Amos 6:4

"Alas for you who put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near,"

Key Reflection

The people of Amos' time were focused on avoiding divine judgment and instead embraced their own sinful behaviors, particularly acts of violence. By putting off the "evil day"—the day of reckoning—they actively enabled and even sought to legitimize violent practices within their society, thereby bringing those very evils closer to themselves more quickly than they realized.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

That lie upon beds (that is, sofas) of ivory -that is, probably inlaid with ivory. The word might, in itself, express either the bed, in which they slept by night, or the divan, on which the Easterns lay at their meals; “and stretch themselves,” literally, “are poured” out , stretching their listless length, dissolved, unnerved, in luxury and sloth, “upon their couches,” perhaps under an awning: “and eat the lambs,” probably “fatted lambs (as inDeuteronomy 32:14;Psa 37:20;1 Samuel 15:9;Jeremiah 51:40), out of the flock,” chosen, selected out of it as the best, and “calves out of the midst of the stall;” that is, the place where they were tied up (as the word means) to be fatted.

More from Amos 6

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