Amos 6
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Complacent Self-Indulgence Will Be Punished
6 Woe to those who are at ease in Zion
and for those who feel secure on Mount Samaria,
the notables of the first of the nations,
to whom the house of Israel resorts!(A)
2 Cross over to Calneh and see;
from there go to Hamath the great;
then go down to Gath of the Philistines.
Are you better[a] than these kingdoms?
Or is your[b] territory greater than their[c] territory,(B)
3 you who put far away the evil day
and bring near a reign of violence?(C)
4 Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory
and lounge on their couches
and eat lambs from the flock
and calves from the stall,(D)
5 who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp
and like David improvise on instruments of music,(E)
6 who drink wine from bowls
and anoint themselves with the finest oils
but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!(F)
7 Therefore they shall now be the first to go into exile,
and the revelry of the loungers shall pass away.(G)
8 The Lord God has sworn by himself
(says the Lord, the God of hosts):
I abhor the pride of Jacob
and hate his strongholds,
and I will deliver up the city and all that is in it.(H)
9 If ten people remain in one house, they shall die. 10 And if a relative, one who burns it,[d] takes up the body to bring it out of the house and says to someone in the innermost parts of the house, “Is anyone else with you?” the answer will come, “No.” Then the relative[e] shall say, “Hush! We must not mention the name of the Lord.”
11 For the Lord commands,
and he will shatter the great house to bits
and the little house to pieces.(I)
12 Do horses run on rocky crags?
Does one plow the sea with oxen?[f]
But you have turned justice into poison
and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood,(J)
13 you who rejoice in Lo-debar,[g]
who say, “Have we not by our own strength
taken Karnaim[h] for ourselves?”
14 Indeed, I am raising up against you a nation,
O house of Israel, says the Lord, the God of hosts,
and they shall oppress you from Lebo-hamath
to the Wadi Arabah.(K)
Amos 6
Evangelical Heritage Version
Judgment Against Complacency
6 Woe to[a] you who are complacent in Zion,
you who feel secure on Mount Samaria,
you distinguished people of the leading nation,
to whom the house of Israel comes.
2 Travel to Kalneh and look.
Go from there to Hamath Rabbah,
and go down to Gath of the Philistines.
Are you better than those kingdoms?
Are their territories greater than your territory?[b]
3 You who are trying to put off the evil day,
you bring near the session for violence!
4 Those who lie on ivory beds,
sprawling upon their couches,
eating lambs from the flock
and calves straight from the stall,
5 improvising tunes on the lyre,
composing music for themselves on musical instruments like David,
6 drinking large bowls of wine—
they slather[c] themselves with the most expensive perfumed oils,
but they do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph.
7 That is why they will go into exile as the first of the exiles.
Those who sprawl out at their feasts for the dead will depart.
Certain Destruction for Proud Israel
8 The Lord God swears by himself,
declares the Lord, the God of Armies:
I detest the pride of Jacob,
and I hate his citadels,
so I will hand over the city and everything in it.
9 If ten men happen to survive in one house, they will die. 10 When a relative who burns the bodies[d] comes to take away the bones from the house, he will say to whoever remains in the recesses of the house, “Is there anyone else still with you?” And they will say, “No one.” And he will say, “Silence! For you must not invoke the name of the Lord!”[e]
11 Look, the Lord is indeed giving a command, and he will smash the largest house into fragments and the smallest house into splinters.
12 Do horses run on a rocky cliff?
Does anyone plow the sea with an ox?[f]
Yet you turn justice into poison
and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood.
13 You are rejoicing over Lo Debar.
You are saying, “Was it not by our strength that we captured Karnaim for ourselves?”
14 Indeed, I am about to raise up a nation against you, O house of Israel,
declares the Lord, the God of Armies.
They will oppress you from Lebo Hamath to the Canyon of the Arabah.[g]
Footnotes
- Amos 6:1 Or how terrible it will be for
- Amos 6:2 The line of thought is difficult to follow here. The context seems to require that the two lines of the verse be parallel statements, each of which requires the answer “no.” The context therefore seems to call for reversing the second comparison, but there is no manuscript evidence to support such a switch.
- Amos 6:6 Literally anoint, but the reference is not to anointing to office.
- Amos 6:10 Or who prepares bodies for burial
- Amos 6:10 Verses 9 and 10 are difficult. Translations vary greatly.
- Amos 6:12 The translation follows a re-division of a word of the Hebrew text. The main Hebrew text reads does one plow with oxen, a reading which calls for the answer “yes,” but which does not fit the context. Another solution is to repeat the object rocky cliff from the first half of the verse: does one plow a rocky cliff with oxen?
- Amos 6:14 Lebo Hamath is far to the north in Syria. The Arabah is the rift between the mountains of Edom and the mountains of Sinai, south of Israel.
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.