Amos 2 King James Version (KJV)
2 Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime:
2 But I will send a fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the palaces of Kirioth: and Moab shall die with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet:
3 And I will cut off the judge from the midst thereof, and will slay all the princes thereof with him, saith the Lord.
4 Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have despised the law of the Lord, and have not kept his commandments, and their lies caused them to err, after the which their fathers have walked:
5 But I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.
6 Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes;
7 That pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and his father will go in unto the same maid, to profane my holy name:
8 And they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god.
9 Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath.
10 Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you forty years through the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite.
11 And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites. Is it not even thus, O ye children of Israel? saith the Lord.
12 But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not.
13 Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves.
14 Therefore the flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not strengthen his force, neither shall the mighty deliver himself:
15 Neither shall he stand that handleth the bow; and he that is swift of foot shall not deliver himself: neither shall he that rideth the horse deliver himself.
16 And he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, saith the Lord.
Commentary
Judgment on Israel (2:6-16)
Israel is corrupt, socially, morally and religiously. Judges and officials favour those who bribe them, with the result that the poor and the innocent receive unjust treatment. The rich lend to the poor, then take them as slaves when they cannot repay their debts, even though the debt may be as little as the price of a pair of sandals (6-7a).
The wealthy seize the clothes of the poor as guarantees for the repayment of debts (even though the law of Moses prohibited the seizure of clothes and other essential items as guarantees; see Deut 24:6,10- 13). But since the wealthy have no desire to wear the clothes of the poor, they find an alternative use of them. They spread them out beside the Baal altars to make beds, where they engage in sexual rites with religious prostitutes. Their religious feasts become drinking parties, but again the wine comes from people who have been exploited. Corrupt officials place unjust fines on poor people such as farmers, then, when the farmers are unable to pay their fines, the officials seize their wine as payment (7b-8).
God had richly blessed the people of Israel, bringing them out of slavery, destroying the former inhabitants of Canaan, and giving them a prosperous land to dwell in (9-10). He gave them prophets and Nazirites for their spiritual upbuilding, but they rejected both (11-12; for Nazirites see Num 6:1-21). God will therefore crush his people, as an ox-cart loaded with grain crushes whatever is beneath it. Nothing will save them from his judgment. They will be destroyed (13-16).