Amos 6 is a sharp prophetic warning to people who feel safe, prosperous and comfortable while ignoring the suffering around them. This page gives you questions and answers for a whole chapter study, so a small group leader, Sunday school teacher or someone studying alone can move through the text without preparing a separate summary. The questions work for a 45-minute class or a longer personal reflection.
Amos 6 at a Glance
The chapter opens with a woe pronounced on the leaders of Zion and Samaria, people who think they are secure and above danger. Amos asks them to look at other kingdoms and consider whether they are really stronger than Israel. He then describes their luxury: ivory beds, rich food, music and expensive oils, all while the nation of Joseph is in distress. The second half turns to judgment, with the city and its households brought low and a nation raised up against them.
Read the chapter as a movement from false confidence to honest accounting. The people are not condemned simply for enjoying good things, but for a comfortable indifference to justice and to the grief of others.
Observation Questions
Use these first to make sure everyone has read the text carefully and agrees on what it actually says. Let people answer from the passage before anyone offers interpretation. Keep the pace brisk so the group stays with the words on the page.
Amos 6:1
Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who are secure on the mountain of Samaria, the notable men of the chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel come!
(WEB)
This opening woe sets the tone for the whole chapter and names the people being addressed. Reading it aloud early lets the group hear Amos’s direct address to those who feel secure.
Amos 6:4-6
4 Who lie on beds of ivory, and stretch themselves on their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the middle of the stall; 5 who strum on the strings of a harp; who invent for themselves instruments of music, like David; 6 who drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the best oils; but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.
(WEB)
This passage lists the luxuries in detail and ends with the grief that is missing. Reading it slowly helps the group hear the contrast that drives the chapter.
Amos 6:8
“The Lord the LORD has sworn by himself,” says the LORD, the God of Armies: “I abhor the pride of Jacob, and detest his fortresses. Therefore I will deliver up the city with all that is in it.
(WEB)
The LORD’s oath and his rejection of pride form the theological center of the judgment. Read it aloud so the group can weigh the seriousness of God’s words.
Amos 6:12
Do horses run on the rocky crags? Does one plow there with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness…
(WEB)
The rhetorical question and the charge about justice make this one of the sharpest verses in the chapter. Reading it gives space to discuss the link between justice and righteousness.
Amos 6:13-14
13 You who rejoice in a thing of nothing, who say, ‘Haven’t we taken for ourselves horns by our own strength?’ 14 For, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, house of Israel,” says the LORD, the God of Armies; “and they will afflict you from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of the Arabah.”
(WEB)
The people’s boast and the closing announcement of a coming nation bring the chapter to its conclusion. Reading these verses together helps the group see the full movement from pride to exposure.
Memory Verse for Amos 6
A Closing Prayer for the Group
Father, we come before you aware that comfort can make us forget those who suffer. Search our hearts where we feel secure, and show us where we have grown numb to injustice in our homes, our work and our community. Give us honest eyes to see the grief around us and the courage to respond with mercy and fairness. Turn our trust away from our own strength and toward you alone. Help us act on what we have learned today, not only to talk about it, and keep us faithful in the small choices that shape our lives. Amen.
