Amos 6

Terrible things will happen to you people in Zion who do not worry about anything, and also to you leaders in the city of Samaria who think that you are safe there. You are the prominent men of {Israel,} the nation that thinks it is the most important nation of all. You are the men to whom the people of Israel come {for you to help them}. 2 Go and look at the city of Calneh. Then go on to the city of Hamath Rabbah, and then go down to the city of Gath in Philistia. Those cities are not better than your kingdoms, and their territory is not larger than yours. \* 3 {Terrible things will happen to} you who refuse to think about the day when God will punish you, but by your own actions you are shortening the time before violent people will come and rule over you. 4 {Terrible things will happen to} you who lie on expensive beds and lounge on your couches, eating the meat of the most special sheep from your flocks and of the {fattened} calves from your stalls. \* 5 {Terrible things will happen to} you who sing idly to the sound of your harps and try to be like King David by inventing musical instruments for yourselves. 6 {Terrible things will happen to}you who drink wine by the bowlful and rub the finest oils on your skin, but who do not grieve at all that the descendants of Joseph are destroying themselves. \* 7 Because of all of that, soon you will be among the first ones whom your enemies will force to go into exile, and your feasting and lounging on couches will come to an end. 8 The Lord God has solemnly sworn this on his own life. Yes, God, {the commander} of the heavenly armies, declares it, “I despise {the nation} of which the descendants of Jacob are so proud, and I hate their fortresses. So I will deliver each city and everyone in it {to their enemies}.” \*

When that happens, even if only ten men remain in a single house, they will all die.

A dead man’s relative, the one who will burn his corpse, will carry the dead body out of the house. He will call to anyone still {hiding} in the farthest corner of the house, “Is anyone else there with you?” That person will answer, “No one.” Then the relative will say, “Say no more! Especially we must not mention God’s name!” \* 11 The reason is this: God is about to command {the enemy soldiers to attack you}, and they will shatter all the houses, from large to small ones, into little pieces. \* 12 Horses do not gallop on rocky cliffs, and no one plows there with oxen. Yet you have done something {even more absurd}: instead of treating people justly, you kill them, and instead of doing good things for each other, you make each other angry and resentful. 13 You are proud because you captured the town of Lo Debar, and you boast, “We captured the town of Karnaim for ourselves because we are so strong!” \* 14 But this is what God, {the commander} of the heavenly armies, declares, “Listen, you people of Israel! I am about to bring a foreign nation to attack you. Its army will oppress you {throughout your entire land,} from Lebo Hamath {in the far north} to the brook of the Arabah {in the far south}.” \*