Israel’s pride and arrogance
6
📚Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria,
notable men of the chief
of the nations,
to whom the house of Israel comes!
2 📚Go to Calneh, and see;
and go from there to Hamath the great.
Then go down to Gath 📖 of the Philistines.
Are you better than
these kingdoms?
Or is their border greater than
your border?
6:2 Hamath was a city in Syria about 180 kilometers north of Damascus. Perhaps Calneh was a city near there.⚜
3 📚You who would put the day
of disaster far off 📖,
and cause the seat of violence
to come near,
4 📚who lie on beds of ivory,
and stretch out on your couches,
and eat the lambs from the flock,
and the calves from the midst
of the stall,
5 📚who chant to the sound of the harp,
and invent musical instruments
for themselves, like David 📖,
6 📚who drink wine from bowls,
and anoint yourselves with
the best ointments,
but are not grieved 📖 at the ruin
of Joseph 📖.
6:4-6 Here is a picture of their complacency. They refused to think of God’s coming judgment and sought only luxury and pleasure.⚜
7 📚Therefore they 📖 will now go away
captive with the first who
go away captive,
and the banqueting of those
who stretch themselves out
will pass away.
6:1-7 Amos here describes the sin of complacency and pronounces God’s judgment on it. See also Isa 32:9-11; Zeph 1:12-13. God had been like a lion roaring against them, pointing out their terrible sins and threatening terrible punishment – Amos 1:2; 2:4-8; 3:14-15; 4:1-3; 5:16-17. It was no time for complacency and feelings of security, but for repentance and turning to God with all their heart and mind and strength. Complacency was the result of unbelief. It was utter foolishness and made more certain their destruction. See Prov 1:32. Today, in the light of the teachings of Jesus such as Matt 4:17; 5:29-30; 7:13-14; 13:49-50; 16:24-27; 25:26, complacency, smug self-satisfaction, is a mark of the utmost folly. “At ease” (v 1) – this was carnal security, thinking they were secure in themselves no matter what God or His prophets had to say.⚜
8 📚The Lord God has sworn by himself 📖,
the LORD God of hosts says,
“I abhor the arrogance 📖 of Jacob,
and hate his palaces 📖.
Therefore I will deliver up the city
with all that is in it”.
9 📚And it will happen, if ten men remain in one house, that they will die. 10 📚When an uncle, with someone who burns bodies, picks up the bodies to take them out of the house, he will say to him who is in a corner of the house, “Is there anyone with you?” And he will say, “No”. Then he will say, “Hold your tongue! For we must not mention the name of the LORD”.
11 📚For, see, the LORD gives a command,
and he will smash the great house
to pieces,
and the little house to bits.
6:9-11 This is the sort of situation that would develop when the enemy captured the city of Samaria. There would be great slaughter and destruction, and fear even to mention the name of the true God.⚜
12 📚Do horses run on the rock?
Does one plow there with oxen?
For you have turned justice into gall 📖,
and the fruit of righteousness
into poison 📖,
6:12 Israel’s leaders had been acting against both reason and God’s order in the world. Horsemen and farmers had better sense then they.⚜
13 📚you who rejoice in nothing,
who say, “Did we not take power
for ourselves by our own strength 📖?”
14 📚“But, see, I will raise up against
you a nation 📖, O house of Israel”,
says the LORD, the God of hosts,
“and they will afflict you from the entrance
of Hamath to the river of the wilderness 📖”.