Amos 6 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

How terrible for you who lie easy in Zion, and for you who feel safe on the hill of Samaria, the big names of the first nation on earth, the men the house of Israel comes to.

Go over to Calneh and look at it. From there go on to Hamath the great, then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are you better than those kingdoms? Is your country bigger than theirs?

You shove the day of disaster out of sight and drag the rule of violence closer.

You lie on beds inlaid with ivory and sprawl across your couches, eating lambs out of the flock and calves straight from the stall.

You strum away over the sound of the harp and, like David, invent instruments of your own.

You drink wine by the bowlful and rub the finest oils into your skin, and you are not sick over the wreck of Joseph.

So now they will walk into exile at the head of the line, and the sprawling and the feasting will be finished.

The Master Yahweh has sworn by his own life. This is the declaration of Yahweh, God who commands armies: I cannot stand the pride of Jacob. I hate his fortress houses. I will hand over the city and everything in it.

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

When a man's relative comes to carry him out and burn the body, and he is bringing the bones out of the house, he will call to whoever is at the back of the house, "Is there anyone still in there with you?" and the answer will come back, "No one." Then he will say, "Hush. We must not say the name of Yahweh."

Look, Yahweh gives the order, and the great house is smashed to pieces and the small house to splinters.

Do horses gallop over bare rock? Does anyone plough the sea with oxen? But you have turned fair judgment into poison and the fruit of doing right into wormwood.

You are celebrating over Lo Debar and saying, "Didn't we take Karnaim by our own strength?"

Look, house of Israel, I am raising up a nation against you, declares Yahweh, God who commands armies, and they will crush you from Lebo Hamath all the way down to the valley of the Arabah.