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For behold, the Lord gives a command: He will break the great house into bits, And the little house into pieces.
Amos 6:11 · New King James Version
Parallel translations
  • WEB “For, behold, Yahweh commands, and the great house will be smashed to pieces, and the little house into bits.
  • KJV For, behold, the LORD commandeth, and he will smite the great house with breaches, and the little house with clefts.
  • BSB For the LORD gives a command: “The great house will be smashed to pieces, and the small house to rubble.”
  • NASB For behold, the Lord is going to command that the great house be smashed to pieces, and the small house to rubble.
  • NLT When the Lord gives the command, homes both great and small will be smashed to pieces.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

At God's command, both great and small houses will be shattered to pieces. No household, rich or poor, escapes the coming ruin.

Overview

The destruction reaches every level of society, from grand mansions to humble dwellings, because the judgment is comprehensive. God's mere command is enough to bring it about, showing his absolute authority. This universal reach of judgment underscores that all stand accountable to God and all alike need the salvation offered in Christ.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 19

  • Amos 3:15I will strike the winter house with the summer house; and the houses of ivory will perish, and the great houses will have an end,” says Yahweh.
  • Isa 55:11so is my word that goes out of my mouth: it will not return to me void, but it will accomplish that which I please, and it will prosper in the thing I sent it to do.
  • 2 Kgs 25:9He burned Yahweh’s house, the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house, he burned with fire.
  • Amos 9:9“For, behold, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all the nations, as grain is sifted in a sieve, yet not the least kernel will fall on the earth.
  • Amos 6:8“The Lord Yahweh has sworn by himself,” says Yahweh, 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.
  • Nah 1:14Yahweh has commanded concerning you: “No more descendants will bear your name. Out of the house of your gods, will I cut off the engraved image and the molten image. I will make your grave, for you are vile.”
  • Zech 14:2For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city will be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. Half of the city will go out into captivity, and the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city.
  • Luke 19:44and will dash you and your children within you to the ground. They will not leave in you one stone on another, because you didn’t know the time of your visitation.”
  • Isa 10:5–6Alas Assyrian, the rod of my anger, the staff in whose hand is my indignation!
  • Isa 13:3I have commanded my consecrated ones; yes, I have called my mighty men for my anger, even my proudly exulting ones.
  • Amos 9:1I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said, “Strike the tops of the pillars, that the thresholds may shake; and break them in pieces on the head of all of them; and I will kill the last of them with the sword: there shall not one of them flee away, and there shall not one of them escape.
  • Hos 13:16Samaria will bear her guilt; for she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women will be ripped open.”
  • Ezek 29:18–20Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon caused his army to serve a great service against Tyre: every head was made bald, and every shoulder was worn; yet had he no wages, nor his army, from Tyre, for the service that he had served against it.
  • Ps 105:16He called for a famine on the land. He destroyed the food supplies.
  • Ps 105:34He spoke, and the locusts came, and the grasshoppers, without number,
  • Isa 46:10–11I declare the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done. I say: My counsel will stand, and I will do all that I please.
  • Eccl 10:18By slothfulness the roof sinks in; and through idleness of the hands the house leaks.
  • Ps 105:31He spoke, and swarms of flies came, and lice in all their borders.
  • Amos 3:6–7Does the trumpet alarm sound in a city, without the people being afraid? Does evil happen to a city, and Yahweh hasn’t done it?

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Amos videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Amos 6:11YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on AmosMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

Amid judgment on injustice, Amos promises the raising up of David's fallen tent — read by James in Acts 15 as the ingathering of the nations into the kingdom of the risen Christ.

How Amos 6:11 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.