Section II Sermons on Israel's Coming Judgment

Amos 3:1—6:14

In the second section of the prophecy, Amos particularizes the charges made in the first two chapters and emphasizes the finality with which he speaks of judgment to come. The sermons begin with Hear this word (3:1; cf. 4:1; 5:1), which identifies the authority of the prophet and the Source of his utterances.

A. ISRAEL'S RELATIONSHIP TO GOD, 3:1-8

Israel is reminded again of God's deliverance of the nation from the land of Egypt (1). The figure of the bride is not used in Amos as it is in Hosea. Yet Amos must have had the same comparison in mind when he used the expression, You only have I known¹ of all the families of the earth (3:2). The reason for God's choice in establishing His unique relationship with Israel through “election-love” (see Introduction to Hosea) is as inscrutable as the choice of a bride.²

1. Election (3:1-2)

Since Israel is specially chosen, she bears a special responsibility. The judgment of God must lie heavier on her because of her election (cf. II Chron. 36:16; Isa. 1:2-4). Hear this word that the Lord hath spoken against you, O children of Israel (1).

It is the relationship described in v. 2 that sets Israel apart for a special role among the families of the earth and also for a special responsibility. Their sin calls not for any compromise on the part of Jehovah because of that covenant relation, but rather for judgment on all their iniquities.

2. The Authority of the Prophet (3:3-8)

In spite of Israel's election, she is rebellious and arrogant. The nation will not hear the prophet (cf. 2:4; 7:10-13). Amos therefore established his right and duty to prophesy from a series of similes drawn from life itself.³

Verses 3-6 illustrate the causal relation between the utterances of the prophet and their source in God. Can two walk together, except they be agreed? (3) suggests not the relation between Jehovah and His people, but Jehovah and His prophet who was sent to Samaria and Bethel to declare judgment against the chosen people.

The lion (4) is Jehovah (cf. 1:2; Joel 3:16), who does not roar without a cause.⁴

Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin is for him? (5) The gin (moquesh) is a net with a stick for a spring which is sprung only when the prey is there.⁵ The punishment is as deserved as it is certain. As in Joel, the sinner has set his own trap.

Amos continues in v. 6 with the same causal argument. Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? (6) In his climax, the prophet compares the coming judgment of God with the blowing of the trumpet. It brings warning of the approaching enemy with the consequent anxiety and dread to the people. The judgment is from Jehovah, who uses the enemy as an instrument of destruction. Thus, the Lord hath … done it. The similes in vv. 1-6 are made perfectly clear in vv. 7-8, where the thought is explained. Jehovah carries out His purposes of judgment only after He has warned His people through His prophets. “Surely the Lord God does nothing without revealing His secret to His servants the prophets” (7, RSV).

Amos has vindicated his call. He has the right to represent God in His judgments.The lion hath roared … the Lord God hath spoken (8). Amos can do nothing but prophesy.

B. SAMARIA'S SINFULNESS, 3:9—4:3

Now that the foundation is laid for an authoritative utterance, Amos proceeds to reveal what the Lord has resolved to do to His sinful nation.

1. The Sin of Oppression (3:9-10)

Verses 9-10 are a summons to Ashdod (9; given as Assyria in the LXX and RSV) and Egypt to assemble to see the oppressors in Samaria that they may witness against God's people. Again Jehovah is using foreign nations as an instrument of judgment. It is the inhabitants of the palace who would pronounce just judgment upon the sins within the palaces (10) of Samaria. Verse 10 carries pathos as well as condemnation: “They do not know how to do right” (Berk.). The people of Samaria lost all sense of moral reality, honesty, and integrity.

2. The Destruction to Come (3:11-12)

An enemy shall attack round about the land (11) i.e., on all sides. He will possess it by plundering the palaces ( “strongholds,” RSV) and will bring down (hurl down) the splendor of Samaria. Thus the enemy attacking from the hills overlooking the city shall destroy both its fortifications and its beautiful buildings.

The prophet concludes with a simile in answer to an assumed question: Will the destruction be complete? Will there be any who escape? Amos replies with irony. “Yes, a few!” like a shepherd (12) saving two legs, or a piece of an ear (shinbone and lappet of the ear). The last half of v. 12 is another illustration of the same truth. When the children of Israel are taken captive they shall have left only the corner of a bed. The ivory and costly fabric came from Damascus. Smith-Goodspeed renders the figure as “the corner of a couch and the leg of a bed.” Samaria is to be utterly destroyed!

