Amo 6:10 | KingComments | STEP | We see a picture of total desolation and despair. There are so many dead (cf. ), that burial is a work of no avail, let alone a decent burial. Then the corpses must be burned. They cannot be left in the house. A house is to live in, it is not a grave. A family member takes care of that, or the corpse burner. When a sound comes out of the house of someone who turns out to be still alive, it is a lonely person, someone who has been hiding to escape death. He must keep silent, afraid that if one talks further the name of the LORD will be mentioned. Behind this fear seems to be the pagan fear that mentioning the name of the LORD would draw the attention of God to him, to have him killed by the enemy after all. As if God would not have perfect knowledge of what is going on and someone could escape His attention. A call to God in indescribable distress does not occur to them. That would also be useless, for the judgment is fixed. In addition, God has become to them what they have made of him: an idol that inspires fear.

‏ Amos 6:10

The Houses Cleared

We see a picture of total desolation and despair. There are so many dead (cf. Amos 8:3), that burial is a work of no avail, let alone a decent burial. Then the corpses must be burned. They cannot be left in the house. A house is to live in, it is not a grave. A family member takes care of that, or the corpse burner.

When a sound comes out of the house of someone who turns out to be still alive, it is a lonely person, someone who has been hiding to escape death. He must keep silent, afraid that if one talks further the name of the LORD will be mentioned. Behind this fear seems to be the pagan fear that mentioning the name of the LORD would draw the attention of God to him, to have him killed by the enemy after all. As if God would not have perfect knowledge of what is going on and someone could escape His attention.

A call to God in indescribable distress does not occur to them. That would also be useless, for the judgment is fixed. In addition, God has become to them what they have made of him: an idol that inspires fear.