Amos 6:7

Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive, and the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(7) Therefore (as a punishment for this self-indulgence) they shall go into captivity at the head of the captives, and the shout of the loungers (rioting in their banquets) shall cease. All their loud merriment will come to a sorry end.

Benson Commentary

Amos 6:7-8. Therefore now shall they go captive with the first, &c. — As they were reckoned the first among the people, and claimed the preference in every thing, so now shall they be the first that shall be carried into captivity. And the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed — They who indulged themselves in ease and luxury shall have no more costly banquets spread before them: all their luxurious living shall be at an end. The Lord hath sworn by himself — And will not violate his oath; I abhor the excellency of Jacob — Whatever the kingdoms of Israel and Judah value themselves for is hateful to me, as having been abused by them, and made instrumental in dishonouring me. Or, the words should rather be rendered, I abhor the pride of Jacob. Inhumanity and hardness of heart, as well as many other vices, are generally the companions of pride; and therefore God always expresses, in the Scriptures, the utmost abhorrence of that sin. Therefore I will deliver up the city — Namely, the city of Samaria first, and then that of Jerusalem.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

6:1-7 Those are looked upon as doing well for themselves, who do well for their bodies; but we are here told what their ease is, and what their woe is. Here is a description of the pride, security, and sensuality, for which God would reckon. Careless sinners are every where in danger; but those at ease in Zion, who are stupid, vainly confident, and abusing their privileges, are in the greatest danger. Yet many fancy themselves the people of God, who are living in sin, and in conformity to the world. But the examples of others' ruin forbid us to be secure. Those who are set upon their pleasures are commonly careless of the troubles of others, but this is great offence to God. Those who placed their happiness in the pleasures of sense, and set their hearts upon them, shall be deprived of those pleasures. Those who try to put the evil day far from them, find it nearest to them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Therefore now (that is, shortly) shall they go captive with the first (at the head) of those who go captive - They had sought eminence; they should have it. Jerome: "Ye who are first in riches, shall, the first, endure the yoke of captivity, as it is in Ezekiel, 'begin from My sanctuary' Ezekiel 9:6, that is, from the destruction of the Temple which is holy. For 'mighty men shall be mightily tormented' (Wisdom Ezekiel 6:6); and, 'to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more' Luke 12:48."

And the banquet - Probably, "the screech." The root, רדסח radsach, whose consonants contain most of those of our screech, signifies the loud sharp cry, which the mind cannot control, either in revelry or distress. Here it is probably, the drunken scream, or reckless cry of revelry, whose senseless shrillness is more piercing, in its way, than the scream of distress, of which Jeremiah Jer 16:5 uses it. For it is the scream of the death of the soul. Amos seems to have purposely joined together similar harsh sibilants or guttural sounds in order the more to express the harshness of that scream of luxurious self-indulgence. סרוּחים מרזח mı̂rezach seruchı̂ym, the screech of the outstretched." Of this he says, "it shall depart," and forever. "In that very day all his thoughts perish" Psalm 146:4. It shall "depart;" but by what should it be replaced to those to whom it was their god and their all? On earth, by siege, pestilence, death or captivity: after death, by hell to the unrepentant.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

7. Therefore … shall they go captive with the first—As they were first among the people in rank (Am 6:1), and anointed themselves "with the chief ointments" (Am 6:6), so shall they be among the foremost in going into captivity.

banquet—literally, the "merry-making shout of revellers"; from an Arabic root, "to cry out." In the Hebrew, marzeach; here, there is an allusion to mizraqu, "bowls" (Am 6:6).

them that stretched themselves—on luxurious couches (Am 6:4).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Therefore; for this sin of unseasonable feasting added to all former sins; much like that Isaiah 22:14.

Now shall they go captive, who ruled others, and whose character you have Amos 6:1-3, &c., who put far from them the evil day, &c., these shall certainly be carried captive.

With the first that go captive; and as they deserve by their sins, so shall they be carried away the first of any; God’s hand in punishing them shall be as eminent as their hand was in sinning.

The banquet, the feastings of voluptuous ones, shall cease.

That stretched themselves: see Amos 6:4.

