Amos 9:4
And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them: and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good. And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them: and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good.
Amos 9:4 belongs to a message against idolatry and depravity directed to the northern kingdom, delivered at Bethel and Samaria by the herdsman and fruit gardener of Tekoa during the reign of Jeroboam II just after his great successes. It was spoken to a prosperous society where the rich lived in luxury built on violence and robbery, the poor were sold and cheated, judges were corrupt, and uprightness was hated. The verse teaches that privilege implies responsibility, that justice between people is a divine foundation of society, and that nations must live up to the light and knowledge granted to them, with failure surely bringing punishment.
Elaborate worship insults God when will and conduct do not conform to His requirements. Going into captivity before their enemies does not shield the wicked from judgment, for the sword will still reach them there by divine command, and God setting His eyes upon them means His attention brings harm rather than good. This judgment belongs to last-day conditions in which those who have rejected God's word face calamity and cannot find it, while God saves His people and restores David's fallen tabernacle.