Amos 2:8

Amos 2:8. They lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge The Jews as well as the Romans used to lie along at their meals on couches, as appears by this verse, compared with Amos 6:4: a custom which was continued in after times as is evident by divers passages in the gospels, read in the original, which speak, not of persons sitting, but lying down, or reclining, at meat. As the prophet here speaks of their laying themselves down by every altar, it is manifest he refers to the feasts which were made of part of their idolatrous sacrifices, and were eaten in some of the apartments of their temples, according to the custom both of the Jews and Gentiles. And the prophet reproves them for three abuses. 1st, That they kept the clothes which they had received as pledges from the poor, contrary to the law, which commanded that the clothes received in pledge should be returned by the going down of the sun: see Exodus 22:6. 2d, That they made feasts in the houses, or temples, of their idols, or golden calves, no longer coming to the temple at Jerusalem; and, as if to insult the holiness of God’s laws, and to carry the marks of their iniquity even to the feet of their altars, they sat down in their temples upon the garments which they had received in pledge from the poor. 3d, That they caroused at the expense of those on whom they had unjustly laid fines, or, as it is expressed in the text, They drank the wine of the condemned in the house of their god As drink-offerings, made with wine, were a necessary part of the sacrifices, so some portion of these was likewise reserved for the entertainments that followed. And this the prophet here signifies was bought with the fines or mulcts laid on the innocent.