‘You have lived delicately on the earth, and been wanton,

You have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter.'

The rich had already received their consolation (Luke 6:24). They have enjoyed ‘soft luxury'. They have lived in extravagance and wantonly enjoyed many pleasures of overindulgence (compare James 4:1). We can compare the rich man in Luke 16:19 who ‘was clothed in purple and fine linen and feasted sumptuously every day' (and see Amos 6:1). Even at a time when many were dying around them, either as a result of the famine or as a result of violence, or even partly because they had not received their wages, the hearts of the rich continued to be nourished, and they fattened themselves up. In other words with death all around them, they have continued with their luxuries unconcerned. Alternately ‘in a day of slaughter' may signify Judgment day so that we would then translate ‘in the face of the Day of Slaughter' (compare Isaiah 34:6; Ezekiel 21:15).

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