←Amos 2→BSB

desecrated the bones: In some past skirmish, the Moabites had captured Edom’s king. Cremation was considered a form of desecration; if the ashes (literally lime) of the king were used in plaster, the insult would be compounded.

• rejected the instruction (Hebrew torah) of the Lord: The pagan nations listed to this point had committed atrocities that violated a general sense of human decency, but Judah had gone further; they held the word of God and yet had rejected its teachings (see Hos 4:6; 8:1). God holds people responsible in proportion to the privilege they have received (see Amos 3:2).
• led astray by the same lies: Having discarded God’s true instruction, Judah turned to a substitute found in pagan syncretism (the combining of elements from different belief systems) and idolatry (see 1 Kgs 14:22–24).

Judah’s paganism brought the same punishment as the sins of its pagan neighbors: fire (1:4, 7, 10, 12, 14; 2:2) that would destroy Jerusalem. The Babylonians burned Jerusalem when they captured it in 586 BC (see 2 Kgs 25:9; Neh 2:17; 4:2).

Honorable people are the “righteous,” those who enjoyed a right relationship with God and other people. The parallel with poor people creates the idea of the “righteous needy.” The law of Moses urged those who had much to help those in need by lending freely (Deut 15:7–11). As a last resort, those too poor to pay their debts could become bond servants to repay their debts through labor (Lev 25:39–43). These righteous needy were being sold into bond servitude for a pair of sandals, a hyperbole for the pittance they owed (see Amos 8:6). The sandals were a pledge given for the debt or a token used to seal a bargain (see Ruth 4:7).

• To trample . . . people was to treat them ruthlessly (see also 8:4).
• The helpless and oppressed were people exploited by a socio-economic system that denied them the justice guaranteed by law (Exod 23:6–8).
• That father and son sleep with the same woman demonstrated the moral destitution of the Israelites; the law of Moses prohibited this practice (Lev 18:7–8, 15; 20:11–12).
• corrupting my holy name: In worshiping various fertility gods, Israel and surrounding nations engaged in “sacred prostitution” (see Hos 4:10–14). Sexual relations with a shrine prostitute were thought to ensure plentiful crops and thriving herds of livestock. This verse suggests that these acts were performed in the name of the Lord. When performed as religious rituals, these corrupt actions treat God’s name as worthless.

• The irony is that the oppressors of the poor flaunted their sins at religious festivals.
• The Torah allowed a lender to take a poor man’s cloak as security for a debt, but it was not to be kept overnight, because the nights were cold (Exod 22:26–27; Deut 24:12–13). A widow’s clothing was never to be taken as security for a debt (Deut 24:17).
• unjust fines: The wealthy bribed judges and used their influence to keep the poor, who could not defend themselves, from obtaining a fair hearing (Amos 5:12).

Amorites is used here as a general term to denote the inhabitants of Canaan (see Gen 15:16; Judg 6:10).

The archers stood in the last ranks. If they fled, it meant the forward ranks had collapsed.

Amos later calls that day the “day of the Lord” (5:18); both expressions indicate the time of judgment on Israel (see also 8:3).