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;
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;
- BSB 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.
- 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 3:3And they have cast lots for my people; and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.
- Amos 5:11–12Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.
- Mic 3:2–3Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones;
- Joel 3:6The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye might remove them far from their border.
- Amos 6:3–7Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near;
- Isa 29:21That make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought.
- Hos 13:2–3And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.
- 2 Kgs 17:7–18For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods,
- Hos 4:1–2Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.
- Hos 7:7–10They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured their judges; all their kings are fallen: there is none among them that calleth unto me.
- Mic 6:10–16Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable?
- 2 Kgs 18:12Because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD their God, but transgressed his covenant, and all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded, and would not hear them, nor do them.
- Amos 8:4–6Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail,
- Isa 5:22–23Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:
- Hos 4:11–14Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart.
- Ezek 23:5–9And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours,
- Hos 8:4–6They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and I knew it not: of their silver and their gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off.
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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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