Amos 6:7

Announcement of Punishment. - Amo 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. Kg1 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 Amo 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 Jer 16:5 a cry of lamentation.

In this chapter we have, I. A sinful people studying to put a slight upon God's threatenings and to make them appear trivial, confiding in their privileges and pre-eminences above other nations (Amo 6:2, Amo 6:3), and their power (Amo 6:13), and wholly addicted to their pleasures (Amo 6:4-6). II. A serious prophet studying to put a weight upon God's threatenings and to make them appear terrible, by setting forth the severity of those judgments that were coming upon these sensualists (Amo 6:7), God's abhorring them, and abandoning them and theirs to death (Amo 6:8-11), and bringing utter desolation upon them, since they would not be wrought upon by the methods he had taken for their conviction (Amo 6:12-14).