Amos 6

How terrible it will be for you who are comfortable in Zion, and for you who feel safe on Mount Samaria. You are the important men of the leading nation, the ones the people of Israel come to.

1Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came!

NoteZion is the hill of Jerusalem, capital of the southern kingdom of Judah; Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, built on a steep hill and heavily fortified. Amos names the ruling class of both capitals. "The leading nation" is his ironic echo of how they described themselves.

2Go over to Calneh and look at it. From there go on to the great city of Hamath. Then go down to Gath in Philistine country. Are those kingdoms better off than yours? Is their land larger than your land?

2Pass ye unto Calneh, and see; and from thence go ye to Hamath the great: then go down to Gath of the Philistines: be they better than these kingdoms? or their border greater than your border?

NoteCalneh and Hamath were cities to the north, in Syrian territory; Gath was one of the five chief cities of the Philistines, a people settled on the coastal plain southwest of Israel and long its rivals. The force of the comparison is disputed: either "those kingdoms are no better than yours, so what is there to boast about" or "those kingdoms have already been overrun, what makes you think you are safe."

3You push the day of disaster out of your minds, but you bring a rule of violence closer.

3Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near;

4You lie on beds decorated with ivory and stretch out on your couches. You eat the best lambs from the flock and the calves fattened in the stall.

4That lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall;

NoteBeds and couches inlaid with carved ivory panels were imported luxury goods; archaeologists have dug up fragments of them at Samaria. Ordinary people ate meat rarely and kept young animals for breeding, so eating lambs from the flock and stall-fattened calves marks conspicuous extravagance.

5You make up songs to the sound of the harp, and you invent musical instruments for yourselves, the way David did.

5That chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of musick, like David;

NoteDavid was remembered as a singer and player who devised musical instruments. The Hebrew verb translated "chant" or "make up songs" is uncertain and may carry a sneering edge, something like improvising, or babbling.

6You drink wine by the bowlful and rub yourselves with the finest oils. But you feel no grief over the ruin of Joseph's people.

6That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments: but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.

NoteThe bowls are large basins, not cups, drinking by the bowlful. Rubbing the skin with perfumed olive oil was a festive practice, deliberately given up while mourning; the point is that these men keep up the trappings of a party while the nation is falling apart. "Joseph" stands for the northern kingdom, whose leading tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh, traced their descent from Joseph.

7So now you will be among the first to be marched away as prisoners, and the feasting of you loungers will be over.

7Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive, and the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed.

NoteConquering empires of this period deported the populations they defeated, marching them off in columns. To go "with the first" is to head the procession, the men at the top of society leaving first.

8The Lord GOD has sworn by himself. This is what the LORD, the God of the armies of heaven, says: I hate the pride of Jacob's people, and I hate their fortified houses. So I will hand over the city and everything in it.

8The Lord GOD hath sworn by himself, saith the LORD the God of hosts, I abhor the excellency of Jacob, and hate his palaces: therefore will I deliver up the city with all that is therein.

NoteAn oath is normally sworn by something greater than oneself; the phrase marks that there is nothing greater for God to swear by. "Jacob" is the ancestor whose descendants made up Israel, so "the pride of Jacob" means the nation's arrogance and also the things it was proud of, here, its fortified buildings. "The God of hosts" means the God who commands armies.

9And this is what will happen: if ten men are left alive in one house, they will die too.

9And it shall come to pass, if there remain ten men in one house, that they shall die.

10A dead man's relative, the one who burns the bodies, will pick up the remains to carry the bones out of the house. He will call to whoever is still inside, "Is anyone else there with you?" The person will answer, "No one." Then the relative will say, "Be quiet. We must not say the name of the LORD."

10And a man’s uncle shall take him up, and he that burneth him, to bring out the bones out of the house, and shall say unto him that is by the sides of the house, Is there yet any with thee? and he shall say, No. Then shall he say, Hold thy tongue: for we may not make mention of the name of the LORD.

NoteIsraelites buried their dead; burning bodies was exceptional and suggests a disaster too large or too dangerous (plague, or corpses too many to bury) for the normal rites. The last line is obscure in the Hebrew. It may mean that speaking the LORD's name aloud, even in the customary way, might draw more disaster down on the house.

11Look, the LORD gives the order, and the large house will be smashed to pieces and the small house will be broken to bits.

11For, behold, the LORD commandeth, and he will smite the great house with breaches, and the little house with clefts.

12Do horses gallop over bare rock? Does anyone plow there with oxen? Yet you have turned justice into poison, and the fruit of right living into something bitter.

12Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plow there with oxen? for ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock:

NoteThe first question expects the answer "of course not." The second is a puzzle: the Hebrew as written says simply "does one plow with oxen?", which is not absurd at all, since that is what oxen are for. Dividing the same consonants differently gives "does one plow the sea with oxen?", which many translations follow. "Gall" and "hemlock" are poison and wormwood, a proverbially bitter plant.

13You celebrate over a thing that amounts to nothing. You say, "Didn't we take horns of power for ourselves by our own strength?"

13Ye which rejoice in a thing of nought, which say, Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength?

NoteTwo puns the English cannot carry. "A thing of nought" is Lo-debar, and "horns" is Karnaim, towns east of the Jordan that Israel had recently captured. Lo-debar sounds like Hebrew for "no thing," and Karnaim means "two horns," the horn being the standard image for strength, taken from a bull. So the boast reads: you are celebrating over Nothing, and bragging that you seized Horns by your own strength.

14But listen, people of Israel: I am going to raise up a nation against you, says the LORD, the God of the armies of heaven. They will crush you all the way from Lebo-hamath in the north to the valley of the Arabah in the south.

14But, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, saith the LORD the God of hosts; and they shall afflict you from the entering in of Hemath unto the river of the wilderness.

NoteLebo-hamath in the far north and the Brook or Valley of the Arabah in the south were the standard way of naming the full length of the kingdom, border to border. The nation to be raised up is not named here; within a generation it was Assyria.