Amos 6
6
1 Woe to those who are at ease in Zion,
and to those who are secure on the mountain of Samaria,
the notable men of the chief of the nations,
to whom the house of Israel come!
2 Go to Calneh, and see.
From there go to Hamath the great.
Then go down to Gath of the Philistines.
Are they better than these kingdoms?
Is their border greater than your border?
3Alas for you who put far away the evil day,
and cause the seat of violence to come near,
4who lie on beds of ivory,
and stretch themselves on their couches,
and eat the lambs out of the flock,
and the calves out of the middle of the stall,
5 who strum on the strings of a harp,
who invent for themselves instruments of music, like David;
6 who drink wine in bowls,
and anoint themselves with the best oils,
but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.
7 Therefore they will now go captive with the first who go captive.
The feasting and lounging will end.
8“The Lord GOD has sworn by himself,” says the LORD, the God of Armies:
“I abhor the pride of Jacob,
and detest his fortresses.
Therefore I will deliver up the city with all that is in it.
9 It will happen that if ten men remain in one house,
they will die.
10“When a man’s relative carries him, even he who burns him, to bring bodies out of the house, and asks him who is in the innermost parts of the house, ‘Is there yet any with you?’ And he says, ‘No;’ then he will say, ‘Hush! Indeed we must not mention the LORD’s name.’
11“For, behold, the LORD commands, and the great house will be smashed to pieces,
and the little house into bits.
12 Do horses run on the rocky crags?
Does one plough there with oxen?
But you have turned justice into poison,
and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness,
13 you who rejoice in a thing of nothing, who say,
‘Haven’t we taken for ourselves horns by our own strength?’
14 For, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, house of Israel,”
says the LORD, the God of Armies;
“and they will afflict you from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of the Arabah.”
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Amos 6
6
Those Who Live Only for Today
1-2Woe to you who think you live on easy street in Zion,
who think Mount Samaria is the good life.
You assume you’re at the top of the heap,
voted the number-one best place to live.
Well, wake up and look around. Get off your pedestal.
Take a look at Calneh.
Go and visit Great Hamath.
Look in on Gath of the Philistines.
Doesn’t that take you off your high horse?
Compared to them, you’re not much, are you?
3-6Woe to you who are rushing headlong to disaster!
Catastrophe is just around the corner!
Woe to those who live in luxury
and expect everyone else to serve them!
Woe to those who live only for today,
indifferent to the fate of others!
Woe to the playboys, the playgirls,
who think life is a party held just for them!
Woe to those addicted to feeling good—life without pain!
those obsessed with looking good—life without wrinkles!
They could not care less
about their country going to ruin.
7But here’s what’s really coming:
a forced march into exile.
They’ll leave the country whining,
a rag-tag bunch of good-for-nothings.
You’ve Made a Shambles of Justice
8 God, the Master, has sworn, and solemnly stands by his Word.
The God-of-the-Angel-Armies speaks:
“I hate the arrogance of Jacob.
I have nothing but contempt for his forts.
I’m about to hand over the city
and everyone in it.”
9-10Ten men are in a house, all dead. A relative comes and gets the bodies to prepare them for a decent burial. He discovers a survivor huddled in a closet and asks, “Are there any more?” The answer: “Not a soul. But hush! God must not be mentioned in this desecrated place.”
11Note well: God issues the orders.
He’ll knock large houses to smithereens.
He’ll smash little houses to bits.
12-13Do you hold a horse race in a field of rocks?
Do you plow the sea with oxen?
You’d cripple the horses
and drown the oxen.
And yet you’ve made a shambles of justice,
a bloated corpse of righteousness,
Bragging of your trivial pursuits,
beating up on the weak and crowing, “Look what I’ve done!”
14“Enjoy it while you can, you Israelites.
I’ve got a pagan army on the move against you”
—this is your God speaking, God-of-the-Angel-Armies—
“And they’ll make hash of you,
from one end of the country to the other.”
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.