Judgment on Judah
“For three transgressions of aJudah, and for four,
I will not turn away its punishment,
bBecause they have despised the law of the Lord,
And have not kept His commandments.
cTheir lies lead them astray,
Lies dwhich their fathers followed.
And it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.”
Judgment on Israel
“For three transgressions of aIsrael, and for four,
I will not turn away its punishment,
Because bthey sell the righteous for silver,
And the cpoor for a pair of sandals.
And apervert the way of the humble.
bA man and his father go in to the same girl,
cTo defile My holy name.
And drink the wine of1 the condemned in the house of their god.
Whose height was like the bheight of the cedars,
And he was as strong as the oaks;
Yet I cdestroyed his fruit above
And his roots beneath.
And bled you forty years through the wilderness,
To possess the land of the Amorite.
| << Amos 2:5 | Amos 2:7 >> |
Amos 2:6-8
For three transgressions of Israel, etc. - To be satisfied of the exceeding delinquency of this people, we have only to open the historical and prophetic books in any part; for the whole history of the Israelites is one tissue of transgression against God. Their crimes are enumerated under the following heads: -
1.Their judges were mercenary and corrupt. They took bribes to condemn the righteous; and even for articles of clothing, such as a pair of shoes, they condemned the poor man, and delivered him into the hands of his adversary.
2.They were unmerciful to the poor generally. They pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor; or, to put it on the head of the poor; or, they bruise the head of the poor against the dust of the earth. Howsoever the clause is understood, it shows them to have been general oppressors of the poor, showing them neither justice nor mercy.
3.They turn aside the way of the meek. They are peculiarly oppressive to the weak and afflicted.
4.They were licentious to the uttermost abomination; for in their idol feasts, where young women prostituted themselves publicly in honor of Astarte, the father and son entered into impure connections with the same female.
5.They were cruel in their oppressions of the poor; for the garments or beds which the poor had pledged they retained contrary to the law, Exodus 22:7-26, which required that such things should be restored before the setting of the sun.
6.They punished the people by unjust and oppressive fines, and served their tables with wine bought by such fines. Or it may be understood of their appropriating to themselves that wine which was allowed to criminals to mitigate their sufferings in the article of death; which was the excess of inhumanity and cruelty.
| << Amos 2:5 | Amos 2:7 >> |
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