Amos 6:1-8

1 How terrible it will be for those who have an easy life in Jerusalem, for those who feel safe living on Mount Samaria. You think you are the important people of the best nation in the world; the Israelites come to you for help.

2 Go look at the city of Calneh, and from there go to the great city Hamath; then go down to Gath of the Philistines. You are no better than these kingdoms. Your land is no larger than theirs.

3 You put off the day of punishment, but you bring near the day when you can do evil to others.

4 You lie on beds decorated with ivory and stretch out on your couches. You eat tender lambs and fattened calves.

5 You make up songs on your harps, and, like David, you compose songs on musical instruments.

6 You drink wine by the bowlful and use the best perfumed lotions. But you are not sad over the ruin of Israel,

7 so you will be some of the first ones taken as slaves. Your feasting and lying around will come to an end.

8 The Lord God made this promise; the Lord God All-Powerful says: "I hate the pride of the Israelites, and I hate their strong buildings, so I will let the enemy take the city and everything in it."

Amos 6:1-8 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.