Amos 6:7

"Therefore shall they now go captive with the first that go captive; and the revelry of them that stretched themselves shall pass away."

Motyer's summary of the balance of this chapter is thus:

"The fact of pride (Amos 6:8), its moral indifference (Amos 6:12), and its self-centeredness (Amos 6:13) are brought before us; but now we see the divine reaction to them. Amos 6:1-7 tell us in so many words that pride goes before a fall; Amos 6:8-14 tell us why this is. The divine reactions are hatred (Amos 6:8), alienation (Amos 6:9,10), and enmity (Amos 6:11-14)."[26]

"Go captive with the first that go captive ..." Here is a glimpse of eternal justice. These gross sinners who were hailed as the "first" among the "first" of nations, and used up the "first" fruits (or oils) for their own pampering instead of giving them to God, as was their duty, shall now be "first" to go into captivity! Keil added this: "You that are first in riches will be the first to bear the yoke of captivity"[27]

However, they do Amos an injustice who suppose that he was opposed to the rich merely because of their riches. "His message is, by no manner of means, `Down with the aristocracy!'; but `Return unto God' (Amos 4:6), `Seek good and not evil!'"[28] As Amos 6:1-6 sternly reveal, the thing that was wrong with the leaders of Israel was that they had lost all regard for their status as a God-rescued, God-redeemed, and God-chosen community and had corrupted his worship, prostrated themselves before idols, desecrated his sacred vessels, introduced pagan mechanical instruments into his worship "like David," and had violated with impunity the sacred ordinances of the Pentateuchal covenant, except in those cases where the observance of them was in some manner pleasing to themselves!