They hate him that reproveth in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.
The city gate was Israel's courtroom, where the elders settled disputes and an honest voice should have been safest. Amos names two crimes there — hatred of the man who corrects, and disgust at the man who tells the truth — among people who counted themselves God's own.
"In the gate" is not a figure of speech. It was the place where legal business was done in public, before witnesses.
Gates protected a city, but "in the gate" was also the place where people settled many important matters. Boaz wanted the question about Ruth and the inheritance settled, so he went up to the gate. There he debated it with a nearer relative, closed the matter, and the elders witnessed it (Ruth 4:1-12). To "sit in the gate" was a place of honour. It should have been the place of true judgement and justice, but was not always so (Isaiah 29:21; Amos 5:10, 12; Zechariah 8:16).
So the attack falls on the one institution meant to protect the weak — the place built to shelter honest speech.
The verse sits inside a short sketch of Israel's moral state. It works from the inside out: from what they loved to what they did to the poor.
Verses 10-13 give a description of the moral condition of Israel. They were unrighteous and loved the ways of unrighteousness. If the judge in the gate gave a righteous verdict, they hated him for it. They detested anyone who spoke honestly. They trampled the poor into the dust and extorted grain from them. They had built fine houses of cut stone, but they were not to enjoy them, nor the wine from their pleasant vineyards. The Lord knew their transgressions and the greatness of their sins.
Note the order. Hating the honest judge is not a separate sin from crushing the poor; it is what makes crushing the poor safe.
The reaction Amos describes is not unique to Israel. It is how the human heart answers criticism it cannot argue away.
Nothing is harder for a man to admit than evil in himself. He resents nothing more than someone else speaking evil of him and leaving him no way of escape… The scorn of the nations was nothing compared with such a charge. It stung all the more because it was so plainly true… Conscience might wince, but it refused to bow.
The truer the charge, the hotter the hatred. That is why the verse pairs the man who "speaks the truth" with the man who reproves.
Amos met this hatred himself. In chapter 7 the priest at Bethel tries to send him out of the country.
A prophecy like this was out of place in the king's chapel. A religion arranged by human policy, without the fear of God, cannot bear the testimony of truth. Bethel was the house of the kingdom. The priest reports it all to the king. Let the prophet go away to Judah, where the truth could be proclaimed — but this was not the place for such unwelcome truths.
Israel did not simply dislike reproof. They arranged their religion so that reproof had nowhere to be heard.
God does not leave the charge standing alone. A few verses later the appeal returns to the gate — the scene of the crime becomes the scene of repentance.
In verses 14-17 the appeal is more moral, but in line with the call to seek Jehovah. "Seek good, and not evil, that you may live: and so Jehovah, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as you have said. Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgement in the gate: it may be that Jehovah the God of hosts will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph."
Their hatred was aimed at the wrong target. The gate they corrupted is the place where they must start again.
The pattern did not stop with Israel. It reached its worst when God Himself came speaking truth.
It is even clearer now than in Solomon's time that "they would have none of my counsel, they despised all my reproof." When God came into the world in Christ's Person, they turned Him out of it. They hated Him without a cause. His grace only made Him more despicable in their eyes. His counsel irritated them. His reproof was a laughingstock. What will the end be?
- The gate. The public place of justice, where elders heard cases before witnesses — the one spot where an honest man should have been safe, and where they hated him most.
- The love. They loved unrighteousness first. So they hated the honest judge, and then they crushed the poor.
- The reason. A man resents nothing like a charge he cannot escape. The truer it is, the more it stings, and conscience winces without bowing.
- The reach. A religion run by human policy cannot bear the testimony of truth. The priest told Amos to prophesy elsewhere; the world turned Christ out altogether.
- The remedy. Redirect the hatred. Hate evil, love good, and set up justice again in the gate you corrupted — God may yet be gracious.
Forasmuch, therefore, as ye trample upon the poor, and take from him presents of wheat ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, and ye shall not drink the wine of them.
Amos speaks to a rich Israel whose courts had turned against honest men. In one breath the verse names the crime and the punishment: grain squeezed out of the poor, and stone houses their owners will never live in. Why does God take away the enjoyment of the wealth, and not just the wealth?
One writer sets the verse inside a picture of the whole society: the courts, the poor, and the fine houses. He also points back to an older warning Israel had heard before.
