Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plow there with oxen? for ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock:
Parallel translations
- WEB Do horses run on the rocky crags? Does one plow there with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness;
- BSB “Do horses gallop on the cliffs? Does one plow the sea with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood—
- NKJV Do horses run on rocks? Does one plow there with oxen? Yet you have turned justice into gall, And the fruit of righteousness into wormwood,
- NASB ¶Do horses run on rocks? Or does one plow them with oxen? Yet you have turned justice into poison, And the fruit of righteousness into wormwood,
- NLT Can horses gallop over boulders? Can oxen be used to plow them? But that’s how foolish you are when you turn justice into poison and the sweet fruit of righteousness into bitterness.
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
Just as horses do not run on cliffs or oxen plow rock, so Israel's perversion of justice into poison is unnatural and absurd. They have twisted what God made good into something deadly.
Overview
The rhetorical questions highlight how contrary to all good order it is to turn justice and righteousness into bitterness and poison. What should give life now spreads harm, an inversion of God's design. This perversion of justice calls for the restoration only Christ brings, who makes righteousness flow as God intended.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Amos 5:7Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,
- Hos 10:4They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant: thus judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field.
- 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.
- Isa 59:13–14In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
- Isa 48:4Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass;
- 1 Kgs 21:7–13And Jezebel his wife said unto him, Dost thou now govern the kingdom of Israel? arise, and eat bread, and let thine heart be merry: I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.
- Ps 94:20–21Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law?
- Jer 6:29–30The bellows are burned, the lead is consumed of the fire; the founder melteth in vain: for the wicked are not plucked away.
- Zech 7:11–12But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear.
- Hos 10:13Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies: because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men.
- Mic 7:3That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire: so they wrap it up.
- Jer 5:3O LORD, are not thine eyes upon the truth? thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.
- Hab 1:3–4Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention.
- Acts 7:51–52Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
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 6:12 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.