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2. Judgment on Israel

¹ This is what the LORD says:

   “For three sins of Moab,
   even for four, I will not relent.
Because he burned to ashes
   the bones of Edom’s king,
² I will send fire on Moab
   that will consume the fortresses of Kerioth. Or of her cities
Moab will go down in great tumult
   amid war cries and the blast of the trumpet.
³ I will destroy her ruler
   and kill all her officials with him,” says the LORD.

⁴ This is what the LORD says:

   “For three sins of Judah,
   even for four, I will not relent.
Because they have rejected the law of the LORD
   and have not kept his decrees,
because they have been led astray by false gods, Or by lies
   the gods Or lies their ancestors followed,
⁵ I will send fire on Judah
   that will consume the fortresses of Jerusalem.”

Judgment on Israel

⁶ This is what the LORD says:

   “For three sins of Israel,
   even for four, I will not relent.
They sell the innocent for silver,
   and the needy for a pair of sandals.
⁷ They trample on the heads of the poor
   as on the dust of the ground
   and deny justice to the oppressed.
Father and son use the same girl
   and so profane my holy name.
⁸ They lie down beside every altar
   on garments taken in pledge.
In the house of their god
   they drink wine taken as fines.

    ⁹ “Yet I destroyed the Amorites before them,
   though they were tall as the cedars
   and strong as the oaks.
I destroyed their fruit above
   and their roots below.
¹⁰ I brought you up out of Egypt
   and led you forty years in the wilderness
   to give you the land of the Amorites.

    ¹¹ “I also raised up prophets from among your children
   and Nazirites from among your youths.
Is this not true, people of Israel?” declares the LORD.
¹² “But you made the Nazirites drink wine
   and commanded the prophets not to prophesy.

    ¹³ “Now then, I will crush you
   as a cart crushes when loaded with grain.
¹⁴ The swift will not escape,
   the strong will not muster their strength,
   and the warrior will not save his life.
¹⁵ The archer will not stand his ground,
   the fleet-footed soldier will not get away,
   and the horseman will not save his life.
¹⁶ Even the bravest warriors
   will flee naked on that day,” declares the LORD.

Here Amos charges them first with insatiable avarice; they panted for the heads of the poor on the dust of the earth. This place is in my judgment not well understood. שאף, shaph, means to pant and to breathe, and is taken often metaphorically as signifying to desire: hence some render the words, “They desire the heads of the poor to be in the dust of the earth;” that is, they are anxious to see the innocent cast down and prostrate on the ground. But there is no need of many words to refute this comment; for ye see that it is strained. Others say, that in their cupidity they cast down the miserable into the dust; they therefore think that a depraved cupidity is connected with violence, and they put the lust for the deed itself.

But what need there is of having recourse to these extraneous meanings, when the words of the Prophet are in themselves plain and clear enough? He says that they panted for the heads of the poor on the ground; as though he had said, that they were not content with casting down the miserable, but that they gaped anxiously, until they wholly destroyed them. There is then nothing to be changed or added in the Prophet’s words, which harmonize well together, and mean, that through cupidity they panted for the heads of the poor, after the poor had been cast down, and were laid prostrate in the dust. The very misery of the poor, whom they saw to be in their power, and lying at their feet, ought to have satisfied them: but when such an insatiable cupidity still inflamed them, that they panted for more punishment on the poor and the miserable, was it not a fury wholly outrageous? We now perceive the Prophet’s meaning: He points out again what he has said in the former verse, — that the Israelites were given to rapacity, avarice, and cruelty of every kind.

He adds at last, and the way of the miserable they pervert. He still inveighs against the judges; for it can hardly comport with what belongs to private individuals, but it properly appertains to judges to pervert justice, and to violate equity for bribery; so that he who had the best cause became the loser, because he brought no bribe sufficiently ample. We now see what was the accusation he alleged against the Israelites. But there follows another charge, that of indulgence in lusts.