Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Amos 5:12
For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate [from their right].
12. For I know how manifold are your transgressions, and how mighty are your sins ] Jehovah’s knowledge of what they imagine He is ignorant of (Psa 73:11; Job 22:13), is the ground of the sentence expressed in Amo 5:11.
they afflict the just ] Amo 2:6, Amo 3:9 f., &c.
they take a bribe ] a ransom or price of a life, the proper meaning of the word ( kpher not shad); see e.g. Exo 21:30, and especially Num 35:31, where the Israelites are strictly forbidden to “take a ransom ( kpher)” for the life of a murderer. But here the venal judges are represented as accepting such a ‘kpher’; thus the rich murderer was acquitted, while the innocent, if unable to pay the price which the judge demanded, could get no redress for his wrongs.
turn aside the needy in the gate ] The ‘gate,’ as Amo 5:10: “turn aside” (sc. from their right, Isa 10:2), as Isa 29:21; Mal 3:5.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
12 13. Israel’s desperate moral condition, a justification of the sentence just pronounced upon it.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For I know – Literally, I have known. They thought that God did not know, because He did not avenge; as the Psalmist says, Thy judgments are far above out of his sight Psa 10:5. People who do not act with the thought of God, cease to know Him, and forget that He knows them. Your manifold transgressions; literally, many are your transgressions and mighty your sins. Their deeds, they knew, were mighty, strong, vigorous, decided. God says, that their sins were so, not many and great only, but mighty, strong , issuing not out of ignorance and infirmity, but out of proud strength , strong in the oppression of the poor and in provoking God, and bringing down His wrath. So Asaph says of the prosperous; Pride encompasseth them, as a chain; they are corrupt, they speak oppression wickedly; they speak from on high Psa 73:6, Psa 73:8.
They afflict the just – Literally, afflicters of the just, that is, such as habitually afflicted him; whose habit and quality it was to afflict him. Our version mostly renders the word enemies. Originally, it signifies afflicting, persecuting enemies. Yet it is used also of the enemies of God, perhaps such as persecute Him in His people, or in His Son when in the flesh. The unjust hate the just, as is said in the book of Wisdom; The ungodly said, Therefore let us lie in wait for the righteous, because he is not for our turn, and is clean contrary to our doings: he upbraideth us with our offending the law. He profeseth to have the knowledge of God, and he calleth himself the child of the Lord. He was made to reprove our thoughts. He is grievous unto us even to behold, for his life is not as other peoples, his ways are of another fashion (Wisdom Psa 2:1, Psa 2:12-15). So when the Truth and Righteousness came into the world, the Scribes and Pharisees hated Him because He reproved them, denied Act 3:14 and crucified the Holy one and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto them, haters and enemies of the Just, and preferring to Him the unjust.
That take a bribe – Literally, a ransom. It may be that, contrary to the law, which forbade, in these same words Num 35:22, to take any ransom for the life of a murderer, they took some ransom to set free rich murderers, and so, (as we have seen for many years to be the effect of unjust acquittals,) blood was shed with impunity, and was shed the more, because it was disregarded. The word, however, is used in one place apparently of any bribe, through which a man connives at injustice 1Sa 12:3.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 12. I know your manifold transgressions] I have marked the multitude of your smaller crimes, as well as your mighty offenses. Among their greater offenses were,
1. Their afflicting the righteous.
2. Taking bribes to blind their eyes in judgment. And,
3. Refusing to hear the poor, who had no money to give them.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
For; wonder not at the threatened severity, as if it were too rigorous; it is but proportioned to your sins.
I, the Lord, whom you provoke, who have threatened you, know, clearly, fully, and in all the circumstances of them, what moves you to do so, what pretences of law you make: all your evasions are vain and foolish.
Your manifold transgressions; the increased number of your sins, and the greatness of them too, as the word importeth.
Your mighty sins; which mightily wrong and break the poor and needy.
They afflict, besiege, or with hostile minds watch against, and gladly take any occasion to wrong and grieve, the just; not absolutely and sinlessly just, but such as are comparatively just, or those whose cause is just, or those that live with regard to all the commands of God, and follow righteousness: it was the mighty sin of the corrupt rulers in Samaria and Israel at that day, that they were enemies to all righteousness.