Verses 10–13 give a description of the moral condition of Israel. They were unrighteous and loved the ways of unrighteousness. If the judge at the gate gave a just verdict, they hated him for it. They hated anyone who spoke honestly. They trampled the poor into the dust and forced them to hand over their grain. They had built fine houses of hewn stone, but they were not to enjoy them nor the wine from their pleasant vineyards (Deut. 28:30, 39). The Lord knew their transgressions and the greatness of their sins.
The trampling here is not a one-off complaint. It runs through the whole book. And it has a root: when the fear of God goes, selfishness takes over.
In Israel the sin named here has a character that stands more apart from the law… It is connected with that turning away from the fear of God. That turning lets a man give way to the selfishness of his own heart and oppress the people God cares about… The charge of despising the poor is repeated often in this prophecy (Amos 2:7; 4:1; 5:11; 8:6); and this in special connection with Israel.
Israel built these houses of cut stone in a boom. One writer, on the same sin one chapter earlier, calls that national high point a spiritual low point.
Self-indulgent ease soon leads to unfeeling indifference and to oppression of others. So the prophet charges them: "who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink." Intense selfishness is laid at Israel's door. This was the time when the nation flourished most in politics, but not the time of its real honour and glory… Yet His eye was not blind to their ways. The very fact that He noticed the oppression of the poor, and the other effects of their selfishness, shows how low Israel had sunk.
The wording of the sentence was not new. God had already tied this loss to disobedience.
But when disobedient to God, an Israelite might build a house and never live in it, or he might plant a vineyard and never enjoy its fruits.
The same sentence turns up elsewhere in Scripture. There it falls on people who had settled it in their hearts that God does nothing — neither good nor harm.
They "say in their heart, the LORD will not do good, nor will He do ill." "Therefore their goods shall become plunder, and their houses a desolation. They shall build houses, but not live in them. They shall plant vineyards, but not drink their wine." That is, they are struck at the very point of their unbelief.
This sentence is not the last word in the chapter. After naming what they will lose, God still pleads with them.
Still there was hope, for the Lord is merciful and slow to anger. Judgment is His strange work. So once more we hear Him pleading: "Seek good and not evil that you may live, and so the LORD God of hosts shall be with you, as you have spoken." "Hate evil and love good!"
- Trampling — The crime: the poor crushed, their grain taken, honest judges hated for their honesty.
- Building — The trampling paid for stone houses and vineyards, built at the peak of Israel's power.
- Losing — The punishment strikes the enjoyment, not just the property: houses no one lives in, wine no one drinks. God hits the sinner where he felt safe.
- Root — Amos charges this sin again and again, and it has one source: lose the fear of God, and selfishness preys on the people He cares about.
- Pleading — Even after this sentence, God keeps calling: seek good, hate evil, and live. Judgment is His strange work.
For I know how manifold are your transgressions and your sins mighty they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside [the right of] the needy in the gate.
God's charge here is exact: He names the sins, and He names the place — the town gate, where a wronged person went for justice. Two questions follow: what does God mean when He says He knows, and why does He single out the poor man's case?
Amos preached to a people who assumed their standing with God made them safe. One writer describes the kingdom he was sent to:
The kings and people of the northern kingdom had turned their backs on Jehovah. So they could no longer claim His promises. Yet they thought no harm could come to them, because they were the people of God. In their hearts they were far from Him. Selfishness, showing off, immorality and oppression of the poor were the order of the day. Justice had become worthless. Into this situation Amos comes with the warning of God's judgment.
The verse sits inside a longer list of wrongs. They run from the courtroom to the poor man's grain to houses the builders would never enjoy:
Verses 10-13 describe the moral condition of Israel. They were unrighteous and loved the ways of unrighteousness. If the judge in the gate judged rightly, they hated him for it; those who spoke honestly they detested. The poor they trampled into the dust and extorted grain from them. They had built fine houses of cut stone. But they were not going to enjoy them, or the wine from their pleasant vineyards. The Lord knew their transgressions and the greatness of their sins.
