Charles Ellicott Commentary Amos 6:9-10

"And it shall come to pass, if there remain ten men in one house, that they shall die. And when a man`s uncle shall take him up, even he that burneth him, to bring out the bones out of the house, and shall say unto him that is in the innermost parts of the house, Is there yet any with thee? and he shall say, No; then shall he say, Hold thy peace; for we may not make mention of the name of Jehovah." — Amos 6:9-10 (ASV)

Ten ... uncle.—In some large house, it might be that ten are left, but even these are devoured by the pestilence that hovers in the track of war. Nine have fallen victims. Fathers and brothers are all gone, and the uncle comes in as the funereal burner to carry out the corpse to the pyre and finds, in the innermost parts of the house, the tenth victim of the fell disease still alive.

A hurried word or two passes between them: “Is there still another with you?” The answer comes, “Not one.” Then he will say, “Hush!” The lonely sufferer begins to curse the Lord for His judgments, or he may begin to call upon the Name of the Lord when it is too late—when, as a finishing touch of darkest gloom and despair, he is interrupted by a warning not to stir up Jehovah’s wrath in this day of His visitation by even mentioning His name. This passage and one other (1 Samuel 31:12) imply that under special circumstances the Hebrews burned their dead. In this case, pestilence made cremation a necessity. The references in 2 Chronicles 16:14, 2 Chronicles 21:19, and Jeremiah 34:5 are to the honorific burning of spices in memory of the dead.