They trample on the heads of the poor as on the dust of the earth; they push the needy out of their way. A man and his father have relations with the same girl and so profane My holy name.
Parallel translations
- WEB They trample on the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and deny justice to the oppressed; and a man and his father use the same maiden, to profane my holy name;
- KJV That pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and his father will go in unto the same maid, to profane my holy name:
- NKJV They pant after the dust of the earth which is on the head of the poor, And pervert the way of the humble. A man and his father go in to the same girl, To defile My holy name.
- NASB “These who trample the head of the helpless to the dust of the earth Also divert the way of the humble; And a man and his father resort to the same girl So as to profane My holy name.
- NLT They trample helpless people in the dust and shove the oppressed out of the way. Both father and son sleep with the same woman, corrupting my holy name.
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
Israel tramples the poor, denies justice to the oppressed, and commits sexual immorality that profanes God's name. Their social and moral corruption defiles their worship.
Overview
Amos piles up charges: grinding the poor into the dust, perverting the courts, and a father and son using the same girl in flagrant immorality. Such conduct desecrates God's holy name. Religion divorced from justice and purity is an offense to God. The prophets consistently insist that true faith bears fruit in righteous living, fulfilled in the holiness Christ works in his people.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 18
- Amos 5:12For I know that your transgressions are many and your sins are numerous. You oppress the righteous by taking bribes; you deprive the poor of justice in the gate.
- Isa 10:2to deprive the poor of fair treatment and withhold justice from the oppressed of My people, to make widows their prey and orphans their plunder.
- Ezek 22:11One man commits an abomination with his neighbor’s wife; another wickedly defiles his daughter-in-law; and yet another violates his sister, his own father’s daughter.
- 1 Cor 5:1It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is intolerable even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife.
- Mic 2:2They covet fields and seize them; they take away houses. They deprive a man of his home, a fellow man of his inheritance.
- Mic 2:9You drive the women of My people from their pleasant homes. You take away My blessing from their children forever.
- Lev 18:8You must not have sexual relations with your father’s wife; it would dishonor your father.
- Rom 2:24As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”
- Lev 18:15You must not have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law. She is your son’s wife; you are not to have sexual relations with her.
- Zeph 3:3Her princes are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves, leaving nothing for the morning.
- 1 Kgs 21:4So Ahab went to his palace, sullen and angry because Naboth the Jezreelite had told him, “I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers.” He lay down on his bed, turned his face away, and refused to eat.
- Mic 7:2–3The godly man has perished from the earth; there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; they hunt one another with a net.
- Prov 28:21To show partiality is not good, yet a man will do wrong for a piece of bread.
- Ezek 36:20And wherever they went among the nations, they profaned My holy name, because it was said of them, ‘These are the people of the LORD, yet they had to leave His land.’
- Lev 20:3And I will set My face against that man and cut him off from his people, because by giving his offspring to Molech, he has defiled My sanctuary and profaned My holy name.
- Amos 8:4Hear this, you who trample the needy, who do away with the poor of the land,
- 2 Sam 12:14Nevertheless, because by this deed you have shown utter contempt for the word of the LORD, the son born to you will surely die.”
- Amos 4:1Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy, who say to your husbands, “Bring us more to drink.”
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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 2:7 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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