Amos 6King James Version
Woe to them that are at ease in Zion. That lie upon beds of ivory and stretch themselves upon their couches. That eat the lambs out of the flock and drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments. But they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.
Amos turns to the complacent ruling class in both Jerusalem and Samaria: those who sleep on ivory beds, eat choice meat, invent musical instruments, drink wine by the bowl, and care nothing for the ruin of the nation around them. Their wealth has made them numb. God swears he abhors their pride and will deliver them to an enemy power. Even after mass death, survivors will whisper to avoid speaking God's name aloud.
Comfort that insulates you from other people's suffering is not blessing. It is a kind of moral death that arrives before the physical one.
"That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments: but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph." (6:6) The indictment turns on a single phrase: the problem is not eating and drinking, it is that a whole class of people has learned to be undisturbed by national suffering happening around them.
Ivory-inlaid furniture was a real luxury of the Israelite elite in this period, confirmed by archaeological finds from Samaria. Reclining on couches rather than sitting upright was a marker of wealth in the ancient world. The feasting described here is not sinful by its nature; what makes it grotesque in Amos's framing is the backdrop: a society with widening inequality, corrupted courts, and an approaching military threat that the banqueters are choosing to ignore.
The elite of Zion and Samaria are the targets: unnamed, collective, identifiable by their possessions and their indifference. They compare themselves favorably to other defeated kingdoms, convinced their border is secure. The enemy nation God will raise against them in verse 14 is not named, but Assyria is on the horizon, expanding fast.
Chapter 6 names something that goes beyond economic sin into a failure of empathy. The wealthy are not just exploiting the poor; they have stopped registering the poor as a reality worth caring about. The phrase 'not grieved for the affliction of Joseph' is the diagnosis. Joseph is a name for Israel, and its affliction is visible. These people just do not see it or do not want to. Amos treats this numbness as one of the most serious charges in the indictment.
The section on mass death in verses 9 through 10 is one of the strangest moments in the book: ten men survive in a house, and when a relative comes to retrieve the bodies, the survivor whispers not to mention the name of God, as if invoking it in that silence might bring more. It is a portrait of a faith that has curdled into superstition and dread.
1Woe 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!
2Pass 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?
3Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near;
4That 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;
5That chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of musick, like David;
6That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments: but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.
7Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive, and the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed.
8The 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.
9And it shall come to pass, if there remain ten men in one house, that they shall die.
10And 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.
11For, behold, the LORD commandeth, and he will smite the great house with breaches, and the little house with clefts.
12Shall 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:
13Ye which rejoice in a thing of nought, which say, Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength?
14But, 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 Hemath unto the river of the wilderness.