Amos 6:8

"The Lord Jehovah hath sworn by himself, saith Jehovah, the God of hosts: I abhor the excellency of Jacob, and hate his palaces; therefore will I deliver up the city with all that is therein."

"Jehovah hath sworn by himself ..." It may not be allowed that God's oath is any more binding, or more true, than his word; but, inasmuch as the opposite is true among men, the Holy Spirit here, wishing to emphasize the dependability and certainty of God's Words, uses this anthropomorphic accommodation to the prejudices of men in order to achieve that purpose.

"I abhor the excellency of Jacob ..." This expression shows that Amos never has Judah very far out of mind; for Jacob was the ancestor of Judah, as well as of Israel. Writers who try to make out that these various references to Judah, Jacob, and the whole house of Israel which came up out of Egypt, etc. are added to the prophecy by later writers are totally wrong. Despite the principal burden of Amos' commission having been to cry out against the Northern Kingdom, unless he had kept before them continually the reminder that God was also displeased with similar sins in Judah, he would have lost his effectiveness through the appearance that he was merely crying out against the sins of his neighbor, and not against the sins of his own nation.