3. Bethel's Fate (3:13-15)

The words, Hear ye (13), consistent with v. 9, are addressed to the heathen, who will testify in the house of Jacob (the whole of Israel) and learn a lesson from the destruction of Samaria. The name the Lord God, the God of hosts is to strengthen the declaration that Jehovah is the God of all peoples and has the adequate resources to carry out His threats.

The punishment is to extend to the altars of Beth-el (14), seat of idolatry. The destruction will include the horns of the altar, i.e., the place of refuge, as well as the elaborate houses (15) of king and nobility. The horns of the altar were projections from the corners of the altar somewhat like the horns of an OX. They possessed special sanctity as a place of refuge (I Kings 2:28). The fulfillment of the prophecy took place when Shalmaneser took Samaria (II Kings 17:5-6).

Chapter 3 offers at least “Three Great Spiritual Insights”: (1) Personal privilege brings greater responsibility, 1-2; (2) God does not rebuke or convict men without cause, 3-8; (3) Unfaithfulness to God brings divine judgment, 13-15.

4. The Greed of Selfish Women (4:1-3)

To Amos, the infidelity of Israel was shockingly evident in the evils that flourished in an urban society. He was so striking in his words that Amaziah, the priest, looked upon his prophecy as high treason and insisted that “the land is not able to bear all his words” (7:10). The symptoms of sickness were apparent in the sleek, sophisticated ladies who were likened by the prophet-herdsman to the kine of Bashan (1). Bashan was famous for its fine cows and productive land (Numbers 32). Amos accused the women “in high Samaria” (Moffatt) of pressuring their husbands for riches, who in turn oppressed the people. Thus the women were equally responsible. They also continually asked their masters (husbands) “to procure for them the means of debauchery”⁶—Bring, and let us drink.

Verses 2-3 identify the judgment to be meted out because of the women's sin. Verse 2 begins with an unusually solemn oath suggesting the extreme severity of the evil. The Lord God hath sworn by his holiness. The Holy One cannot tolerate the unrighteousness of the rich (tyrannical oppression of the poor). Judgment is pronounced: Lo, the days shall come upon you when the enemy shall take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks. The conqueror shall drag the corpses away to the refuse pile outside the city with the hooks normally used to dispose of the carcasses of dead animals (a current Oriental custom).

Verse 3 has been translated in The Berkeley Version: “ You shall go out at the breaches, each of you going straight ahead; and you shall be driven to the fortress” (harmon) ⁷

C. THE DEPTH OF ISRAEL'S GUILT, 4:4—5:3

The prophecy now turns again to the nation as a whole. The irony of the prophet is apparent. “Carry on with your doings, knowing full well what you are doing and what it inevitably means!”

1. Sin Within the Sanctuary (4:4-5)

Amos lashes out: Come to Beth-el, and trangress; at Gilgal multiply transgression (4). Beth-el was an established city of worship (see map 2). Gilgal means “the circle.” This particular place of worship was either not far from Jericho (Josh. 4:19-20) or that associated with Elisha (II Kings 2:1; 4:38) somewhat north of Bethel. There could be many Gilgals as places of worship.⁸ One would have expected the sacrifice to be made for reconciliation, but it was used in the worship of idols and thus widened the separation between Jehovah and His people.

The whole picture is one of great zeal, with sacrifices every morning, and … tithes. Years probably should be translated “days,” as The Berkeley Version: “Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days.” The irony was that with exaggerated zeal they turned their sacred traditions to idolatrous worship. Thanksgiving with leaven (5) refers to the leavened loaves of the praise offering. These were used when the unleavened bread of the sin offering should have been brought.

For this liketh you, O ye children of Israel may be rendered, “For so you love to do, O people of Israel” (RSV). The whole act of worship entered on themselves. It evidenced greed, injustice, and oppression which Amos denounced with fervor. He knew that God was more concerned with their spirit than He was with the mechanics of their worship.

