Amos 6:1-7

Amos 6:1

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!

 

First of all God pronounces a woe upon them which means that many great sorrows are about to follow.  Those that are at ease in Zion means those who are living luxuriously and they eat and drink and nothing seems to bother them because they believe that they are living obedient lives to the Lord.  Zion here is referring to the city of Jerusalem where the king’s palaces are.  They somehow believed that they were safe from invaders which normally came in from the north and that the Samarians would protect them from any enemy.  Samaria and Jerusalem were considered chief cities of both the south and northern kingdoms.  The tribe of Judah went to Jerusalem and the northern ten tribes went to Samaria.

 

Amos 6:2

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?

 

Calneh was a city in the land of Shinar.  And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.  (Genesis 10:10)  Hamath was the head of the Syrian kingdom which was conquered by Tiglath-pileser.  Then Gath was the chief city of the Philistines which was conquered by Hazael king of the Syrians.  Then Hazael king of Syria went up, and fought against Gath, and took it: and Hazael set his face to go up to Jerusalem.  (2 Kings 12:17)  God then poses the questions to Israel asking if their borders are greater than these three and if their kingdom is better than these three which were powerful kingdoms yet were eventually laid waste.

 

Amos 6:3

Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near;

 

The leaders had put away the evil day of judgment to sometime way in the future thinking that their lavish lifestyle would continue to go on for many more years and in the meantime they continued their violent ways dealing treacherously with the people.  The seat of violence means that violence would be well-entrenched in their society.  To sit down means that something has been completed and they are soon approaching their fill of sin and judgment will soon come down on them.  The Lord Jesus Christ sat down at the right hand of God the Father after his sacrifice was accepted because it was now completed forever.  But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;  (Hebrews 10:12)

 

Amos 6:4

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;

 

The divan on which the beds were spread or the frames on which they rested were all inlaid and ornamented with ivory.  The wealthy stretched themselves on couches where they normally styed when they feasted.  They ate the best of the lambs and probably picked out the best ones before they picked them for sacrifices.  Then they also ate the best of the cattle in addition to the lambs.  The wealthy were eating in contrast to the fact the poor were starving and they would not have beds to sleep on, they would sleep on straw or hay in their one room houses.  It is just like today where the wealthy people live in mansions and many of the people are in tents on the street.

 

Amos 6:5

That chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of musick, like David;

 

They would be entertained by musicians who would play a variety of instruments but that was not good enough for them they needed to invent new instruments and have new types of music played to them.  They thought they would be imitating David who played the harp but their songs were no doubt of a lude nature.  It is like the church today that is not satisfied with the godly hymns handed down to us instead they have to bring in full teams of instruments and play them at high decibel levels and removing the old hymns in favor of the charismatic rock and roll which couldn’t edify a rock.

 

Amos 6:6

That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments: but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.

 

They went beyond luxurious living in that they were indulging themselves as gluttons and winebibbers.  They were not satisfied with drinking glasses of wine, they wanted it by the bowl.  In countries where there was excessive heat, they had to keep refreshing themselves with aromatic ointments to mask their body odors.  You could say that they were using a lot of deodorant and cologne and perfumes.  There were many problems brought on by the Syrians in the area of Joseph which were the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim.  You recall Ephraim was where the idolatrous city of Beth-el was located.  None of the problems affected the wealthy as they just went on with their lavish care-free living unconcerned about anything except their next feast.

 

Amos 6:7

Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive, and the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed.

 

Therefore speaks about what was just spoken of concerning the apathetic wealthy.  They will be carried away to Assyria first because the first things that the conquerors go for is the treasure and that they will find in the homes and palaces of the wealthy.  All their sumptuous feasting will also be done away with when they go into captivity and maybe many of them would be sold for slaves.  There will be no more banquets and feasting for the wealthy.

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