Amos 8:4-5

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Amos 8:4-10

God is here contending with proud oppressors, and showing them, I. The heinousness of the sin they were guilty of; in short, they had the character of the unjust judge (Luke 18:2) that neither feared God nor regarded man. 1. Observe them in their devotions, and you will say, ?They had no reverence for God.? Bad as they are, they do indeed keep up a show and form of godliness; they observe the sabbath and the new moon; they put some difference between those days and other days, but they were... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Amos 8:4

Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy ,.... Like a man that pants after a draught of water when thirsty; and, when he has got it, greedily swallows it down at one gulp; so these rich men swallowed up the poor, their labours, gains, and profits, and persons too; got all into their own hands, and made them bondsmen and slaves to them; see Amos 2:7 ; these are called upon to hear this dreadful calamity threatened, and to consider what then would become of them and their ill gotten riches;... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Amos 8:5

Saying, when will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn ?.... The first day of every month, on which it was forbid to sell any thing, or do any worldly business, being appointed and used for religious service; see 2 Kings 4:23 ; and which these carnal earthly minded men were weary of, and wanted to have over, that they might be selling their grain, and getting money, which they preferred to the worship of God. Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it of the month of harvest, when the poor... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Amos 8:4

Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy - Ye that bruise the poor; exact from them, and tread them under foot. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Amos 8:5

When will the new moon be gone - This was kept as a kind of holy day, not by Divine command, but by custom. The Sabbath was strictly holy; and yet so covetous were they that they grudged to give to God and their own souls this seventh portion of time! But bad and execrable as they were, they neither set forth their corn, nor their wheat, nor any other kind of merchandise, on the Sabbath. They were saints then, when compared to multitudes called Christians, who keep their shops either... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Amos 8:4

Verse 4 And he assails by name the princes of the people, Hear this, he says, ye who tread upon or swallow up the poor The Prophets, as we have already stated, did not without reason direct their discourses to the chief men, though the common people were nearly as much involved in the same guilt. It is certain that the state of the people of Israel was then so corrupt, that all, from the highest to the lowest, were become degenerated and none were free from blame. But as more guilt belongs... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Amos 8:5

Verse 5 The Prophet goes on here with the same subject; for this could not apply to the whole people, but only to the plunderers who were able to oppress the miserable and the poor among the common people, and who had a great abundance of corn: the same we see at this day, — a few men in time of want have provisions hoarded up, so that they as it were put to death miserable men by reducing them to want. Since then the few rich held the whole people in a state of famine, the Prophet says here,... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Amos 8:1-14

§ 5. In the fourth vision, the basket of summer fruit, the Lord shows that the people is ripe for judgment. Explaining this revelation, Amos denounces the oppression and greed of the chieftains (verses 4-10), and warns them that those who despise the Word of God shall some day suffer from a famine of the Word (verses 11-14). read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Amos 8:4

The prophet, by admonishing the grandees of their iniquities, which they will not cast away, shows how ripe they are for judgment. That swallow up; better, that pant after ( Amos 2:6 , Amos 2:7 ), like a beast after its prey, eager to devour. Even to make the poor of the land to fail; and cause the meek of the land to fail. They grasp at the property of the unresisting poor, adding field to field, and impoverishing them in various ways, to root them out of the land. read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Amos 8:4-6

The covetous man's way. Punishment, however stern, is proportioned rigidly to sin. They answer to each other as face to face. From the contemplation of Israel's deplorable fate we turn to the horrors of her crime. And they are dark beyond exaggerating. To idolatry, dethroning God and robbing him of his glory, is added covetousness defrauding and destroying men. Indeed, the one is but a department of the other. The worst type of mammon worshipper, the covetous, is an idolater in a very real... read more

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