Minor Prophets · Chapter 2 of 9
Amos 2
The oracles narrow to Moab, then Judah, and finally Israel. Moab is judged for desecrating the dead, Judah for despising the law of the LORD. Then God turns to Israel, condemning those who sell the righteous for silver and trample the poor, who defile the vulnerable and profit from injustice at the altar. Despite all God did in the exodus, Israel silenced its prophets, so judgment is coming.
What happens in Amos 2
Amos completes the ring of oracles by naming Moab, condemned for burning the bones of Edom's king, and then Judah, condemned for despising the law of the LORD and following the lies that led its fathers astray. Both receive the same promise of fire. Then the prophet arrives at his true target, Israel. Here the charges are not distant war crimes but intimate injustices: selling the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of shoes, trampling the poor into the dust, turning aside the meek, and a father and son defiling the same girl.
They lounge by altars on garments taken in pledge and drink wine bought with fines. God recalls his grace, destroying the Amorites before them, bringing them from Egypt, raising up prophets and Nazarites. Yet Israel made the Nazarites drink and silenced the prophets. So God will press them down, and no strength, speed, or courage will deliver them.
Amos 2 in context
Amos now closes the circle of oracles on Israel itself, the audience he came to reach. Unlike the pagan nations judged for war atrocities, Judah is charged with despising God's revealed law, and Israel with social injustice among the covenant people.
The mention of selling the needy for a pair of shoes exposes how prosperity under Jeroboam rested on the backs of the poor.
Main themes of Amos 2
Amos 2 (KJV)
1Thus 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: 2But 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: 3And I will cut off the judge from the midst thereof, and will slay all the princes thereof with him, saith the LORD. 4Thus 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: 5But I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem. 6Thus 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; 7That 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: 8And 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. 9Yet 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. 10Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you forty years through the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite. 11And 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. 12But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not. 13Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves. 14Therefore the flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not strengthen his force, neither shall the mighty deliver himself: 15Neither 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. 16And he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, saith the LORD.
Verses to carry from Amos 2
“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:”Amos 2:4
“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;”Amos 2:6
“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.”Amos 2:11
Thematic connection
How Amos 2 points to Jesus
Israel's habit of silencing the prophets God raised up reaches its tragic climax in Jesus, who wept that Jerusalem killed the prophets and stoned those sent to her, and who told of a vineyard owner whose servants and finally his son were rejected. The selling of the righteous for silver anticipates the thirty pieces of silver paid for Jesus himself, the truly righteous one handed over by those who trampled justice.
Amos speaks for the poor sold for a pair of shoes, and Christ came proclaiming good news to exactly these, the trampled and turned aside. Where Israel despised the law and grace alike, Jesus fulfilled the law and embodied the grace, and at the cross he bore the judgment that injustice deserves, opening a way of mercy to oppressor and oppressed who will turn to him.
Questions about Amos 2
Why is Israel judged more severely than the pagan nations?
The nations sinned against conscience, but Israel sinned against grace and revelation. They received the law, the exodus, and the prophets, and still trampled the poor and silenced God's messengers. To know God's kindness and despise it is worse than never to have known it. Greater light brings greater responsibility, a principle Jesus repeats when he says much is required of those given much.
What does selling the needy for a pair of shoes reveal?
It reveals how cheaply the powerful valued human beings, disposing of the poor for a trivial debt or a small profit. The phrase exposes an economy where people were commodities and justice could be bought with a bribe. God names this ordinary, respectable oppression as a transgression as grave as any war crime, because he measures a society by how it treats its weakest members.
Reflection
It is easy to feel righteous while condemning distant evils, but Amos brings the indictment home. He shows that despising grace and trampling the vulnerable are sins the covenant people commit too. Where has God shown you kindness that you have taken for granted, and who are the poor your comfort might be resting upon?
A prayer from Amos 2
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