Discovery BoxAmos 6:4 
Context6:4 They lie around on beds decorated with ivory, 1
and sprawl out on their couches.
They eat lambs from the flock,
and calves from the middle of the pen.
Amos 6:7
Context6:7 Therefore they will now be the first to go into exile, 2
and the religious banquets 3 where they sprawl on couches 4 will end.
1 tn Heb “beds of ivory.”
2 tn Heb “they will go into exile at the head of the exiles.”
3 sn Religious banquets. This refers to the מַרְזֵחַ (marzeakh), a type of pagan religious banquet popular among the upper class of Israel at this time and apparently associated with mourning. See P. King, Amos, Hosea, Micah, 137-61; J. L. McLaughlin, The “Marzeah” in the Prophetic Literature (VTSup). Scholars debate whether at this banquet the dead were simply remembered or actually venerated in a formal, cultic sense.
