This is what the LORD says: “For three transgressions of Israel, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because they sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals.
Parallel translations
- WEB Yahweh says: “For three transgressions of Israel, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have sold the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes;
- KJV Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes;
- NKJV Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment, Because they sell the righteous for silver, And the poor for a pair of sandals.
- NASB ¶This is what the Lord says: “For three offenses of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke its punishment, Because they sell the righteous for money, And the needy for a pair of sandals.
- NLT This is what the Lord says: “The people of Israel have sinned again and again, and I will not let them go unpunished! They sell honorable people for silver and poor people for a pair of sandals.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God condemns Israel for selling the righteous and the needy for trivial profit. Exploiting the poor and perverting justice provokes God's judgment.
Overview
The climactic oracle falls on Israel itself, with the longest and most detailed indictment. Selling 'the righteous for silver' and 'the needy for a pair of shoes' pictures judges and creditors who sold the innocent poor into debt-slavery over petty sums. God identifies closely with the oppressed. This anticipates Christ, who was sold for silver and who proclaims good news to the poor.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Joel 3:3They cast lots for My people; they bartered a boy for a prostitute and sold a girl for wine to drink.
- Amos 5:11–12Therefore, because you trample on the poor and exact from him a tax of grain, you will never live in the stone houses you have built; you will never drink the wine from the lush vineyards you have planted.
- Mic 3:2–3You hate good and love evil. You tear the skin from my people and strip the flesh from their bones.
- Joel 3:6You sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks, to send them far from their homeland.
- Amos 6:3–7You dismiss the day of calamity and bring near a reign of violence.
- Isa 29:21those who indict a man with a word, who ensnare the mediator at the gate, and who with false charges deprive the innocent of justice.
- Hos 13:2–3Now they sin more and more and make for themselves cast images, idols skillfully made from their silver, all of them the work of craftsmen. People say of them, “They offer human sacrifice and kiss the calves!”
- 2 Kgs 17:7–18All this happened because the people of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They had worshiped other gods
- Hos 4:1–2Hear the word of the LORD, O children of Israel, for the LORD has a case against the people of the land: “There is no truth, no loving devotion, and no knowledge of God in the land!
- Hos 7:7–10All of them are hot as an oven, and they devour their rulers. All their kings fall; not one of them calls upon Me.
- Mic 6:10–16Can I forget any longer, O house of the wicked, the treasures of wickedness and the short ephah, which is accursed?
- 2 Kgs 18:12This happened because they did not listen to the voice of the LORD their God, but violated His covenant—all that Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded—and would neither listen nor obey.
- Amos 8:4–6Hear this, you who trample the needy, who do away with the poor of the land,
- Isa 5:22–23Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine and champions in mixing strong drink,
- Hos 4:11–14Promiscuity, wine, and new wine take away understanding.
- Ezek 23:5–9Oholah prostituted herself while she was still Mine. She lusted after her lovers, the Assyrians—warriors
- Hos 8:4–6They set up kings, but not by Me. They make princes, but without My approval. With their silver and gold they make themselves idols, to their own destruction.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Amid judgment on injustice, Amos promises the raising up of David's fallen tent — read by James in Acts 15 as the ingathering of the nations into the kingdom of the risen Christ.
How Amos 2:6 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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