Bible Commentaries

Israel's Sins and Ingratitude

6-8. Israel is now threatened in the same form as the rest, but Amos 2:6-16 were not spoken by Amos at Bethel; they form the conclusion of the preface which he wrote after his return home.

6. The unrighteous judges condemn the innocent for the sake of a bribe. A pair of shoes would have been too paltry a present, but for the fact that the shoe was a symbol of property (Ruth 4:7; Psalms 60:10). To hand over the shoes was equivalent to our delivery of title-deeds.

7. They begrudge the very dust, a sign of mourning, which a poor man has sprinkled on his head: they hinder the man who is in a lowly position from attaining his modest purpose. To profane.. name] The religion of many of the nations of antiquity sanctioned unchastity and even adopted it as part of the worship of the gods, but if Jehovah's worshippers are morally unclean they pollute His Holy Name.

8. The poor in the East sleep in their day-clothes. Garments taken in pledge should therefore be restored ere nightfall (Exodus 22:25; Deuteronomy 24:12); but these creditors, undeterred by their supposed nearness to their god, treat the needy man's clothes as if they belonged to themselves. Possibly, however, Amos wrote, 'And they stretch out beside every altar clothes taken in pledge,' meaning that they hung them up as a votive offering in honour of their god.

They drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god] that is to say, at their sacrificial banquets they drank wine obtained by unjust fines, and whilst they imagined themselves to be worshipping the God of Israel He disclaimed them: they were really worshipping an idol of their own imagination.

9-16. The ingratitude thus evinced and the judgment which it provokes.

9. We may exhibit the emphasis designed by Amos by rendering thus: 'Yet it was I who destroyed.. and it was I who brought you up,' etc. The Amorite here is a name for all the earlier inhabitants of the Holy Land. Instead of fruit from above, etc., we say 'root and branch.' But the Canaanites were not utterly extirpated (Joshua 13:13; Joshua 16:10; Judges 1:19-36; 2 Samuel 5:7).

11. The accounts we have of Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, and the 'schools of the prophets,' show that prophets, declaring God's will by word of mouth, had been more numerous in the northern than in the southern kingdom. The 'Nazirites' (RV) showed their obedience to His will by self-control, austerities, renunciations of pleasant things (Numbers 6). God's most precious gift to His people consisted in true men, and, above all, in inspired prophets.

12. It was exceedingly base to tempt the Nazirite to break his vow. For the silencing of the prophets see 1 Kings 1:22; Isaiah 30:10-11; Micah 2:6, Micah 2:11.

13. The v. may be understood in two ways. First, as in AV, which represents Israel as a burden on God (Isaiah 1:14; Isaiah 7:13 etc.). Secondly, and better, as in RV, 'Behold, I will press you in your place, as a cart presseth that is full of sheaves.' As the ground reels under the loaded wagon so shall they under God's heavy hand (Psalms 32:4; Job 33:2).

16. The stress lies on the word naked. In headlong flight the long, outer garment would be cast away as a hindrance.

Here, and at Amos 3:13, Amos 3:15; Amos 4:3, Amos 4:5-6, Amos 4:8-9, Amos 4:10-11; Amos 6:8; Amos 8:11; Amos 9:7-8, Amos 9:12-13, the expression rendered saith the Lord is a kind of exclamation, thrown in parenthetically to call attention to the gravity of what is said. Utterance of Jehovah! the prophet cries.