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Complacent Self-Indulgence Will Be Punished

Alas for those who are at ease in Zion,

and for those who feel secure on Mount Samaria,

the notables of the first of the nations,

to whom the house of Israel resorts!

Cross over to Calneh, and see;

from there go to Hamath the great;

then go down to Gath of the Philistines.

Are you better than these kingdoms?

Or is your territory greater than their territory,

O you that put far away the evil day,

and bring near a reign of violence?

Alas for those who lie on beds of ivory,

and lounge on their couches,

and eat lambs from the flock,

and calves from the stall;

who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp,

and like David improvise on instruments of music;

who drink wine from bowls,

and anoint themselves with the finest oils,

but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!

Therefore they shall now be the first to go into exile,

and the revelry of the loungers shall pass away.

The Lord G od has sworn by himself

(says the L ord, the God of hosts):

I abhor the pride of Jacob

and hate his strongholds;

and I will deliver up the city and all that is in it.

⁹ If ten people remain in one house, they shall die. ¹⁰And if a relative, one who burns the dead, shall take up the body to bring it out of the house, and shall say to someone in the innermost parts of the house, “Is anyone else with you?” the answer will come, “No.” Then the relative shall say, “Hush! We must not mention the name of the L ord.”

See, the L ord commands,

and the great house shall be shattered to bits,

and the little house to pieces.

Do horses run on rocks?

Does one plow the sea with oxen?

But you have turned justice into poison

and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood—

you who rejoice in Lo-debar,

who say, “Have we not by our own strength

taken Karnaim for ourselves?”

Indeed, I am raising up against you a nation,

O house of Israel, says the L ord, the God of hosts,

and they shall oppress you from Lebo-hamath

to the Wadi Arabah.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Prophet here amplifies the calamity, which was nigh the people; as though he had said, that God would not now take moderate vengeance on that reprobate people, for he did nothing by dealing moderately with them: there was therefore nigh at hand the heaviest vengeance, which would reduce the people to nothing. This is the import of the Prophet’s words when he says, that ten, if remaining in the same house, would die But in naming ten survivors, he intimates that a slaughter had preceded, which had taken away either the half or at least some part of the family, since ten remained. At the same time this number shows how severe and dreadful a judgment of God awaited that people, that ten would be taken away together. But it rarely happens, even when a direful pestilence prevails, that so numerous a family entirely perishes; when three out of four, or six or five out of eight, are taken away, it is a diminution which usually greatly terrifies men: but when ten are taken away together, and no one is left, it is an evidence of an awful vengeance.

We see then that the Prophet here denounces on the people utter ruin, for they could not be reformed by milder punishments: when God tried to recall them to a sane mind, he effected nothing. There was therefore no remedy for their desperate diseases: it was hence necessary entirely to take away those who were thus incurable. Perish then shall the ten, who shall remain in one house It follows —