Albert Barnes Commentary Amos 6:3

"-ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near;" — Amos 6:3 (ASV)

You that put far away - Probably “with aversion.” They bid that day, as it were, be gone. The Hebrew idiom expresses how they would put it off if they could; as far as it was in their power, they “assigned a distance to it,” although they could not remove the day itself. The “evil day” is that same “day of the Lord,” which the scoffers or misbelievers professed to long for (Amos 5:18).

The thought that the Lord has a day in which to judge humanity frets or frightens the irreligious, and they use different ways to get rid of it. The strong harden themselves against it, distort the belief in it, or disbelieve it. The weak and voluptuous shut their eyes to it, like the bird in the fable, as if what they dread would cease to be there because they cease to see it.

And cause the seat - (literally, the session, sitting) of violence to come near. They dismissed the thought of the Day of account so that they could sin with less fear. They put away from themselves the judgment of God so that they could exercise violence over His creatures. People do not put away the thought of God except to invite His enemy into their souls.

But in doing so, they “brought near” another “seat of violence”—not one of their own exercising, but one to be inflicted upon them. They brought near what they wished to put away: the day in which, through the violence of the Assyrians, God would avenge their own.

Rib.: “Let them consider this, who set no bounds to their sins. For the more they obey their own will, the more they hasten to destruction; and while they think they draw near to pleasures, they draw near to everlasting woes.”