multitude of men and of riches in it (compare Psalms 24:1 ).

9. If as many as ten ( Leviticus 26:26 , Zechariah 8:23 ) remain in a house (a rare case, and only in the scattered villages, as there will be scarcely a house in which the enemy will leave any), they shall all, to a man, die of the plague, a frequent concomitant of war in the East ( Jeremiah 24:10 , 44:13 , Ezekiel 6:11 ).

10. a man's uncle--The nearest relatives had the duty of burying the dead ( Genesis 25:9 , 35:29 , Judges 16:31 ). No nearer relative was left of this man than an uncle.
and he that burneth him--the uncle, who is also at the same time the one that burneth him (one of the "ten," Amos 6:9 ). Burial was the usual Hebrew mode of disposing of their dead. But in cases of necessity, as when the men of Jabesh-gilead took the bodies of Saul and his three sons from the walls of Beth-shan and burned them to save them from being insulted by the Philistines, burning was practised. So in this case, to prevent contagion.
the bones--that is, the dead body ( Genesis 50:25 ). Perhaps here there is an allusion in the phrase to the emaciated condition of the body, which was little else but skin and bones.
say unto him that is by the sides of the house--that is, to the only one left of the ten in the interior of the house [MAURER] (compare Note,
Hold thy tongue . . . we may not . . . mention . . . the Lord--After receiving the reply, that none is left besides the one addressed, when the man outside fancies the man still surviving inside to be on the point, as was customary, of expressing devout gratitude to God who spared him, the man outside interrupts him, "Hold thy tongue! for there is not now cause for mentioning with praise ( Joshua 23:7 ) the name of Jehovah"; for thou also must die; as all the ten are to die to the last man ( Amos 6:9 ; compare Amos 8:3 ). Formerly ye boasted in the name of Jehovah, as if ye were His peculiar people; now ye shall be silent and shudder at His name, as hostile to you, and as one from whom ye wish to be hidden ( Revelation 6:16 ), [CALVIN].

11. commandeth, and he will smite--His word of command, when once given, cannot but be fulfilled ( Isaiah 55:11 ). His mere word is enough to smite with destruction.
great house . . . little house--He will spare none, great or small ( Amos 3:15 ). JEROME interprets "the great house" as Israel, and "the small house" as Judah: the former being reduced to branches or ruins, literally, "small drops"; the latter, though injured with "clefts" or rents, which threaten its fall, yet still permitted to stand.

12. In turning "judgment (justice) into gall (poison), and . . . righteousness into hemlock" (or wormwood, bitter and noxious), ye act as perversely as if one were to make "horses run upon the rock" or to "plough with oxen there" [MAURER]. As horses and oxen are useless on a rock, so ye are incapable of fulfilling justice [GROTIUS]. Ye impede the course of God's benefits, because ye are as it were a hard rock on which His favor cannot run. "Those that will not be tilled as fields, shall be abandoned as rocks" [CALVIN].

13. rejoice in a thing of naught--that is, in your vain and fleeting riches.
Have we not taken to us horns--that is, acquired power, so as to conquer our neighbors ( 2 Kings 14:25 ). Horns are the Hebrew symbol of power, being the instrument of strength in many animals ( Psalms 75:10 ).

14. from the entering in of Hamath--the point of entrance for an invading army (as Assyria) into Israel from the north; specified here, as Hamath had been just before subjugated by Jeroboam II ( Amos 6:2 ). Do not glory in your recently acquired city, for it shall be the starting-point for the foe to afflict you. How sad the contrast to the feast of Solomon attended by a congregation from this same Hamath, the most northern boundary of Israel, to the Nile, the river of Egypt, the most southern boundary!
unto the river of the wilderness--that is, to Kedron, which empties itself into the north bay of the Dead Sea below Jericho ( 2 Chronicles 28:15 ), the southern boundary of the ten tribes ( 2 Kings 14:25 , "from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain") [MAURER]. To the river Nile, which skirts the Arabian wilderness and separates Egypt from Canaan [GROTIUS]. If this verse includes Judah, as well as Israel (compare Amos 6:1 , "Zion" and "Samaria"), GROTIUS' view is correct; and it agrees with 1 Kings 8:65 .