Shall be removed; God will send the Assyrians to take away the banquet, and to bring in a bill, a reckoning, for these secure sinners, who shall be removed too, as well as their banquet is; they shall go into captivity, and there in sorrows dearly pay for all their luxury, inhumanity, and security.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive,.... That is, these men, who were the first and chief in the nation, who would not believe the day of Israel's captivity would ever come; or, however, had very distant apprehensions of it; but indulged and gratified their several senses of tasting, hearing, smelling, in a carnal way, and had no sympathy with and compassion upon their afflicted brethren; these should be the first the enemy should lay hold upon, and carry captive; as we find the royal family, the princes and nobles, the courtiers and chief tradesmen, were the first that were carried captive of the Jews, in Jeconiah's captivity, 2 Kings 24:12;

and the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed; that stretched themselves upon couches, Amos 6:4; they shall have no more banquets or feasting bouts to attend to, by stretching themselves out, and lying upon couches at their ease; these shall be taken from them; and be glad of bread and water in an enemy's country, without a couch to recline upon. Some understand this of a funeral banquet, as in Jeremiah 16:5; and so the sense is, that when they die, they shall not have that honour done to their memory, as to have a funeral feast provided for those that attend their burial, as was customary. Kimchi interprets it, "the mourning of such shall draw nigh" (b); and according to his father, Joseph Kimchi, the word in the Arabic language signifies to lift up the voice, either in mourning or joy; and so may signify, that as all feasts, and the joy that attends them, should be removed, which is the sense of the Targum, instead of that, mourning should take place; or they should be deprived of the common ceremony at death of mourning men and women.

(b) "ad veniet", Munster; "appropinquabit", Mercerus; "veniet", Calvin. So R. Sol. Urbin. Ohel Moed, fol. 84. 2.

Geneva Study Bible

Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive, and the {g} banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed.

(g) Some read the sorrow of them that stretched themselves is at hand.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. The sentence. These nobles will indeed retain their preeminence, but it will be at the head of a procession of exiles.

Therefore now] i.e. as soon as the threatened disaster has arrived.

shall they go into exile at the head of them that go into exile] heading the procession.

banquet] revelry (R.V.). The word appears to denote properly a loud cry (though no corresponding root with this meaning is known in the Semitic languages[178]), here of the cry of revelry, in Jeremiah 16:5 of the cry of grief (A.V., R.V., inadequately “mourning”)[179]. In the original there is an assonance between the word rendered “stretched out,” and that rendered “pass away,” the latter being formed by the first two letters of the former, which thus, as it were, ominously suggests it (wesâr mirzaḥ serûḥîm).

[178] See Fleischer in Levy’s Neu-Hebr. Wörterbuch, iii.317 f.

[179] Hçrîa‘ may have the same double application: contrast Isaiah 15:4, Micah 4:9, with Zephaniah 3:14, Zechariah 9:9, &c.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 7-11. - Here follows the announce. merit of punishment for the crimes mentioned above: the people shall go into captivity; they shall be rejected of God, and given over to utter ruin. Verse 7. - With the first. They shall have a pre-eminence indeed, being the first to go into captivity. St Jerome, "Vos qui primi estis divitiis, primi captivitatis sustinebitis jugum, secundum illud quod in Ezechiele scriptum est: 'a sanctuario meo incipite'" (Ezekiel 9:6). With the first; literally, at the head, with reference doubtless to ver. 1. The banquet (mirzakh); the screech of revellers. The word is used of the scream of mourners in Jeremiah 16:5; here of the cries and shouts of feasters at a banquet. Them that stretched themselves on couches, as ver. 4. The Septuagint, reading differently, has. "They shall depart into captivity from the dominion of princes, and the neighing of horses shall be taken away from Ephraim." From this passage of Amos St. Augustine takes occasion to show that the most untrained of the prophets possessed eloquence and literary skill ('De Doctr. Christ.,' 4:7). Amos 6:7

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Announcement of Punishment. - Amos 6:7. "Therefore will they now go into captivity at the head of the captives, and the shouting of the revellers will depart." Because these revellers do not trouble themselves about the ruin of Israel, they will now be obliged to wander into captivity at the head of the people (cf. 1 Kings 21:9), when the approaching shebher occurs. בּראשׁ גּלים is chosen with direct reference to ראשׁית שׁמנים, as Jerome has observed: "Ye who are first in riches will be the first to bear the yoke of captivity." Serūchı̄m also points back to Amos 6:4, "those who are stretched upon their couches" - that is, the revellers; and it forms a play upon words with mirzach. מרזח signifies a loud cry, here a joyous cry, in Jeremiah 16:5 a cry of lamentation.