Amos · chapter 2 of 9
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Amos 2 completes the series of verdicts with Moab, Judah and Israel. Moab is judged for burning the bones of the king of Edom, Judah for rejecting the law of the Lord and following lies, and Israel for selling the righteous, trampling the poor and silencing prophets and Nazirites, despite the fact that the Lord brought it out of Egypt.
In chapter 1 the prophet named the neighboring nations; in chapter 2 the circle closes. Moab is still a foreigner, but the verdict on Judah touches the prophet's own people, and the longest is aimed at Israel. There the central theme of Amos appears: social injustice committed by a people who knew the Lord's deliverance.
For three transgressions and for four, says the Lord, Moab will be punished because it burned the bones of the king of Edom to lime. He will send fire on Moab and consume the strongholds of Kerioth; it will die amid uproar, battle shouts and the sound of the trumpet, and the Lord will cut off the ruler from Moab and kill all its princes with him.
Then comes Judah, the prophet's own land. The Lord judges it because it rejected the law and did not keep his statutes, and because the lies its fathers followed led it astray. He will send fire on Judah that will devour the strongholds of Jerusalem.
The longest verdict is for Israel. They sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, trample the head of the weak into the dust and push the humble out of the way. Father and son go to the same young woman, and so profane the holy name of the Lord. They lie down beside any altar on garments taken in pledge and drink in the house of their God the wine of those who were fined.
The Lord reminds them what he did for them: he destroyed the Amorite before them, tall as cedars and strong as oaks, brought them out of Egypt, led them forty years in the wilderness and gave them the land of the Amorite. He raised up prophets among their sons and Nazirites among their young men, but they made the Nazirites drink wine and commanded the prophets not to prophesy. So the Lord will crush them like a cart full of sheaves, and no one will escape: not the swift, the strong, the mighty, the archer or the horseman. On that day even the bravest will flee naked.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Judah is judged because it rejected the law of the Lord and did not keep his commands. Unlike the nations, Judah knew God's word, and so its disobedience weighs more.
Israel sells the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals. The charge shows that economic injustice and the exploitation of the weakest are serious sins before God.
The Lord reminds Israel that he brought it out of Egypt and led it forty years in the wilderness. God's deliverance is the ground of his claim: those who were rescued should not oppress others.
The people made the Nazirites, who were consecrated to the Lord, drink wine and ordered the prophets not to prophesy. They rejected the very people God raised up to remind them of his covenant.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: It burned the bones of the king of Edom to lime. — Amos 2:1
Answer: Because it rejected the law of the Lord, did not keep his statutes and followed the lies of its fathers. — Amos 2:4
Answer: The righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals. — Amos 2:6
Answer: He brought it out of Egypt and led it forty years in the wilderness to give it the land of the Amorite. — Amos 2:10
Answer: It made the Nazirites drink wine and commanded the prophets not to prophesy. — Amos 2:12
Answer: To a cart full of sheaves that crushes. — Amos 2:13
Amos 2 reminds us that faith includes how we treat our neighbor. Israel had altars and feasts, but it exploited the poor. In a Sunday school class you can ask how the church treats people with less power: workers, immigrants, debtors, the elderly and people without resources.
The chapter also warns against forgetting what God has done. Israel forgot its deliverance and acted as if it owed nothing. Giving thanks for what God has done in our lives moves us to treat with mercy those who need rescue today, and it keeps us from silencing those who say what we do not want to hear.
Amos 2 closes the circle: Moab, Judah and finally Israel stand under the Lord's verdict. Now the prophet will speak directly to Israel in chapter 3, explaining why such a special election brings greater responsibility.
Because desecrating a dead man's remains was an act of cruelty and contempt that went beyond war. It shows that God holds nations accountable for offenses against other peoples, even when they are not his own.
They were people who took a special vow of consecration to the Lord, among other things avoiding wine and leaving their hair uncut, as described in Numbers 6. Forcing them to drink wine broke their vow and despised their witness.
It probably refers to judges or creditors who denied justice to the innocent for money, or enslaved people over tiny debts, like the price of a pair of sandals. Amos condemns a system in which the poor lose because they have less.