They take a bribe; in civil causes bribes carried it; see Amo 2:6; here bribes set criminals free, a ransom. as the word in the Hebrew, buys off the punishment appointed by the law against murderers, adulterers, &c.
They turn aside the poor in the gate; the poor, who appear in their courts for justice, they turn them away, or delay to hear, or hear and judge unjustly, and so send them away wronged and crying.
From their right: these words fully express the prophets meaning, and are therefore well supplied in our version.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
12. they afflict . . . theytakerather, “(ye) who afflict . . . take.”
bribeliterally, aprice with which one who has an unjust cause ransomshimself from your sentence (1Sa12:3, Margin; Pr 6:35).
turn aside the poor in thegaterefuse them their right in the place of justice(Amo 2:7; Isa 29:21).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins,…. Their sins were numerous, and of the first magnitude, attended with very heavy aggravations; and these with all their circumstances were well known to the omniscient God, and therefore he determined to punish them as he had threatened. Some of their transgressions are pointed out, as follow:
they afflict the just; who are so both in a moral and evangelic sense; not comparatively only, but really; and particularly whose cause was just, and yet were vexed and distressed by unjust judges, who gave the cause against them, made them pay all costs and charges, and severely mulcted them: they take a bribe; of those that were against the just, and gave the cause for them. The word signifies “a ransom” f. The Targum it false mammon. Corrupt and unjust judges are here taxed:
and they turn aside the poor in the gate [from their right]; in the court of judicature, where they should have done them justice, such courts being usually held in the gates of cities; but instead of that they perverted their judgment, and did them wrong.
f “pretium redemptionis”, Mercerus, Liveleus, Drusius, Lytron, Cocceius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The Prophet introduces God here as the speaker, that the threatening might be more authoritative: for we know, at it has been before stated, that the Prophets were despised by haughty men; but when God himself appeared as it were before them, it was strange if no fear laid hold on them; they had at least no excuse for their presumption, if God’s name did not touch their hearts and humble them.
I know, he says, your iniquities; as though he said, “Ye do not think yourselves bound to render an account to men, as probably no such account; will be rendered by you; but how will you be able, think you, to escape my tribunal? for I am your judge, and mine is the government: however ferociously ye now tread on the poor, and evasively contend with me, your crimes must necessarily be judged by me; I know your crimes. And as the rich by their splendor covered every wickedness, particularly the magistrates, who were adorned with a public character, God says that their turpitude was fully known to him: as though he said “Contend as much as you please, still your iniquities are sufficiently apparent to me; ye will gain nothing by your subtle evasions.” Moreover, he reprehends them not merely for slight offenses, but says that they were wholly past being borne with. When something is done amiss by the highest power, indulgence is commonly granted; for nothing is more difficult than for one who sustains so great and heavy a burden, to retain so much integrity as to be free from every blame: but the Lord shows here that they were not lightly culpable, but that their crimes were so grievous and flagrant that they could not be endured. We now then understand what was the object of the Prophet.
When therefore their own greatness dazzles the eyes of proud men, let us know that they cannot deprive God of his right; for though he may not judge them to-day, he will yet shortly ascend his tribunal: and he reminds them, that those pompous displays by which they cover their many crimes, are only shadows which will vanish. This is what the Prophet means.
Then he calls them, The oppressors of the just He enumerates here some particulars, with regard to which, the iniquity of the judges whom he now addresses might be, as it were, felt to be gross and abominable. Ye oppress he says, the just; this was one thing: then follows another, They take כפר, capher, expiation, or, the price of redemption. The Prophet, I have no doubt, meant to point out here something different from the former crime. Though interpreters blend these two things, I yet think them to be wholly different; for these mercenary judges made an agreement with the wicked, whenever any homicide or other violence was perpetrated; in short, whenever any one implicated himself in any grievous sin, they saw that there was a prey taken, and anxiously gaped for it: they wished murders to be committed daily, that they might acquire gain. Since, then, these judges were thus intent on bribery, the Prophet accuses them as being takers of ransom. They ought to have punished crimes; this they did not; but they let go the wicked unpunished; they spared murderers, and adulterers, and robbers, and sorcerers not indeed without rewards, for they brought the price of redemption, and departed as if they were innocent.
