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6. Woe to the Complacent

¹ Woe to you who are complacent in Zion,
   and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria,
you notable men of the foremost nation,
   to whom the people of Israel come!
² Go to Kalneh and look at it;
   go from there to great Hamath,
   and then go down to Gath in Philistia.
Are they better off than your two kingdoms?
   Is their land larger than yours?
³ You put off the day of disaster
   and bring near a reign of terror.
⁴ You lie on beds adorned with ivory
   and lounge on your couches.
You dine on choice lambs
   and fattened calves.
⁵ You strum away on your harps like David
   and improvise on musical instruments.
⁶ You drink wine by the bowlful
   and use the finest lotions,
   but you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph.
⁷ Therefore you will be among the first to go into exile;
   your feasting and lounging will end.

The LORD Abhors the Pride of Israel

⁸ The Sovereign LORD has sworn by himself—the LORD God Almighty declares:

   “I abhor the pride of Jacob
   and detest his fortresses;
I will deliver up the city
   and everything in it.”

⁹ If ten people are left in one house, they too will die. ¹⁰ And if the relative who comes to carry the bodies out of the house to burn them Or to make a funeral fire in honor of the dead asks anyone who might be hiding there, “Is anyone else with you?” and he says, “No,” then he will go on to say, “Hush! We must not mention the name of the LORD.”

    ¹¹ For the LORD has given the command,
   and he will smash the great house into pieces
   and the small house into bits.

    ¹² Do horses run on the rocky crags?
   Does one plow the sea With a different word division of the Hebrew; Masoretic Text plow there with oxen?
But you have turned justice into poison
   and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness—
¹³ you who rejoice in the conquest of Lo Debar Lo Debar means nothing.
   and say, “Did we not take Karnaim Karnaim means horns; horn here symbolizes strength. by our own strength?”

    ¹⁴ For the LORD God Almighty declares,
   “I will stir up a nation against you, Israel,
that will oppress you all the way
   from Lebo Hamath to the valley of the Arabah.”

At last follows a denunciation, and this is the close of the chapter. God then after having seriously exposed the vices which prevailed among the people of Israel, again declares that vengeance of which he had shortly before reminded then; but with this difference only — that God now points out the kind of punishment which he would inflict on the Israelites. He had said before, ‘Behold God commands;’ and then he had spoken of calamity, but expressed not whence that calamity would come: but he now points it out in a special manner, Behold he says I am raising up against you, O house of Israel, a nation, who will straiten you from the entrance into Hemath to the river, etc. The Prophet no doubt speaks here of the Assyrians, and expresses in strong terms how dreadful the war with the Assyrians would be, which was now nigh at hand; for though large was their land and country, (and being large and spacious it had many outlets,) yet the Prophet shows that there would be everywhere straits, when the Lord would raise up on high that nation I am then stirring up a nation against you.

He again calls the Lord, the God of hosts, for the same reason as before, — that they might understand that all the Assyrians were at God’s disposal, and that they would stir up war whenever he gave them a signal. The Lord then will raise up a nation, who will straiten you In what place? He speaks not here of strait places, but of a spacious country, which, as it has been stated, had many outlets. But after the Lord had armed against them the Assyrians, all the most spacious places were made strait to them, “Ye shall be everywhere confined, so that there will be open no escape from death.”