Chapter 6

1 What sorrow awaits you who lounge in luxury in Jerusalem,*

and you who feel secure in Samaria!

You are famous and popular in Israel,

and people go to you for help.

2 But go over to Calneh

and see what happened there.

Then go to the great city of Hamath

and down to the Philistine city of Gath.

You are no better than they were,

and look at how they were destroyed.

3 You push away every thought of coming disaster,

but your actions only bring the day of judgment closer.

4 How terrible for you who sprawl on ivory beds

and lounge on your couches,

eating the meat of tender lambs from the flock

and of choice calves fattened in the stall.

5 You sing trivial songs to the sound of the harp

and fancy yourselves to be great musicians like David.

6 You drink wine by the bowlful

and perfume yourselves with fragrant lotions.

You care nothing about the ruin of your nation.*

7 Therefore, you will be the first to be led away as captives.

Suddenly, all your parties will end.

8 The Sovereign Lord has sworn by his own name, and this is what he, the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, says:

“I despise the arrogance of Israel,*

and I hate their fortresses.

I will give this city

and everything in it to their enemies.”

9 (If there are ten men left in one house, they will all die. 10 And when a relative who is responsible to dispose of the dead* goes into the house to carry out the bodies, he will ask the last survivor, “Is anyone else with you?” When the person begins to swear, “No, by …,” he will interrupt and say, “Stop! Don’t even mention the name of the Lord.”)

11 When the Lord gives the command,

homes both great and small will be smashed to pieces.

12 Can horses gallop over boulders?

Can oxen be used to plow them?

But that’s how foolish you are when you turn justice into poison

and the sweet fruit of righteousness into bitterness.

13 And you brag about your conquest of Lo-debar.*

You boast, “Didn’t we take Karnaim* by our own strength?”

14 “O people of Israel, I am about to bring an enemy nation against you,”

says the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies.

“They will oppress you throughout your land—

from Lebo-hamath in the north

to the Arabah Valley in the south.”