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)
Footnotes
- 6.2Or Are they better
- 6.2Heb their
- 6.2Heb your
- 6.10Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 6.10Heb he
- 6.12Or Does one plow them with oxen
- 6.13Or in a thing of nothingness
- 6.13Or horns
Cross references
- 6.1 : Ex 19.5; Isa 32.9–11; Am 3.2; Lk 6.24
- 6.2 : 2 Kings 18.34; 2 Chr 26.6; Isa 10.9; Jer 2.10; Nah 3.8
- 6.3 : Isa 56.12; Am 9.10
- 6.4 : Ezek 34.2, 3; Am 3.12, 15
- 6.5 : 1 Chr 23.5; Isa 5.12; Am 5.23
- 6.6 : Gen 37.25; Ezek 9.4; Am 2.8; 4.1
- 6.7 : Dan 5.4–6, 30; Am 7.11, 17
- 6.8 : Deut 32.19; Ps 106.40; Jer 51.14; Heb 6.13
- 6.11 : Isa 55.11; Am 3.15
- 6.12 : Isa 59.13, 14; Am 5.7
- 6.14 : Num 34.8; 1 Kings 8.65; Jer 5.15; Am 3.11