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11 Indeed, the Lord has given the command
    to shatter the great house to bits,
    and reduce the small house to rubble.
12 Can horses run over rock,
    or can one plow the sea with oxen?
Yet you have turned justice into gall,
    and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood,(A)
13 You who rejoice in Lodebar,
    and say, “Have we not, by our own strength,
    seized Karnaim[a] for ourselves?”

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Footnotes

  1. 6:13 Lodebar…Karnaim: two towns recaptured from Judah by Israelite forces during the reign of Jeroboam II (see 2 Kgs 14:25). Some mockery of at least the first of these victories is probably intended by the prophet here, as Lodebar can be translated “nothing.”

11 For the Lord has given the command,
    and he will smash(A) the great house(B) into pieces
    and the small house into bits.(C)

12 Do horses run on the rocky crags?
    Does one plow the sea[a] with oxen?
But you have turned justice into poison(D)
    and the fruit of righteousness(E) into bitterness(F)
13 you who rejoice in the conquest of Lo Debar[b]
    and say, “Did we not take Karnaim[c] by our own strength?(G)

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Footnotes

  1. Amos 6:12 With a different word division of the Hebrew; Masoretic Text plow there
  2. Amos 6:13 Lo Debar means nothing.
  3. Amos 6:13 Karnaim means horns; horn here symbolizes strength.