Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?
Parallel translations
- WEB Saying, ‘When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may market wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel large, and dealing falsely with balances of deceit;
- BSB asking, “When will the New Moon be over, that we may sell grain? When will the Sabbath end, that we may market wheat? Let us reduce the ephah and increase the shekel; let us cheat with dishonest scales.
- NKJV Saying: “When will the New Moon be past, That we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, That we may trade wheat? Making the ephah small and the shekel large, Falsifying the scales by deceit,
- NASB saying, “When will the new moon be over, So that we may sell grain; And the Sabbath, so that we may open the wheat market, To make the ephah smaller and the shekel bigger, And to cheat with dishonest scales,
- NLT You can’t wait for the Sabbath day to be over and the religious festivals to end so you can get back to cheating the helpless. You measure out grain with dishonest measures and cheat the buyer with dishonest scales.
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
The merchants resent holy days that interrupt business and cheat customers with false measures and weights. Their religion is a mask over their love of dishonest gain.
Overview
They observe new moon and Sabbath outwardly while inwardly chafing to resume defrauding the poor with skewed scales. Their hearts despise God's rest and worship, valuing profit above all. This hypocrisy exposes the hollowness of religion without integrity, the very thing Christ condemns and his gospel transforms from within.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 19
- Neh 13:15–21In those days saw I in Judah some treading wine presses on the sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses; as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the sabbath day: and I testified against them in the day wherein they sold victuals.
- Hos 12:7He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loveth to oppress.
- Mic 6:10–11Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable?
- Deut 25:13–16Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small.
- Lev 19:36Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt.
- Prov 16:11A just weight and balance are the LORD’s: all the weights of the bag are his work.
- Prov 20:23Divers weights are an abomination unto the LORD; and a false balance is not good.
- Exod 20:8–10Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
- Isa 1:13Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
- Prov 11:1A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight.
- Num 10:10Also in the day of your gladness, and in your solemn days, and in the beginnings of your months, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; that they may be to you for a memorial before your God: I am the LORD your God.
- 2 Kgs 4:23And he said, Wherefore wilt thou go to him to day? it is neither new moon, nor sabbath. And she said, It shall be well.
- Ezek 45:10–12Ye shall have just balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath.
- Ps 81:3–4Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day.
- Num 28:11–15And in the beginnings of your months ye shall offer a burnt offering unto the LORD; two young bullocks, and one ram, seven lambs of the first year without spot;
- Isa 58:13If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
- Mal 1:13Ye said also, Behold, what a weariness is it! and ye have snuffed at it, saith the LORD of hosts; and ye brought that which was torn, and the lame, and the sick; thus ye brought an offering: should I accept this of your hand? saith the LORD.
- Col 2:16Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:
- Rom 8:6–7For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
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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 8:5 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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