Amos 8:5

"Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell grain? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and dealing falsely with balances of deceit?"

The heartless traders grudged even the sabbaths and feast days as interruptions in their business, which was simply that of cheating in every way possible. There had already come to its fruition in the Northern Kingdom, the diabolical sin that eventually culminated in the Jerusalem temple, designated by Jesus as "a den of thieves and robbers."

"The new moon ..." The feast of the new moon was allegedly derived from the commandment of God to offer sacrifices upon the first of each month (Numbers 28:11); but that is a far different thing from "worshipping the host of heaven" in any such thing as a feast of the new moon. That this feast (evidently of pagan origin) did creep into Jewish worship is clear enough, evidently having been introduced and established by King David (1 Chronicles 23:31), which in the light of other things that David did still leaves the practice questionable. We believe this is a clear instance in which it came to pass as declared by the martyr Stephen, "That God turned, and gave them up to serve the host of heaven" (Acts 7:42).

While the sabbath day was indeed a legitimate religious day, the same was not true of the "new moons"; and thus we have another example of the gross departure of Israel from their duty.

The Hebrews had twelve months; and thus there is no question of the first of each month falling upon the feast of the new moon as would (or might) have occurred had the Israelites been following a lunar month.

"Making the ephah small ..." Amazingly, of the dozen or so commentaries consulted on this, no two of them give the same size to the ephah! Harper noted that: "The size is not definitely known, being estimated at from 21.26 quarts to 40.62 quarts (Josephus)."[16]

"And the shekel great ..." Coinage was unknown until a later period; and weights were used for weighing the amount of silver, or other substance, used as the medium of exchange. Of course, if a dishonest tradesman used one set of weights for buying, and another set of weights for selling (neither of them being true), he would be able easily to defraud his customers. A similar deceit was used with regard to the ephah, a fact demonstrated by the truth that, until this day, nobody knows for sure what an ephah was! They were indeed a vicious class of robbers, exactly like those that Jesus ran out of the temple during his ministry.

"And dealing falsely with the balances of deceit ..." These were dishonest scales, indicating that current laws in every civilized state regarding weights and measurements, and the necessity of inspecting the scales in stores and markets continually, is anchored in the long experience of the human race with the very practices condemned here by the prophet Amos.

Before leaving this verse, the question at the beginning of it should be noted, for it was that question which Amos answered in Amos 8:9 - "When will the new moon be gone ... and the sabbath...?"