Amos 6

¹ Woe to those ensconced so snugly in Zion and to those who feel so safe on the mountain of Samaria, those famous men of this first of nations to whom the House of Israel goes as client.

² Make a journey to Calneh and look, go on from there to Hamath the great, then down to Gath in Philistia.[*a] Are they any better off than these kingdoms? Is their territory larger than yours?

³ You think to defer the day of misfortune, but you hasten the reign of violence.

⁴ Lying on ivory beds and sprawling on their divans, they dine on lambs from the flock, and stall-fattened veal;

⁵ they bawl to the sound of the harp, they invent new instruments of music like David,

⁶ they drink wine by the bowlful, and use the finest oil for anointing themselves, but about the ruin of Joseph[*b] they do not care at all.

⁷ That is why they will be the first to be exiled; the sprawlers’ revelry is over.

⁸ The Lord Yahweh swears it by his own self-it is the Lord Yahweh who speaks, the God of Sabaoth. I detest the pride of Jacob, I hate his palaces. I mean to abandon the city[*c] and all it contains.

⁹ And if ten men are left in a single house, they shall die.

¹⁰ Only a few will escape to carry the bones out of the house; and if a man should say to another one in a corner of the house, ‘Is there anyone left with you?’ he will reply, ‘No! Hush! The name of Yahweh must not be mentioned.’

¹¹ For see, Yahweh himself orders it; as he strikes, the great house falls to pieces, the small house crumbles.

¹² Do horses gallop on rocks, do men plough the sea with oxen, for you to change justice into poison, and the fruit of integrity into wormwood?

¹³ You rejoice over Lo-debar,[*d] ‘Was it not by our own strength’ you say ‘that we took Karnaim?’

¹⁴ Now see, you House of Israel, how I am stirring up against you-it is Yahweh who speaks, the God of Sabaoth-a nation that will harry you from the Pass of Hamath right down to the wadi of the Arabah.[*e]