The gate was not just the way in and out of town. Deals, disputes and public honour all belonged there:
Gates protected a city. But "in the gate" was also where people settled many important matters. When Boaz wanted the question about Ruth and the inheritance settled, he went up to the gate. There he debated the matter with a nearer relative and closed it, and the elders witnessed it (Ruth 4:1-12). To "sit in the gate" was a place of honour: "I am the talk of those who sit in the gate" (Psalm 69:12). It should have been the place of true judgment and justice, but it was not always so (Isaiah 29:21; Amos 5:10, 12; Zechariah 8:16). At times it was also the king's main place for hearing his people, and so the gate became a symbol of power.
So a needy man turned aside at the gate lost the one place where his case could be heard.
Money bent the verdicts. One writer names the temptation that comes with office, and the standard Scripture sets for a judge:
Greed is a sin to which administrators are especially exposed. The prophet Amos describes the crookedness of the men who held judicial authority in his day. He tells them what to expect from the hands of the just Judge, Jehovah, for "how many are your transgressions and how great are your sins" (Amos 5:7-12). Isaiah, on the other hand, speaks of the blessedness of the one "who despises the gain of oppressions, who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe" (Isaiah 33:15). Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, describes the men to choose "to judge the people at all times." They are to be "able men," he says, "who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe" (Exodus 18:21).
The verse turns on what God knows. A judge takes a bribe in private, and a poor man loses his case in private — but not out of God's sight:
There is much that we can hide from one another, and even from ourselves; there is nothing that we can hide from God.
God's knowledge does not stop at knowing. One commentator writes on a similar warning in Proverbs. He shows why the poor were the easier target, and what God does about it:
The rich might look the more attractive target to unscrupulous men. But they can look after themselves in ways the poor cannot. So bad men flatter the rich for gain, while they rob or oppress those who deserve pity. But Jehovah has His eye on such wickedness, at the very gate where justice should flow. He pleads the cause of the poor and the afflicted, and repays heavily those who plunder them.
- He knows. God's charge opens with knowledge, not suspicion. Men deceive each other; no one deceives God.
- The gate. The gate was the town's courtroom, where elders witnessed deals and settled disputes. It should have been the place of true judgment and justice; it was not.
- The bribe. A bribe bought the verdict. Scripture's standard for a judge is the opposite: able, God-fearing, trustworthy, hating a bribe.
- The poor. The victims had nowhere else to turn — trampled, squeezed for grain, and turned aside from their rights at the gate.
- The reckoning. God takes up the case Himself. He pleads the cause of the poor at the very gate where justice failed, and repays those who plunder them.
Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in this time; for it is an evil time.
Amos speaks to a rich nation gone rotten. Its people hated honest judges and crushed the poor. Anyone with sense had learned to say nothing. So is the silence cowardice or wisdom? And what does a silent person do with what he sees?
The word "therefore" points back. The verses just before this one describe the time that shut the wise man's mouth:
Verses 10-13 give a description of the moral condition of Israel. They were unrighteous and loved the ways of unrighteousness. If the judge at the city gate gave a just verdict, they hated him for it. They hated anyone who spoke honestly. They trampled the poor into the dust and took grain from them by force. They had built fine houses of cut stone, but they were not to enjoy them nor the wine from their pleasant vineyards. The Lord knew their transgressions and the greatness of their sins.
This was not a pagan nation. It was the people God had chosen, and that is exactly what made the wrong so serious:
Special privilege carries with it special responsibility. This prophecy drives that principle home. "You ONLY have I known of all the families of the earth; THEREFORE I will punish you for all your iniquities." The closer the relationship, the more serious the sin — and the heavier the punishment.
Why does a sensible person stop speaking? One writer traces the whole chapter: God calls, Israel refuses, the wise man goes quiet — and God calls again:
He has grieved over the ruin of Israel. Now He contrasts the places of their false worship with Jehovah, the Creator, and urges them to come to Him and live. But Israel put off the thought of the evil day. Evil had the upper hand. The wise man kept silence, for it was an evil day. Still, the Spirit calls to repentance.
The ruin was not sudden. The same writer traces it back:
The evil principle that ruined them had been among them from the beginning. God's power stepped in and checked it, and turned aside its effect. But there it was. When faith and godliness declined, and human interests no longer held it back, the same evil reappeared.
The one who keeps quiet is not just a clever survivor. He belongs to a remnant that Amos has been counting:
In chapter 5 this remnant of Israel comes into view more clearly still: only a tenth of the whole, a hundred left out of a thousand, and ten out of a hundred. What marks them is prudence, or wisdom, in the "evil time." The power of oppression seals their lips. But in their hearts they hate the evil and love the good, and they experience the goodness of the God of hosts. So they live before Him.
