Amos
Chapter 6
1 Trouble awaits those who are comfortable in Zion and rely on Mount Samaria, the famous leaders of the nations where the people of Israel go!
2 Go to Calneh and look; then visit the great city of Hamath, and afterward go to Gath of the Philistines. Are they stronger than these kingdoms? Is their land larger than yours?
3 You who push away the day of punishment and bring violence close.
4 They lie on ivory beds, lounge on their sofas, eat lambs from the flock, and calves from the pen.
5 They sing to the music of the harp and make up their own musical instruments, like David.
6 They drink wine from large bowls and use the finest oils to anoint themselves, but they do not care about the suffering of Joseph’s people.
7 So now they will be taken away as prisoners with those who were first taken away, and the feasting of those who lounged will end.
8 God has sworn by himself, says the God of all, I despise Jacob’s pride and hate his strongholds: so I will hand over the city and everything in it.
9 If ten people are left in one house, they will die.
10 A man’s uncle will carry him, and the one who cremates him, to remove the bones from the house. He will ask anyone nearby, “Is anyone else with you?” When he says, “No,” he will be told, “Be quiet; we must not speak of God’s name.”
11 Look, God commands, and he will strike the big house, making large cracks, and the small house with splits.
12 Can horses run on rocky ground? Can you plow with oxen on rocks? You have made fair decisions bitter, and turned what is right into poison.
13 You who celebrate meaningless things, saying, “Haven’t we gained power by our own strength?”
14 But look, I will bring against you a nation, O people of Israel, says God, and they will trouble you from the entrance of Hemath to the wilderness river.