Hear this, ye that pant after the needy, even to cause to fail the poor of the land,
Amos 8 opens with a vision of ripe fruit. Here the picture turns to people: God calls out those who trample the needy, and He shows why the way the strong treat the weak brings a nation to its end.
The call to hear stands inside a vision. What Amos sees is fruit at the point of ripeness:
In his fourth vision the prophet sees a basket of summer fruit. The Hebrew shows that it was a basket filled with ripe fruit. The ripe fruit is a symbol that Israel was ripe for the harvest of judgment. The Lord's message to the prophet is, "The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass by them." Their songs would turn into howls of grief, and many would be killed.
The verse names them by what they do — they trample the needy. They are not the whole nation but one class, and the charge against them reaches into the details of the market:
Once more the wealthy and prosperous part of the nation is addressed. Their sinful practices are exposed, and it is shown that they were ripe for judgment. The rich oppressed the poor. They took from the poor what rightfully belonged to them. They cheated by making the measure small and raising the price. They were the profiteers of that time. They also used false balances. Then they sold the refuse of the wheat.
This is not a one-off complaint. Amos makes the same charge again and again, and traces it back to a root:
In Israel the sin named here is less tied to the law... It is connected with that turning away from the fear of God, which lets a man give way to the selfishness of his own heart and oppress those whom 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.
They were not worried men. They thought their place as God's people kept them safe:
The kings and people of the northern kingdom had turned their backs on Jehovah. So they could no longer claim His promises. And yet they thought that no harm could come to them, because they were the people of God. In their hearts they were far away from Jehovah. Selfishness, showing off, immorality and oppression of the poor were the order of the day. Justice had become worthless. Into this situation Amos appears with the warning of God's judgment.
Why does greed reach for the needy and not the powerful? And what does God do about it?
It may seem strange to say, "Do not rob the poor, because he is poor." But the warning is badly needed, since human nature is now so low, selfish, and cruel. The rich might look like the more tempting prey for people with no scruples. But they can protect themselves in ways the poor would not or could not try. So bad men flatter the rich for gain, while they also rob or oppress those who ought to be objects of pity. But Jehovah has His eye on such wickedness, even at the very gate where justice should flow. He takes up the cause of the poor and the suffering, and repays those who rob them severely.
Commentators do not leave this in ancient Israel. One of them turns it on how employers treat their workers:
Employers often run their work in a hard spirit, grinding down the poor. Some of them give freely to so-called Christian or charitable causes money that was wrung out of tears and curses. In God's eyes that is no excuse. It makes the wrong worse. And how much does trade or business have to answer for in this crushing drive to get rich?
Another writer points forward to the New Testament for the same picture:
All of this may be compared with James 5:1-6. There the same conditions are pictured among professing Christians before the Lord comes. And because of all they did, the land would have to tremble and everyone mourn.
- Ripe. The call to hear stands inside the vision of ripe summer fruit. Israel was ready for the harvest of judgment, and God would pass by them no more.
- Addressed. God calls out the wealthy and prosperous — the profiteers with small measures, raised prices, false balances and leftover wheat.
- Repeated. Amos brings this charge again and again. Its root is the loss of the fear of God, which sets selfishness loose on people God cares about.
- Deceived. They thought no harm could reach them, since they were God's people. Meanwhile selfishness, showing off, immorality and oppression ruled the day.
- Seen. God sees robbery aimed at the poor because they cannot defend themselves. He takes up their cause and repays those who rob them. Giving away money squeezed from others only makes the case worse.
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 for deceit
Amos speaks to people who kept the calendar of worship but resented it. They stood through the new moon and the Sabbath with their minds already back at the market stall. The verse lets us hear their private thoughts. It asks a hard question: what is religious form worth when the heart behind it wants only gain?
An ephah was a measure of grain; a shekel was a weight of silver. Scales weighed both the goods and the money. That made them easy to rig.
They were needed in early days for weighing money as well. When Abraham bought a burial place he "weighed out for Ephron the silver" (Gen. 23:16, compare Jer. 32:10). Job asked God to weigh him in an even balance (Job 31:6, compare Lev. 19:36; Ezek. 45:10). This was because men contrived to falsify the balance, as well as the weights, which was an abomination to the Lord (Prov. 11:1; Prov. 16:11; Hosea 12:7; Amos 8:5).
The fraud worked from both ends at once. The buyer got a smaller measure and paid a higher price. The scales backed up the lie.
Once again the prophet speaks to the wealthy and prosperous part of the nation. He exposes their sinful practices and shows that they were ripe for judgment. The rich oppressed the poor; they took from the poor what rightfully belonged to them. They cheated by making the measure small and increasing the price. They were the profiteers of that time. They also used false balances... All of it may be compared with James 5:1-6, where the same conditions appear in the professing Christian world before the Lord comes.