Force from outside shuts their mouths, not agreement with the evil. The heart keeps working when the voice cannot.
So where does a silent person turn? Not to the famous holy sites of Israel — Bethel, Gilgal, Beersheba — but to God Himself:
Jehovah appeals solemnly to Israel to seek Him and live: not to seek Bethel, not to enter Gilgal, not to cross over to Beersheba, "for Gilgal shall surely go into exile, and Bethel shall come to nothing." When superstition turns famous holy names and places against the truth, faith must look to God Himself alone. It was empty or worse to boast about the sacred character of spots where God had once spoken. They were now openly used for idolatry. They were not dedicated to God, but set apart by worship His people chose for themselves.
Silence is not the end of the story. The next verse comes with an invitation:
Still there was hope, for the Lord is merciful and slow to anger. Judgment is His strange work. So once more we hear Him plead: "Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so the LORD, the God of hosts, will be with you, as you have said." "Hate evil and love good!"
- Evil time. Israel hated honest judges, hated honest speech, and trampled the poor. That is what "evil" means here.
- Sealed lips. The power of oppression seals the lips of the wise. Their silence measures the strength of the evil around them.
- Kept heart. They cannot speak, but they still hate the evil and love the good — and so they live before God.
- Upward look. Every holy place had been corrupted. So faith stops appealing to places and looks to God Himself alone.
- Open door. God does not leave the silence standing — He pleads again, "Seek good, and not evil, that you may live."
Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live; and so Jehovah, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye say.
Verse 14 turns from where Israel worshipped to how Israel lived, and one commentator notes that this shift does not replace the earlier summons but carries it forward.
In verses 14-17 the appeal is more moral, but in keeping with the call to seek Jehovah.
Just before this, God told Israel to stop travelling to its famous religious sites — Bethel, Gilgal, Beersheba. One writer explains why those holy places could not save them.
Then Jehovah appeals to Israel to seek Him and live. They are not to seek Bethel, nor to go to Gilgal, nor to travel to Beersheba... Idol worship had turned names and places loaded with religious history against the truth. When that happens, faith must look only to God Himself. It was empty or worse to praise the sacred character of places where God had once spoken, which were now openly given over to idolatry.
The chapter has just described judges hated for judging fairly and the poor trampled down. That God still speaks at all is explained by His character.
Still there was hope, for the Lord is merciful and slow to anger. Judgment is His strange work. Therefore once more we hear His pleadings, "Seek good and not evil that you may live, and so the LORD God of hosts shall be with you, as you have spoken."
"Seek good" is not a call to more religion. Israel had plenty of that, and God said He could not stand it.
He has mourned over the ruin of Israel. Now He sets the places of their false worship against Jehovah, the Creator, and urges them to come to Him and live... Still the Spirit calls them to repent. It might be that Jehovah would have compassion on the affliction of Joseph... Jehovah took no pleasure in their offerings and sacrifices. He could not bear their religious festivals. What He wanted was judgment and righteousness.
Israel was already saying the LORD was with them. The verse ties that claim to a condition, and one writer shows the danger when life and claim do not match.
He can meet us in the very depths of our weakness and failure. But there must be a genuine and wholehearted confession of our true condition. To claim that we have the Lord with us while we do our own will and walk in obvious unrighteousness is nothing but wickedness and hardness of heart. "Trust in the LORD, and do good." That is the divine order. To talk of trusting in the Lord while doing evil turns the grace of our God into lawlessness. With a good conscience we can lift up the head and move on through all kinds of difficulties. But to walk the path of faith with a bad conscience is the most dangerous thing in this world.
A small number did take the offer of life. One writer describes what they looked like when speaking out was dangerous.
In chapter 5 this remnant of Israel comes still more clearly into view: a mere tenth of the whole, a hundred left out of a thousand, and ten out of a hundred... Prudence, or wisdom, marks them in the "evil time." The power of oppression seals their lips. But in their hearts they hate the evil and love the good, and they experience the goodness of the God of hosts. So they live before Him.
The command assumes that "good" can be found. Commenting on the same pairing of hating evil and holding to good, one writer answers the practical question by pointing to a person rather than a rule.