2. Indifference to Chastening (4:6-12)

Five times in verses 6-11 Amos represents the Lord as saying, Yet have ye not returned unto me (6). The phrase depicts the continuing love of God in the face of indifference. Amos rehearsed the visitations of the past by which the Lord had attempted to restore His people within the covenant. Cleanness of teeth is explained by the want of bread (6). The thought is reiterated when Jehovah withheld rain (7) three months before harvest, allowing it to rain selectively on the cities and fields. The heavy rains usually ceased in February. Amos interprets the capriciousness of the season to be the work of the Lord forcing a search for water as in the time of drought.

The prophet next turned to the gardens (9) and vineyards. The Lord smote the corn with blight; the fig and olive trees, the locust devoured. In all this Amos enumerates a series of judgments through which the Lord endeavored to awaken the people from the deceit of their sinning. But we have only the repeated refrain, Yet have ye not returned unto me. The judgment is freighted with pathos.

Amos repeats the same truth in the fourth chastisement, I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt (10). The combination of pestilence and sword (cf. Lev. 26:25; Isa. 10:24, 26) is typical of warfare. The slaying of young men in warfare by the sword would bring painful memories to the Israelites (cf. II Kings 8:12; 13:3, 7). From the slain men with their horses came the stink of the camp. The very stench was a reward for their sins. Even in the face of death, have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.

Progressively moving toward greater chastisements, the Lord now refers to the overthrow of Israel even as Sodom and Gomorrah (11), which He had destroyed by fire in the days of Lot (Genesis 19). Living Prophecies renders the first part of 11, “I destroyed some of your cities, as I did Sodom and Gomorrah.” “The verb haphakh, ‘overthrow,’ is also used in the destruction wrought by an invader (cf. 2 Sam. 10:13), and Marti … may be right in his contention that the text refers to the critical situation … in the time of Jehoahaz (2 Kings 13:7)”⁹ when Israel indeed was as a firebrand plucked out of the burning.

After a recital of all the punishment that Israel had suffered because of her transgressions, the Lord repeats His determination to chasten the nation with judgment in the absence of national and personal repentance. Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel (12).

3. The Doxology (4:13)

The doxology that follows is different in form from the oracles which precede it. God, in the glory of His majesty, is depicted in contrast to that which was created. It is the God of hosts (13) who formed the mountains and created the wind. The word createth (bara) suggests the sovereign power of God totally beyond creative power in man. He declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth. All of this is a description of God's sovereignty, a revelation of the God of hosts.

Amos in chapter 4 beautifully describes the integrity of God: (1) He hath sworn by His holiness, 2; (2) He hath warned His people, 12; (3) He hath identified His name, 13.

4. The End of a Nation (5:1-3)

Verses 1-3 are an elegy over the fall of Israel. The lamentation mentioned in v. 1 is found in v. 2. Israel is spoken of as a virgin who is fallen (2). The expression she shall no more rise implies death from which there is no redemption. There is an inexorable finality to the prophet's words. For Amos, this was no dramatization. His heart was torn with the vision of his nation prostrate before him as in death. The pronouncement is the more real when one remembers that Amos prophesied at the height of Israel's prosperity. No wonder he and his words were rejected as nonsense. Verse 3 interprets and emphasizes v. 2. Israel is to perish in war. “For the Lord God says, ‘The city that sends a thousand men to battle, a hundred will return. The city that sends a hundred, only ten will come back alive’” (Living Prophecies).

D. EXHORTATION AND CONDEMNATION, 5:4-15

1. True Religion (5:4-6)

For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live (4). The exhortation expresses clearly the central element of Amos' teaching. He identifies true religion with righteousness (keeping the moral law). When the people seek Jehovah they are seeking the good. “When a religion busies itself with rites and ceremonies, with signs and omens, it is of slight value to the world. Indeed, it usually acts as a bar to progress. It is guided by no rational principle, and so tends to sanctify the inconsistent, absurd, and often harmful usages and beliefs of the past. But when religion is identified with the moral nature, all this is changed.”¹⁰

It was absolutely necessary that Amos set down the moral dictum that the only way to seek Jehovah was to seek the good, rather than the evil which was represented by the shrines at Gilgal, Beth-el, and Beer-sheba (5).

