Amos 2 · Verse 6

Amos 2:6

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;
Amos 2:6, King James Version

Amos 2:6 in other translations

BSBThis is what the LORD says: “For three transgressions of Israel, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because they sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals.
WEBThe LORD says: “For three transgressions of Israel, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment, because they have sold the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals;
ASVThus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Israel, yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have sold the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes—
YLTThus said Jehovah: For three transgressions of Israel, And for four, I do not reverse it, Because of their selling for silver the righteous, And the needy for a pair of sandals.
DARBYThus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke its sentence; because they have sold the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes;
BBEThese are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of Israel, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because they have given the upright man for silver, and the poor for the price of two shoes;
WebsterThus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away their punishment: because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes;

What does Amos 2:6 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
6. Israel--the ten tribes, the main subject of Amos' prophecies. sold the righteous--Israel's judges for a bribe are induced to condemn in judgment him who has a righteous cause; in violation of De 16:19. the poor for a pair of shoes--literally, "sandals" of wood, secured on the foot by leather straps; less valuable than shoes. Compare the same phrase, for "the most paltry bribe," Am 8:6; Eze 13:19; Joe 3:3. They were not driven by poverty to such a sin; beginning with suffering themselves to be tempted by a large bribe, they at last are so reckless of all shame as to prostitute justice for the merest trifle. Amos convicts them of injustice, incestuous unchastity, and oppression first, as these were so notorious that they could not deny them, before he proceeds to reprove their contempt of God, which they would have denied on the ground that they worshipped God in the form of the calves.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 6 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.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Amos 2:1-8

The evil passions of the heart break out in various forms; but the Lord looks to our motives, as well as our conduct. Those that deal cruelly, shall be cruelly dealt with. Other nations were reckoned with for injuries done to men; Judah is reckoned with for dishonour done to God. Judah despised the law of the Lord; and he justly gave them up to strong delusion; nor was it any excuse for their sin, that they were the…

Read the full comment on Amos 2:1-8 →

Amos 2:6 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

כֹּ֚הkohthusH3541
אָמַ֣ר'a.Marhe saysH559
יְהוָ֔הYah.wehYahwehH3068
עַל\־'al-onH5921
שְׁלֹשָׁה֙she.lo.ShahthreeH7969
פִּשְׁעֵ֣יpish.'Ei<the> transgressions ofH6588
יִשְׂרָאֵ֔לYis.ra.'ElIsraelH3478
וְעַל\־ve.'al-and onH5921
אַרְבָּעָ֖ה'ar.ba.'AhfourH702
לֹ֣אlo'notH3808
אֲשִׁיבֶ֑נּוּ'a.shi.Ve.nuI will revoke itH7725
עַל\־'al-becauseH5921
מִכְרָ֤םmikh.Ramsold theyH4376
בַּכֶּ֙סֶף֙ba.Ke.seffor <the> silverH3701
צַדִּ֔יקtza.Dik[the] righteousH6662
וְאֶבְי֖וֹןve.'ev.Yonand [the] needyH34
בַּעֲב֥וּרba.'a.Vurfor sake ofH5668
נַעֲלָֽיִם\׃na.'a.La.yima pair of sandalsH5275

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Amos 2:6

  • Joel 3:3

    And they have cast lots for my people; and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.

  • Amos 5:11-12

    Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them. For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.

  • Micah 3:2-3

    Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones; Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.

  • Amos 8:4-6

    Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail, Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit? That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat?

  • Ezekiel 23:5-9

    And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours, Which were clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses. Thus she committed her whoredoms with them, with all them that were the chosen men of Assyria, and with all on whom she doted: with all their idols she defiled herself. Neither left she her whoredoms brought from Egypt: for in her youth they lay with her, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity, and poured their whoredom upon her. …

  • Isaiah 29:21

    That make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought.

  • Isaiah 5:22-23

    Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink: Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!

  • Joel 3:6

    The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye might remove them far from their border.

  • 2 Kings 17:7-18

    For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods, And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made. And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the Lord their God, and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city. And they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree: …

  • Hosea 8:4-6

    They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and I knew it not: of their silver and their gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off. Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off; mine anger is kindled against them: how long will it be ere they attain to innocency? For from Israel was it also: the workman made it; therefore it is not God: but the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces.

  • Hosea 13:2-3

    And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves. Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney.

  • Hosea 4:11-14

    Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart. My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them: for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God. They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof is good: therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom, and your spouses shall commit adultery. I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom, nor your spouses when they commit adultery: for themselves are separated with whores, and they sacrifice with harlots: therefore the people that doth not understand shall fall.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Thus saith.Amos, says Abp. Newcome, first prophesies against the Syrians, Philistines, Tyrians, Edomites, Ammonites, and Moabites, who dwelt in the neighbourhood of the twelve tribes, and had occasionally become their enemies and persecutors. Having thus taught his countrymen that the providence of God extended to other nations, he briefly mentions the idolatrous practices and consequent destruction of Judah, and then passes on to his proper subject, which was to exhort and reprove the kingdom of Israel, and to denounce against it the Divine judgments.
For three.
6:3-7; 2Ki 17:7-18; 18:12; Eze 23:5-9; Ho 4:1,2,11-14; 7:7-10; 8:4-6
Ho 13:2,3; Mic 6:10-16
because.
5:11,12; 8:4-6; Isa 5:22,23; 29:21; Joe 3:3,6; Mic 3:2,3

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Amos 2:5

    But I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.

  • Amos 2:6

    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;

  • Amos 2:7

    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:

Read all of Amos 2

Amos 2:6 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909
Así ha dicho Jehová: Por tres pecados de Israel, y por el cuarto, no desviaré su castigo; porque vendieron por dinero al justo, y al pobre por un par de zapatos:
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885
Ainsi dit l’ Éternel: À cause de trois transgressions d’Israël, et à cause de quatre, je ne le révoquerai point, parce qu’ils ont vendu le juste pour de l’argent, et le pauvre pour une paire de sandales,
German
Elberfelder 1871
So spricht Jehova: Wegen drei Freveltaten von Israel und wegen vier werde ich es nicht rückgängig machen: Weil sie den Gerechten für Geld und den Dürftigen um ein Paar Schuhe verkaufen;
Latin
Clementine Vulgate
Hæc dicit Dominus: Super tribus sceleribus Israël, et super quatuor non convertam eum, pro eo quod vendiderit pro argento justum, et pauperem pro calceamentis.