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Amos 6

Amos 6 Summary, Context, and Full Chapter

Amos 6 speaks to people who feel safe, wealthy, and untouchable. The chapter confronts comfort without concern for the nation's ruin, then shows that pride and injustice will not last. It ends with God's judgment extending across the land.

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What happens in Amos 6?

The chapter begins with a warning to those resting in security in Zion and Samaria. Amos points them to other cities and asks whether they are really greater or safer than anyone else. Their luxury, music, feasting, and fine living have numbed them to the suffering around them. Because they do not grieve over Joseph's ruin, they will be the first taken into exile. The Lord then speaks against Jacob's pride, saying strong houses and city defenses will not save them. Their twisted justice and self-confidence will lead to a nation rising against them from one border of the land to the other.

Amos 6 follows the call in chapter 5 to seek the Lord and live, with a sharper warning to Israel's leaders and the comfortable elite. It continues the book's main message against injustice, false security, and empty religion. The chapter prepares for more visions of judgment in the chapters that follow.

Themes to notice

  • False securityComfort and status cannot protect a people when they ignore God and the needs of others.
  • Pride and wealthLuxury, self-satisfaction, and confidence in strongholds are shown to be fragile and temporary.
  • Justice overturnedWhen justice is twisted and righteousness is rejected, judgment follows.

Questions for Amos 6

  • What does Amos 6 say about the danger of feeling secure when others are suffering?
  • How does the chapter challenge the way wealth and comfort can shape our hearts?
  • What stands out about the contrast between human strength and God's judgment in this passage?

Read the full text of Amos 6 below, then open it in the reader to highlight, take notes, or ask follow-up Bible questions. No account is required to read.

Amos 6

Woe to Those at Ease in Zion

1Woe to those at ease in Zion

and those secure on Mount Samaria,

the distinguished ones of the foremost nation,

to whom the house of Israel comes.

2Cross over to Calneh and see;

go from there to the great Hamath;

then go down to Gath of the Philistines.

Are you better than these kingdoms?

Is their territory larger than yours?

3You dismiss the day of calamity

and bring near a reign of violence.

4You lie on beds inlaid with ivory,

and lounge upon your couches.

You dine on lambs from the flock

and calves from the stall.

5You improvise songs on the harp like David

and invent your own musical instruments.

6You drink wine by the bowlful

and anoint yourselves with the finest oils,

but you fail to grieve

over the ruin of Joseph.

7Therefore, you will now go into exile

as the first of the captives,

and your feasting and lounging

will come to an end.

The Pride of Israel

8The Lord GOD has sworn by Himself—the LORD, the God of Hosts, has declared:

“I abhor Jacob’s pride

and detest his citadels,

so I will deliver up the city

and everything in it.”

9And if there are ten men left in one house, they too will die.

10And when the relative who is to burn the bodies picks them up to remove them from the house, he will call to one inside, “Is anyone else with you?” “None,” that person will answer. “Silence,” the relative will retort, “for the name of the LORD must not be invoked.”

11For the LORD gives a command:

“The great house will be smashed to pieces,

and the small house to rubble.”

12“Do horses gallop on the cliffs?

Does one plow the sea with oxen?

But you have turned justice into poison

and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood—

13you who rejoice in Lo-debar and say,

‘Did we not take Karnaim by our own strength?’

14For behold, I will raise up a nation

against you, O house of Israel,”

declares the LORD, the God of Hosts,

“and they will oppress you

from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of the Arabah.”

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