Fosbroke points out that an effective play on two distinct meanings of the verb seek, darash, is used in 4-5. In early times it was used in regard to the seeking of the will of a god through a seer or prophet. Later the word came to be used of turning Godward and of “longing for God himself rather than something he could bestow (Deut. 4:29).”¹¹

The word live (6) also means more than the prolongation of existence. “It speaks rather of the life lived richly in the right relationship to God as in the familiar passage, ‘Man does not live by bread alone ’ (Deut. 8:3).”¹²

In some degree the concept of personal responsibility had been apprehended centuries before. But Amos seems to have been “the first to differentiate it from popular religion, and to make it the one fundamental principle of all true religion. He thus stands out in history as the great prophet of moral law.”.¹³

The KJV rendering of 5-6 scarcely gives the rude force of the text. And Beth-el shall come to nought (5) is originally, “And Bethel becomes Beih-aven.” Avert (idolatry) also means wickedness. George Adam Smith suggests “that we should not exaggerate the antithesis if we employed a phrase which once was not vulgar: and Bethel, house of God, shall go to the Devil.”¹⁴

In 6, Jehovah once again identifies His energy as like fire which shall consume the house of Joseph and purge His land from the unrighteousness of Beth-el (Beth-aven, house of idolatry).

2. Sins of the Wealthy, and a Second Doxology (5:7-13)

Amos is fond of participial construction (cf. 2:7; 4:13). He therefore offers the thoughts of 7-8 without close logical connection. Wormwood (7; haanah), a bitter plant, is a symbolic term suggesting “bitter wrong” (cf. 6:12). Leave off righteousness in the earth suggests the trampling under feet of the goodness required by Jehovah. Verse 7 is to be linked with 10-13, the doxology of 8-9 representing an interpolation which identifies the Lord who can bring destruction on those who leave off righteousness (7).

The doxology identifies the name of Him who is responsible for the mystery of created nature. “He made the stars also” (Gen. 1:16) was familiar to Amos. This declaration of God's creation of the stars was probably a reaction to Assyrian star-worship. The whole verse points to the rule of Jehovah over the earth. The allusion to the Flood—that calleth for the waters (8)—suggests the terrible power of judgment which no man can defy. The Lord is his name is again a call to recognize God as God, and turn to Jehovah, the God of all peoples. Verse 9 has been made clearer by Smith-Goodspeed: “The Lord is his name—He who causes ruin to burst forth upon the strong, and brings destruction upon the fortress.”

The prophet's condemnation of social injustice as practiced by the wealthy is detailed in 10-13. It opens with an introductory statement of the people's attitude toward anyone who lifted his voice in protest in the gate (10; the gate was the lawcourt of the city). Him that rebuketh should not be limited to the prophet, but would include any voice that is lifted against evil.

Verses 11-13 point to the punishment for unjust oppression. The very possessions that came as a result of the oppression shall be useless. The oppressors shall not dwell (11) in houses built of hewn stone (in striking contrast to the houses of the poor, built of wood and stubble). They shall not drink of the wine of pleasant vineyards. God knows those who afflict the just (12), take a bribe, and ignore the poor in their right of justice in the courts.

The mood of 13 is one of resignation. Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time. The prudent(hammaskil) man is one who keeps his silence, not because one should not speak, but only because warnings seemed to have been of no avail before. The judgments of God were coming upon a people who seemed impervious to counsel.

3. The Penitent Spirit (5:14-15)

Israel seemed incorrigible, and swift judgment was about to overtake her. Nevertheless a sincere repentance will follow for the remnant of Joseph (15) The prophecy of doom continues in 16-17, indicating that Amos seems to think the appeal in vain. Yet the Lord's integrity will not allow Him to proceed to judgment and destruction without an oft recurring plea. Hence the prophet pleads: Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live (see comments on 4-6): and so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken (14).

Amos addresses the remnant (15), the fragment left of a nation after a desolating catastrophe. He points out once again the only possible manner in which they can escape judgment: Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate. Amos does not designate a promise, but a possibility: it may be. Northern Israel was reduced to a remnant in 734-31 B.C. when Tiglath-pileser (see Chart A) left only Ephraim after sweeping Gilead and Galilee into exile. Smith observes that it is rash to deny to Amos “so natural a mitigation of the doom he was forced to pass on a people which had so many good elements in it that it shortly produced a prophet like Hosea.”¹⁵

“The Secrets of Spiritual Life” are suggested in chapter 5 as: (1) Discover the good, 14b; (2) Hate the evil, 15a; (3) Be consistently honest, 15c; (4) Trust the Lord, 15d.