The fraud in the shop is the second thing to go wrong, not the first. Commentators trace it back to something that had already failed: the fear of God.
In Israel the sin named has a character more independent of the law... It is connected with that departure from the fear of God. That departure lets a man give way to the selfishness of his own heart and oppress those whom God regards... This prophecy repeats the charge of despising the poor again and again (Amos 2:7; 4:1; 5:11; 8:6), and especially in connection with Israel.
The traders in this verse did not abandon the holy days. They sat through them. The prophets expose the same mix elsewhere: careful observance wrapped around moral evil.
They were offering sacrifices and burnt offerings. They were bringing offerings and incense. They were observing new moons, sabbaths, appointed feasts and assemblies. They were spreading out their hands with many prayers. Were these things not right, as ordered through Moses? Yes, they were. Yet all of it was declared to be a weariness to God and an abomination in His sight, because... their ceremonial exactness was only a decent exterior covering a mass of moral evil and uncleanness.
A crooked balance is not a moment of weakness. It is kept on purpose, and it wears a mask of fairness while it cheats.
"A false balance" is far more than an act of dishonesty. It implies the pretension to integrity, along with a deliberate purpose to cheat. So it is an abomination to Him whose eyes see and whose eyelids test the children of men. A just weight, on the other hand, is His delight. Trickery in trade is a corroding evil, most of all fatal to those who gain a stained or hardened conscience.
This trading is not judged on its own. It stands inside a chapter that has already announced the end.
Amos 8 opens with a fourth symbol — a basket of summer fruit, showing how near as well as how certain the end was for Israel... Their oppressive conduct is exposed with force, and the Lord's sworn judgment is repeated... Their worst famine would be a famine of the word (verses 11, 12): they would feel the want of what they had despised.
- Heart first. The dishonest ephah comes second. Departure from the fear of God lets selfishness run, and the first people to feel it are those God regards — the poor.
- Measure small. They shrank what they handed over and enlarged what they charged. Rigged scales made the theft look like a fair deal.
- Worship shrunk too. They still kept the new moon and the Sabbath. Careful observance can be a decent exterior over moral evil, and God calls it a weariness.
- Weighed themselves. A false balance is not a slip. It is a claim to honesty joined to a settled intent to cheat. God calls it an abomination, and it hardens the conscience of the one who profits.
- The basket was full. The vision of summer fruit showed how near and how certain the end was. Those who despised God's word would come to hunger for it.
that we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; and that we may sell the refuse of the wheat.
Here greed lands on people themselves, bought like goods, and on grain so poor it is only sweepings. Two questions follow: what kind of heart turns a neighbour into a purchase, and what does God do about it?
Verse 6 closes a list of trading tricks. One writer reads the whole list as the mark of a class already ripe for judgment.
Once again God speaks to the wealthy and prosperous part of the nation. He exposes their sinful practices and shows that they were ripe for judgment. The rich oppressed the poor; they took away from the poor what rightfully belonged to them. They cheated by making the measure small and raising the price. They were the profiteers of that time. They also used false balances. Then they sold the refuse of the wheat. Compare all of this with James 5:1-6, where the same conditions appear in Christendom before the Lord comes.
Buying a man for the price of footwear is not a stray detail. It is one of Amos's running themes, and one commentator traces it back to a lost fear of God.
In Israel the sin named has a character more independent of the law. It belongs to that departure from the fear of God which lets a man give way to the selfishness of his own heart and oppress those whom God regards. They sell the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes. They do not care about the sufferings of the poor… This prophecy repeats the charge of despising the poor again and again (Amos 2:7; 4:1; 5:11; 8:6), and especially in connection with Israel.
The last clause is waste grain sold as wheat. One writer brings that practice into a shop today and refuses the usual excuse for it.
A man who puts cardboard into shoes and sells them as leather is unworthy of the name of Christian; in fact he is not even an honest man. People say, "It is the custom of the trade." Well, how does that change anything for someone who wants to walk in the fear of God and keep a good conscience? It may be the custom of the trade to put inferior yarn into cloth and to put water in the milk. But can a Christian, or even an honest man, do such things? Certainly not. The Word of God, not the custom of the trade, must govern a Christian's conscience.
Why does trade breed this? One writer says it feeds a greed the trader himself may never notice.
Power and religion may stir up ambition and hatred. But trade feeds the secret and sometimes unsuspected covetousness of the heart. Commerce as it appears now is the inborn covetousness of the human heart, turned into a science: buy in the cheapest market, sell in the dearest.
The buyer counts on the silence of the poor man he buys. One writer names who breaks that silence.
It may seem odd to say, "Do not rob the poor," and especially "because he is poor." But we need that warning, since human nature is now so base, selfish and cruel. The rich might look the more inviting prey for dishonest men, yet they can protect themselves in ways the poor would not or could not try. So bad men flatter the rich for gain, while they also rob or oppress those who ought to be objects of pity. But the LORD has His eye on such villainy, 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.
