Amos 6

Amos warns the comfortable leaders of Judah and Israel, who feast and sing while the nation rots from within. Their luxury, pride and injustice will bring them to the front of the line for exile. God has sworn to hand the proud city over to a foreign nation.

Amos 6:1

Amos pronounces a sorrowful ‘woe’ on the leaders of both Jerusalem (Zion) and Samaria. They feel untouchable. People come to them for guidance, yet they use their position for ease, not for care of the people they lead.

BSA: Woe (“a cry of sorrow, a lamentation”): This is a funeral cry: Amos mourns over people who still think they are alive and safe. at ease (“living in comfort, resting securely”): Their calm is false security, resting on privilege instead of on God.

See also: Isaiah 32:9-11.

Amos 6:2

Amos tells them to look at neighboring cities such as Calneh, Hamath and Gath. These had been strong places, yet they had fallen or were weakened. Israel is no better and no larger, so it has no reason to think itself safe.

BSA: better (“more pleasant, superior”): God asks whether Israel’s favored position gives it any real protection.

Amos 6:3

The rich push the thought of judgment out of their minds. But refusing to think about disaster does not delay it. Their daily oppression of the poor is itself building a rule of violence.

BSA: dismiss (“put far away, drive out”): They push the coming judgment away from their thoughts, as if distance in the mind meant distance in time. violence (“injustice, cruelty, chaos”): Their way of life is not harmless comfort; it is cruelty seated on a throne.

Amos 6:4

Amos describes a life of luxury: ivory-inlaid beds, stretched-out lounging, and a table of the choicest meat. Lamb and stall-fed calf were rare treats. The problem is not enjoying food, but that they live only for themselves while others suffer.

BSA: lounge (“stretch out, be wanton”): The word suggests sprawling in careless self-indulgence.

See also: Amos 3:12-15.

Amos 6:5

They make up songs and even invent new instruments, comparing themselves to David. David used his music to worship God. These leaders use theirs for entertainment at their banquets, with a show of culture but no devotion.

BSA: invent (“devise, create”): They are clever and creative, but they turn that gift to their own pleasure.

See also: 1 Samuel 16:23.

Amos 6:6

They drink from large bowls and use the best perfumed oils. The deepest charge is that they feel no grief over the ‘ruin of Joseph’, meaning the broken condition of God’s people. Real faith shares God’s sorrow over what is crumbling.

BSA: ruin (“affliction, destruction”): The nation is wounded and breaking apart, yet they do not even notice. grieve (“are not grieved, do not lament”): Their lack of sorrow shows a hardened heart, not a lack of information.

See also: Nehemiah 1:3-4.

Amos 6:7

The punishment fits the sin. Those who held the first place at the feast will head the line of captives. The feasting and sprawling at ease stops. Pleasure that ignores God does not last.

BSA: first (“at the head, chief”): Their honored position becomes the front of the march into exile.

Amos 6:8

God takes an oath by Himself, the strongest oath there is, so the judgment is certain. What He hates is Israel’s pride and its fortified strongholds, in which they trusted instead of Him. The city and all its contents will be handed over.

BSA: sworn (“taken an oath, made a vow”): God binds Himself to act, so the warning cannot be dismissed as a threat. abhor (“loathe, strongly dislike”): Pride is not a small fault to God; He recoils from it.

See also: Hebrews 6:13; Proverbs 16:5.

Amos 6:9

Even a household of ten men will not escape. The picture is of death sweeping through a single house, perhaps by plague or war, until no one is left. Judgment, when it comes, is thorough.

BSA: die (“pass away, come to an end, perish”): No group, however large, is safe from what God has decreed.

Amos 6:10

A relative comes to carry out the dead and asks if anyone is still hiding. When the answer is ‘None’, he says to keep silent, for fear that even speaking God’s name will draw attention to him. It is a scene of numb dread, with no prayer left.

BSA: Silence (“be quiet, hold your tongue”): People who ignored God in good times now fear even to mention Him.

Amos 6:11

The LORD Himself gives the order. Both the great house of the wealthy and the small house of the poor will be struck down. No one’s rank or size exempts them from His word.

BSA: command (“to appoint, to ordain”): The destruction is not chance; it is ordered by God’s authority.

Amos 6:12

Horses do not run on sheer cliffs, and nobody plows the sea. Such things go against nature. Yet Israel has done the same against God’s order by turning justice, which should be sweet and healing, into poison and bitterness.

BSA: poison (“a harmful substance, gall”): Courts meant to protect the weak have become a source of harm. wormwood (“a bitter plant”): What should have been a fruit of righteousness has become something bitter to swallow.

See also: Amos 5:7; Amos 5:24.

Amos 6:13

They celebrate their victories at Lo-debar and Karnaim. In Hebrew, Lo-debar sounds like ’nothing’, so they rejoice in nothing. Their boast that they won ‘by our own strength’ leaves God out of the picture.

BSA: rejoice (“in a thing of nought, at nothing”): Their pride rests on something empty, as the name Lo-debar suggests. strength (“power, control”): They credit their own power for success that God gave.

See also: Jeremiah 9:23-24.

Amos 6:14

God Himself will raise up a foreign nation to oppress them across the whole land, from the far north to the far south. History points to Assyria. The God they ignored is the one who commands the nations.

BSA: raise up (“stir up, cause to stand”): God is the one who sets the invader in motion; he is no accident of politics. oppress (“afflict, treat cruelly”): They will taste the same harshness they showed to the poor.

See also: Isaiah 10:5-6.