E. THE APPEARANCE OF JEHOVAH, 5:16-25

1. Lamentation (5:16-17)

These two verses picture the wailing (16; lamentation) of the people over the dead in the time of judgment. Alas! alas! indicates the death wail (cf. Jer. 22:18). While the mourning will take place in the towns, the husbandman (farmer) shall be called into the towns to weep for the deceased of his own house. The skilful (professional mourners) shall also be hired to wail for the dead (cf. Jer. 9:17-18; Matt. 9:23). Even the vineyards (17), usually scenes of rejoicing, shall be places of wailing. Amos has borrowed from Exod. 12:12 in quoting, “I will pass through the midst of you” (RSV). As the Lord passed through Egypt to take the firstborn, so now He will pass through Israel and destroy the ungodly. Israel, the covenant nation, has become Egypt, the pagan nation.

2. Darkness (5:18-20)

The threat begins with woe (hoi) to those who have represented their “election” as insuring deliverance in spite of their sins. Amos shared the expectation of the day of the Lord (18). However he knew that it was not a day of privilege for Israel. It could be only a day … of darkness (judgment) to a people who had broken their covenant with Jehovah. The truth is enforced by the picturesque description of a man fleeing from a lion (19), but meeting a bear; or another leaning against an unmortared wall and being bitten by a poisonous serpent. Whoever should escape one danger would only fall into another. For men who know not God, there is danger in all places on the day of the Lord (18).

Amos reemphasizes the judgment in v. 20. Shall (nonne) equals “assuredly.” Living Prophecies renders the verse: “Yes, that will be a dark and hopeless day for you.”

3. Repudiation of Feast and Ceremony (5:21-25)

Instead of speaking about the Lord, Amos now represents the Lord as speaking: I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell (“take delight,” RSV) in your solemn ceremonial) assemblies (21). Since the covenant is broken, the Lord takes no pleasure in their religious ceremonies. “Their outward, heartless worship, does not make them into the people of God, who can count upon his grace.”¹⁶

Verses 22-24 reiterate in Hebrew style the thought of 21. In cutting off the virtue of feasts and sacrifices¹⁷, the foundation of “false reliance” was swept away. I will not hear (23) brings to a finality the rejection of the cultus.¹⁸

“But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an overflowing stream” (24, RSV). Because the Lord will not accept hypocritical worship, judgment shall run like a mighty flood over the land (cf. Isa. 28:2). As Keil observes, mishpat is not the judgment practiced by man, but God.¹⁹

Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness (these) forty years, O house of Israel? (25) is equivalent to denial. Ye have not! Apostasy had continued over the forty years in the wilderness even though they outwardly carried on a portion of their ritual sacrifices and offerings.²⁰

F. INVASION AND EXILE, 5:26—6:14

1. The Self-deceit of Idol Worship (5:26-27)

Verse 26 is attached to 25 by way of contrast. “While you were faithless in your sacrifices,” ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images (26). Although the verse is difficult, the intent is apparent. The Assyrian deities were made by the hand of man; they were helpless before the Lord, whose name is The God of hosts (27). The RSV translates v. 26: “You shall take up Sakkuth your king, and Kaiwan your star-god, your images, which you made for yourselves.” Because of this gross apostasy, the nation will be taken beyond Damascus, a banishment already prophesied in v. 24.

2. The Self-sufficiency of Israel's Leaders (6:1-7)

The evil engendered by formal worship was the false confidence it gave to the people concerning their covenant relation to Jehovah. In chapter 6, “we are taken from the worship of the people to the banquets of the rich, but again in order to have their security and extravagance contrasted with the pestilence, war and exile that are rapidly approaching. The ease which is condemned means a proud overweening ease.”²¹ Those revelling in wealth “were completely indifferent to the ruin threatening the people.”²²

Verses 1-6 demonstrate the “flaunting flamboyant luxury of the rich” and the “bacchanalian orgies of debauched men and women who forgot the simple pieties and elementary decencies of life.”²³ These were the leaders in Israel, called chief of the nations (1).

