Amos 6:1-14 NIV
Woe to the Complacent
1Woe to you who are complacent in Zion,
and to
you who feel secure on Mount Samaria,
you
notable men of the foremost nation,
to whom
the people of Israel come!
2Go to Kalneh and look at it;
go from
there to great Hamath,
and
then go down to Gath in Philistia.
Are
they better off than your two kingdoms?
Is
their land larger than yours?
3You put off the day of disaster
and
bring near a reign of terror.
4You lie on beds adorned with ivory
and
lounge on your couches.
You
dine on choice lambs
and
fattened calves.
5You strum away on your harps like David
and
improvise on musical instruments.
and use
the finest lotions,
but you
do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph.
7Therefore you will be among the first to go into exile;
your
feasting and lounging will end.
The LORD Abhors the Pride of Israel
8The SOVEREIGN LORD Has Sworn by HIMSELF—The LORD GOD ALMIGHTY Declares:
“I Abhor the pride of Jacob
and Detest his fortresses;
I Will Deliver Up the city
and
everything in it.”
9If ten people are left in one house, they too will die. 10And if the relative who comes to carry the bodies out of the
house to burn thema asks anyone who might be hiding there, “Is
anyone else with you?” and he says, “No,” then he will go on to say, “Hush! We
must not mention The Name of The LORD.”
11For The LORD Has Given The Command,
and HE Will Smash the great house into pieces
and the
small house into bits.
12Do horses run on the rocky crags?
But you
have turned justice into poison
and the
fruit of righteousness into bitterness—
14For The LORD GOD ALMIGHTY Declares,
“I Will Stir up a nation against you, Israel,
that
will oppress you all the way
from
Lebo Hamath to the valley of the Arabah.”
The prophet reproves his people for indulging themselves in
luxurious ease, and forming alliances with their powerful idolatrous
neighbors, Amos
6:1. He Asks if their lands or their lot be better than their
own, Amos
6:2, that they should choose to worship the gods of the heathen,
and forsake JEHOVAH.
Then follows an amplification of the sin which the prophet
reproves, Amos
6:3-6; to which he adds very awful threatening,
confirmed by The Oath of JEHOVAH, Amos 6:7, Amos 6:8.
He particularly specifies the punishment of their sins by pestilence; this obscure verse seems to describe the effects of famine
and pestilence during the siege of Samaria. The carcass shall be burnt, and the
bones removed with no ceremony of funeral rites, and without the assistance of
the nearest kinsman. Solitude shall reign in the house; and if one is left, he
must be silent, (see Amos 8:3), lest he be
plundered of his scanty provision! Burning the body, and then collecting the
ashes, and putting them into an urn, was deemed the most honorable mode of
burial. Amos
6:9-11.
By famine, or a drought that should harden the earth so that it
could not be tilled, Amos
6:12; and by the sword of the Assyrians, Amos 6:14.
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