The chapter does not leave the charge hanging. One writer traces where it ends.
Amos 8 opens with a fourth symbol — a basket of summer fruit. It shows how near as well as how certain the end was for Israel… Amos exposes their oppressive conduct with force, and the LORD repeats His sworn judgment… Their worst famine would be a famine of the word (verses 11, 12). They would feel the lack of what they had despised.
- Root. This oppression grows out of a departure from the fear of God. That loss lets a man's selfishness run over the very people God regards.
- Method. Small measures, high prices, false balances, waste grain sold as food — and then human beings bought for the price of a pair of sandals.
- Excuse. "It is the custom of the trade" settles nothing. The Word of God rules a believer's conscience, not the habits of everyone else.
- Witness. The poor man cannot fight back. So God takes up his cause and repays those who plunder him.
- End. The basket of ripe fruit says the reckoning is near and certain. Those with no appetite for God's word would end up starving for it.
Jehovah hath sworn by the glory of Jacob, Certainly I will never forget any of their works.
Amos 8 shows the prophet a basket of ripe summer fruit — a sign that Israel is ready for harvest. The sins that made her ripe were cheating the poor in the marketplace, and God's answer is an oath that He will not forget.
The oath in verse 7 is not a fresh thought dropped into the chapter. It belongs to a series of visions. In them the sentence on Israel turns final.
Amos 8 opens with a fourth symbol — a basket of summer fruit, showing how near as well as how sure the end was for Israel. "I will never again pass by them." ... The king's command and the priest's intervention would in no way stop the punishment of their sin. They would only speed it up and increase it. So a still more solemn and complete chastening is announced on Israel. Their oppressive conduct is exposed with force, and the Lord's sworn judgment is repeated.
The "deeds" here are trading practices. The verses just before name them: short measure, inflated price, rigged scales, and the refuse of the wheat.
Once more the wealthy and prosperous part of the nation is addressed. Their sinful practices are exposed, and they are shown to be ripe for judgment. The rich oppressed the poor; they took away from the poor what rightfully belonged to them. They cheated by making the measure small and raising the price. They were the profiteers of that time. They also used false balances. Then they sold the refuse of the wheat.
A rigged weight hides behind a show of honesty. That is what makes it so serious.
"A false balance" is much more than an act of dishonesty. It puts on a show of integrity while holding a deliberate purpose to cheat. So it is an abomination to Him whose eyes watch, whose eyelids test the children of men. A just weight is His delight. Trickery in trade is a corroding evil, most of all fatal to those who gain a stained or hardened conscience.
The cheated poor have no way to make the rich hear them. Their cry is heard elsewhere.
But they are charged with cruelty and fraud in their dealings with the labourers who reaped their fields. Their very wealth tempts the rich to hold back the wages of the poor. Only their own affairs matter in their eyes. They put off to a convenient time the claims of people who live from hand to mouth. But the debt cries aloud to Him who always feels for the poor... Yes, the cries of the reapers may never have reached the rich. But they reached the ears of the Lord of hosts, and His blow would fall when least expected.
A mighty angel elsewhere in Scripture swears in the same way. One writer draws out what such an oath means.
If we are right in identifying this "mighty Angel" with our Lord, then in swearing "by Him who lives forever and ever" He was really swearing by Himself. It was the same when He made the promise to Abraham. That was an oath for blessing; this is an oath for judgment; but both are alike unchangeable.
The same phrase, "the pride of Jacob," appears earlier in Amos. There God swears by Himself against what older translations call "the excellency of Jacob."
The prophet then announces the hatred God feels against the ways of Israel. They dishonour Him and corrupt man. "The Lord GOD has sworn by himself... I loathe the pride of Jacob and hate his strongholds; therefore I will deliver up the city and all that is in it." ... It is a picture of utter desolation and despair.
"I will never forget" is the hardest phrase in the verse. But God says the opposite over sins cancelled at the cross.
Every remembrance of the past will only swell the note of praise the heart gives out. We think of the grace that shines in those precious words: "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more." That is the style of divine forgiveness! God will never again bring up those sins which His own loving hand has cancelled by the blood of the cross. Never! No, never!
- Ripe. The basket of summer fruit says the nation is ready for harvest. The oath says God will not pass them by again.
- Recorded. God will not forget everyday business deeds: short measure, high price, false scales, the refuse of the wheat.
- Concealed. A rigged balance hides a plan to cheat behind a show of honesty. That is why it is an abomination to the God who watches.
- Heard. The poor could never make the rich listen. Their cry reaches the Lord of hosts, and His blow falls when least expected.
- Cancelled. God's oath stands for judgment as firmly as for blessing. The only escape from "I will never forget" is sin He has cancelled at the cross and promises to remember no more.