You improvise songs on the harp like David and invent your own musical instruments.
Parallel translations
- WEB who strum on the strings of a harp; who invent for themselves instruments of music, like David;
- KJV That chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of musick, like David;
- NKJV Who sing idly to the sound of stringed instruments, And invent for yourselves musical instruments like David;
- NASB Who improvise to the sound of the harp, And like David have composed songs for themselves,
- NLT You sing trivial songs to the sound of the harp and fancy yourselves to be great musicians like David.
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
They idly improvise music on harps, fancying themselves like David, while their world unravels. They misuse the gifts of celebration for empty self-pleasure.
Overview
By comparing themselves to David, they cloak their indulgence in a veneer of devotion, yet David's music served God whereas theirs serves only their leisure. Their artistry is divorced from worship and from concern for the people's plight. The verse warns against using God-given talents merely for self-gratification rather than for his glory.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Isa 5:12At their feasts are the lyre and harp, tambourines and flutes and wine. They disregard the actions of the LORD and fail to see the work of His hands.
- Amos 5:23Take away from Me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.
- Amos 8:3“In that day,” declares the Lord GOD, “the songs of the temple will turn to wailing. Many will be the corpses, strewn in silence everywhere!”
- Gen 31:27Why did you run away secretly and deceive me, without even telling me? I would have sent you away with joy and singing, with tambourines and harps.
- 1 Chr 15:16David also told the leaders of the Levites to appoint their relatives as singers to lift up their voices with joy, accompanied by musical instruments—harps, lyres, and cymbals.
- Eccl 2:8and I accumulated for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I gathered to myself male and female singers, and the delights of the sons of men—many concubines.
- 1 Pet 4:3For you have spent enough time in the past carrying out the same desires as the Gentiles: living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and detestable idolatry.
- Job 21:11–12They send forth their little ones like a flock; their children skip about,
- 1 Chr 23:54,000 are to be gatekeepers, and 4,000 are to praise the LORD with the instruments I have made for giving praise.”
- Rev 18:22And the sound of harpists and musicians, of flute players and trumpeters, will never ring out in you again. Nor will any craftsmen of any trade be found in you again, nor the sound of a millstone be heard in you again.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 6:5 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
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