Verse 2 seems to be an interpolation pointing out that Israel (1) is no better than Calneh of northern Syria, Hamath the great on the Orontes in Syria, and the important city of Gath in Philistia, all of which fell to Assyria (see map 2).

After the warning of v. 2 the description is continued of those that are at ease in Zion (Jerusalem). They have their winter and summer houses (3:15), and lie upon beds of ivory (4) from Damascus. They devour the lambs out of the flock, and sing idle songs to the sound of the viol (5).²⁴ These self- indulgent leaders drink wine (6) irreverently from ceremonial bowls (or by the bowlful) and anoint themselves with “ the finest of oils” (RSV) as a sign of gladness. As leaders, they should have been concerned over the symptoms of the moral sickness of their nation, but they are not grieved for the affliction (ruin) of Joseph.

The conclusion to the description is found in v. 7, which prophesies that the nobility of the land shall find themselves the first that go captive. They shall head the procession of captives and “the shout of the revelers shall pass away” (Smith-Good-speed). The government shall come to an end.²⁵ Amos said this about 760 B.C., when Jeroboam II reigned over a prosperous people. Less than forty years later northern Israel was conquered by Assyria and all but the poor were exiled.

Sellin lists five forms of Israel's sin as denounced by Amos: (1) The exploitation of the poor and oppression of the needy, 2:6; 3:10; 4:1; 5:11; 8:4-6; (2) The lack of justice and the partiality of the judges, 5:7-12; (3) The flaunted luxury of the rich in the face of imminent disaster, 6:1-6; (4) The substitution of mechanical and magical relations for the personal relations with Jehovah, 4:4; 5:5; 6:3; 8:14; (5) The arrogance that dares to flaunt itself in the face of promised judgment, 4:2; 9:7.²⁶

3. The Horrors of Siege (6:8-11)

As in 4:2, Amos introduces 6:8 with The Lord God hath sworn by himself (nephesh), i.e., His innermost being or His holiness. He will deliver up the city because of the “pride of Jacob” (RSV). In this pride the nation had depended upon its own self-sufficiency rather than upon God.

The horror of siege is realistically detailed. No one shall escape death even if there remain only ten men in one house (9). The Israelites buried their dead, but in a time of plague they would sanction burning the bodies. Verse 10 pictures such a time of devastation, and a great terror of Jehovah's further judgment. “A man's uncle will be the only one left to bury him, and when he goes in to carry his body from the house, he will ask the only one still alive inside, 'Are any others left?' And the answer will be, ‘No,’ and he will add, ‘shhh … don't mention the Name of the Lord—He might hear you’” (Living Prophecies).

4. The End of Israel (6:12-14)

Examples of impossibilities in v. 12 highlight the certainty of Israel's fate. Can horses run upon rocks? (12) “Does one plow the sea with oxen”? (RSV) Israel had turned justice into gall (bitterness) and goodness into hemlock (poison).

Amos follows with a play upon the names of Lodebar (a thing of nought, 13) and Karnaim ( horns). A thing of nought is in the Hebrew lo dhabhar, the consonants of which are the same as those of Lodebar, a town east of the Jordan. Karnaim, which the KJV translates horns, is also a town in the same region. They were taken by Jeroboam II in his successful campaigns to the east. The two are relatively insignificant—thus the play on their names.²⁷ Moffatt renders the verse: “You are so proud of Lo Debar, you think you captured Karnaim by your own strength.”

The final word of judgment returns to the thought of v. 11 The nation that the Lord shall raise up against Israel (14) will afflict (oppress) them from the entering in of Hemath (the pass between the Lebanon Mountains in the north) to “the brook Arabah” (RSV), the southern limit of Israel near the Dead Sea.

An intriguing list of the “woes” of Amos is found in chapter 6: (1) Woe to those who depend on ritual rather than on faith and obedience, 1; (2) Woe to those who really do not obey God's word, 3; (3) Woe to those who enjoy their riches, but are not concerned with national and personal transgression, 4-6; (4) Woe to those who transform the fruit of righteousness into the gall of bitterness, 12.