But how, then, am I to hate what is evil? By clinging to what is good. And how am I to cling to what is good?... We cling to His blessed Person, by whom grace and truth came into the world. He Himself is perfect goodness, grace, love, meekness, holiness, truth — in short, everything that is good and lovely. We learn how to cling to what is good by clinging to Him who is perfect goodness Himself.
- Seek. The call is not to a place but to a Person. When idol worship turns sacred sites against the truth, faith looks only to God Himself.
- Good. Goodness is not an abstract standard to reach. You find it by clinging to the One who is perfect goodness.
- Live. God is merciful and slow to anger, and judgment is His strange work. So the plea keeps coming.
- With you. Israel already said the LORD was with them. To claim His presence while walking in plain unrighteousness turns grace into lawlessness.
- Remnant. A small number heard. Oppression silenced them, but in their hearts they hated evil and loved good — and so they lived before Him.
Hate evil, and love good, and establish judgment in the gate it may be that Jehovah, the God of hosts, will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.
Israel's courts had become the place where justice died. Into that failure God speaks three commands and one uncertain promise — and the question is why He still tells a guilty people what to do.
One writer roots the answer in God's own character.
Still there was hope, for the Lord is merciful and slow to anger. Judgment is His strange work. So once more we hear His pleadings: "Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so the LORD, the God of hosts, will be with you, as you have said." "Hate evil and love good!"
Examples from elsewhere in the Bible show what the gate stood for.
It is well known that the gate, in the language of the East, is the seat of judicial authority. Lot sat in the gate of Sodom; that is, he became a magistrate or judge. Boaz went up to the gate to settle the question of who should redeem the inheritance.
Israel used that courtroom for the opposite purpose. (Older translations read "judgment in the gate" where the ESV reads "justice.")
Verses 10-13 describe the moral condition of Israel. They were unrighteous and loved the ways of unrighteousness. If the judge in the gate judged righteously, they hated him for it. They detested those who spoke uprightly. The poor they trampled into the dust and extorted grain from them.
The verse puts hatred and love side by side. One writer shows why they cannot be separated.
Love and hatred of evil will always be found together. The Psalmist says, "O you who love the LORD, hate evil!" (Ps. 97:10). A false charity may ignore evil under the excuse of love, and even treat evil doctrine about the Lord as of little account. Genuine love will lead us to hate evil without ignoring the good. In our hatred of evil we may overlook much good; or, in seeking to hold on to the good we may compromise with evil.
Israel had plenty of religious activity. The chapter shows what God thought of it.
After lamenting the ruin of Israel, He contrasts the places of their false worship with the LORD, the Creator, and urges them to come to Him and live. But Israel pushed away the thought of the evil day. Evil had the upper hand... Still, the Spirit calls to repentance. It might be that the LORD would have compassion on the affliction of Joseph... The LORD took no pleasure in their offerings and sacrifices. He could not bear their solemn feasts. He wanted justice and righteousness.
God holds the promise out to a "remnant," not to the whole nation. One writer describes who those people were.
In chapter 5 this remnant of Israel comes still more clearly into view. They are a mere tenth of the whole — a hundred left out of a thousand, and ten out of a hundred. (Compare Isa. 6:13.) They are marked by prudence, or wisdom, in the "evil time." The power of oppression seals their lips. But in their hearts they hate the evil and love the good, and they experience the goodness of the God of hosts. So they live before Him.
God does not promise; He says it may be. One writer explains the freedom that leaves Him.
In all this work His sovereignty shines out clearly... He has a right to do as He pleases, which man has not. Man would try to bind God to laws of his own making, and so tie down His sovereign will, refusing to let Him act outside them. But everything changes once we know two things. All our blessing hangs on His absoluteness. And this absoluteness is pleased to display itself in mercy, in which He delights... We may find, indeed we shall find, that our very title to mercy is the absence of any!
- Hate — the first command reaches the heart, not just the hands. Real love and hatred of evil always travel together; a love that overlooks evil is false.
- Love — hold on to the good. The danger runs both ways: hating evil can blind us to good, and chasing good can make us soft on evil.
- Establish — the gate was the courtroom. God wants that changed heart to show in how judges treat the poor.
- Remnant — only a handful answered: ten out of a hundred. Oppression silenced them, but in their hearts they hated evil and loved good.
- Perhaps — God offers mercy; no one can demand it. He pleads because He is merciful and slow to anger, and judgment is His strange work.