Amos 6

Complacent Self-Indulgence Will Be Punished

⁶Woe 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!^*

²Cross over to Calneh and see;

from there go to Hamath the great;

then go down to Gath of the Philistines.

Are you better^u than these kingdoms?

Or is your^v territory greater than their^w territory,^*

³you who put far away the evil day

and bring near a reign of violence?^*

⁴Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory

and lounge on their couches

and eat lambs from the flock

and calves from the stall,^*

⁵who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp

and like David improvise on instruments of music,^*

⁶who drink wine from bowls

and anoint themselves with the finest oils

but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!^*

⁷Therefore they shall now be the first to go into exile,

and the revelry of the loungers shall pass away.^*

⁸The 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.^*

⁹If ten people remain in one house, they shall die. ¹⁰And if a relative, one who burns it,^x 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^y shall say, “Hush! We must not mention the name of the Lord.”

¹¹For the Lord commands,

and he will shatter the great house to bits

and the little house to pieces.^*

¹²Do horses run on rocky crags?

Does one plow the sea with oxen?^z

But you have turned justice into poison

and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood,^*

¹³you who rejoice in Lo-debar,^a

who say, “Have we not by our own strength

taken Karnaim^b for ourselves?”

¹⁴Indeed, 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.^*