NOTES for Amo 6:1-14
1 Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came! |
2 Pass ye unto Calneh, and see; and from thence go ye to Hamath the great: then go down to Gath of the Philistines: be they better than these kingdoms? or their border greater than your border? |
3 Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near; |
4 That lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall; |
5 That chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of musick, like David; |
6 That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments: but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. |
7 Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive, and the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed. |
8 The Lord GOD hath sworn by himself, saith the LORD the God of hosts, I abhor the excellency of Jacob, and hate his palaces: therefore will I deliver up the city with all that is therein. |
9 And it shall come to pass, if there remain ten men in one house, that they shall die. |
10 And a man's uncle shall take him up, and he that burneth him, to bring out the bones out of the house, and shall say unto him that is by the sides of the house, Is there yet any with thee? and he shall say, No. Then shall he say, Hold thy tongue: for we may not make mention of the name of the LORD. |
11 For, behold, the LORD commandeth, and he will smite the great house with breaches, and the little house with clefts. |
12 Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plow there with oxen? for ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock: |
13 Ye which rejoice in a thing of nought, which say, Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength? |
14 But, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, saith the LORD the God of hosts; and they shall afflict you from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of the wilderness. |
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Today's reading describes a situation familiar to every believer. It is about people who, having received from God everything they have, have completely forgotten Him (vv. 1-2, 8). It seems to them that what they have received came to them by right, and that no one will ever be able to take it from them. This, one might think, is how the whole world lives. Few people think about whether what they have is deserved or undeserved, especially if it was, as people usually say in such cases, "earned by honest labor." To realize how dependent a person is on God in everyday life, one must have a deep and stable relationship with Him.
Perhaps this is exactly why God does not remind of His benefactions those who know little or nothing at all about Him. He does not need followers who follow Him from the same motives that make a debtor reckon with a lender, for such compelled relationships have nothing in common with love. But through the prophet He speaks of this directly to His own people, reproaching them for having forgotten everything God has done for them. God reminds them that Israel is surrounded by nations superior to it in every respect, and that if it has not yet been wiped from the face of the earth, this is only thanks to God's help, about which the people do not think at all.
Why, then, does God act differently in this case? It may be precisely because His people are in view. The history of the Jewish people is inseparable from the revelation they received: they were formed as a nation during the Exodus, and without God's direct intervention in history this people would simply not have existed. Under such circumstances, forgetting one's relationship with God is literally like death, and the Lord reminds the inhabitants of the Northern Kingdom of this through His prophet.
Here before us is not a desire to reproach for ingratitude or to remind them of past and present benefactions, but a reminder of the relationships without which the people will cease to exist, without which they will simply disappear from the face of the earth. And if God reproaches His people here for anything, it is not so much ingratitude as the fact that they forgot the relationships that once bound them to their God - the God who remembers everything, even when people would be glad to forget everything.
Other notes
For Amo 6:1-14
1 Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came! |
2 Pass ye unto Calneh, and see; and from thence go ye to Hamath the great: then go down to Gath of the Philistines: be they better than these kingdoms? or their border greater than your border? |
3 Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near; |
4 That lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall; |
5 That chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of musick, like David; |
6 That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments: but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. |
7 Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive, and the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed. |
8 The Lord GOD hath sworn by himself, saith the LORD the God of hosts, I abhor the excellency of Jacob, and hate his palaces: therefore will I deliver up the city with all that is therein. |
9 And it shall come to pass, if there remain ten men in one house, that they shall die. |
10 And a man's uncle shall take him up, and he that burneth him, to bring out the bones out of the house, and shall say unto him that is by the sides of the house, Is there yet any with thee? and he shall say, No. Then shall he say, Hold thy tongue: for we may not make mention of the name of the LORD. |
11 For, behold, the LORD commandeth, and he will smite the great house with breaches, and the little house with clefts. |
12 Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plow there with oxen? for ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock: |
13 Ye which rejoice in a thing of nought, which say, Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength? |
14 But, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, saith the LORD the God of hosts; and they shall afflict you from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of the wilderness. |
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For Amo 5:1-6:14
1 Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel. |
2 The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up. |
3 For thus saith the Lord GOD; The city that went out by a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel. |
4 For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live: |
5 But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beer-sheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought. |
6 Seek the LORD, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel. |
7 Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth, |
8 Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name: |
9 That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress. |
10 They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly. |
11 Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them. |
12 For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right. |
13 Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time. |
14 Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken. |
15 Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph. |
16 Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing. |
17 And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the LORD. |
18 Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light. |
19 As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. |
20 Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it? |
21 I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. |
22 Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. |
23 Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. |
24 But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream. |
25 Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? |
26 But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves. |
27 Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the LORD, whose name is The God of hosts. |
1 Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came! |
2 Pass ye unto Calneh, and see; and from thence go ye to Hamath the great: then go down to Gath of the Philistines: be they better than these kingdoms? or their border greater than your border? |
3 Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near; |
4 That lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall; |
5 That chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of musick, like David; |
6 That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments: but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. |
7 Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive, and the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed. |
8 The Lord GOD hath sworn by himself, saith the LORD the God of hosts, I abhor the excellency of Jacob, and hate his palaces: therefore will I deliver up the city with all that is therein. |
9 And it shall come to pass, if there remain ten men in one house, that they shall die. |
10 And a man's uncle shall take him up, and he that burneth him, to bring out the bones out of the house, and shall say unto him that is by the sides of the house, Is there yet any with thee? and he shall say, No. Then shall he say, Hold thy tongue: for we may not make mention of the name of the LORD. |
11 For, behold, the LORD commandeth, and he will smite the great house with breaches, and the little house with clefts. |
12 Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plow there with oxen? for ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock: |
13 Ye which rejoice in a thing of nought, which say, Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength? |
14 But, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, saith the LORD the God of hosts; and they shall afflict you from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of the wilderness. |
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