¶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.
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;
- 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.
- 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 have cast lots for my people, and have given a boy for a prostitute, and sold a girl for wine, that they may drink.
- Amos 5:11–12Therefore, because you trample on the poor, and take taxes from him of wheat: You have built houses of cut stone, but you will not dwell in them. You have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine.
- Mic 3:2–3You who hate the good, and love the evil; who tear off their skin, and their flesh from off their bones;
- Joel 3:6and have sold the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem to the sons of the Greeks, that you may remove them far from their border.
- Amos 6:3–7Those who put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near;
- Isa 29:21who cause a person to be indicted by a word, and lay a snare for the arbiter in the gate, and who deprive the innocent of justice with false testimony.
- Hos 13:2–3Now they sin more and more, and have made themselves molten images of their silver, even idols according to their own understanding, all of them the work of the craftsmen. They say of them, ‘They offer human sacrifice and kiss the calves.’
- 2 Kgs 17:7–18It was so because the children of Israel had sinned against Yahweh their God, who 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 Yahweh’s word, you children of Israel; for Yahweh has a charge against the inhabitants of the land: “Indeed there is no truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God in the land.
- Hos 7:7–10They are all hot as an oven, and devour their judges. All their kings have fallen. There is no one among them who calls to me.
- Mic 6:10–16Are there yet treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and a short ephah that is accursed?
- 2 Kgs 18:12because they didn’t obey Yahweh their God’s voice, but transgressed his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of Yahweh commanded, and would not hear it or do it.
- Amos 8:4–6Hear this, you who desire to swallow up the needy, and cause the poor of the land to fail,
- Isa 5:22–23Woe to those who are mighty to drink wine, and champions at mixing strong drink;
- Hos 4:11–14Prostitution, wine, and new wine take away understanding.
- Ezek 23:5–9“Oholah played the prostitute when she was mine. She doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbors,
- Hos 8:4–6They have set up kings, but not by me. They have made princes, and I didn’t approve. Of their silver and their gold they have made themselves 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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