We now perceive what the Prophet means here; and well would it be were this crime not so common: but at this day, the cruelty of many judges appears especially in this — that they hunt for crimes for the sake of gain, which seems to be as it were a ransom; for this is the proper meaning of the word כפר, capher. As then this evil commonly prevails it is no wonder that the Prophet, while reprehending the corruptions of his time, says, that judges took a ransom.
Then he adds, The poor they turn aside from judgment in the gate This is the third crime: the Prophet complains, that they deprived miserable men of their right, because they could not bring so large a bribe as the rich; though relying on the goodness of their cause, they thought themselves sure of victory. The Prophet complains, that they were disappointed of their hope, and their right was denied them in the gate, that is, in the court of justice; for we know that it was an ancient custom for judges to sit in the gates, and there to administer justice; And hence Amos mentions here gate twice: and what he complains of was the more disgraceful, inasmuch as the judicial court was, as it were, a sacred asylum, to which injured men resorted, that they might have their wrongs redressed. When this became the den of robbers, what any more remained for them? We now then see that the Prophet speaks not here of the common people, but that he mainly levels his reproofs against the rulers. Let us go on —
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(12) I know.Most of the commentators imply that the I is Jehovah, but it is more likely to be the prophet himself. The adjectives manifold, mighty, should be rendered as predicates, That manifold are your transgressions, and mighty your sins, ye afflicters of the just and takers of a bribe, and ye who bow down the poor in the gate. The idea involved in the word rendered bribe is the ransom which the poor and defenceless were obliged to pay to a tyrannical judge, in order to escape a harsh sentence. The gate is the place where judgment is passed by the chief men.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Amo 5:12. They afflict the just, &c. Who afflict the just, who take a bribe, and who turn aside, &c. Houbigant.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 1191
GOD KNOWS OUR SINS
Amo 5:12. I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins.
MANY passages of Holy Writ appear to refer to a particular people only; whilst in reality, they are applicable to all mankind. Whoever shall consult the passages cited by St. Paul in the third chapter of his Epistle to the Romans, in confirmation of the total depravity of mankind, and compare them with the places from whence they are taken, will be particularly struck with the truth of this remark. The Prophets David and Isaiah speak of certain individuals whose iniquities were of a most enormous kind; but St. Paul proves from them the depravity of human-nature in general: and this he does with great propriety: for, though all persons do not run to the same extent of wickedness, all have the same propensities within them: and if persons enjoying all the advantages of revelation abandoned themselves to such wickedness, it must arise, not from the peculiarity of their trials, but from the inward depravity of their hearts. This observation was applicable to the passage before us. The prophet, or rather God by him, is addressing a people who violated all the duties of social and civil life; and is denouncing his judgments against them for the sins which they so openly committed: but the same address may be justly made to every child of man: for all are corrupt and abominable in their doings; all of which are naked and opened before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
Let us consider,
I.
The information here given us
Men conceive of God as not noticing their sins: They say in their hearts, The thick clouds are a covering to him, that he cannot see. But he does see the sins of all mankind: he sees them,
1.
In all their extent and variety
[From infancy to age his eye is upon us. Scarcely do we draw our breath, before we begin to shew what fallen creatures we are; how irritable, how self-willed, how querulous, how addicted to every evil which we are capable of committing. As our powers of acting are enlarged, our habit of sinning is proportionably increased; every faculty displaying those corruptions which are most suited to its powers, and to the exercise of which it can most easily contribute. As reason expands, we might hope that it should assume the government of our lives: but it is soon overpowered by passion; and its voice, if heard at all, is lost amidst the pleasures and vanities of a tempting world. So universal is this, that all expect, as a matter of course, to behold increasing corruptions with increasing years; the exhibition of them varying with the successive periods of life: in the young, the passions pleading for indulgence; in maturer age, the desire of distinction urging and impelling us; and, in our latter years, the cares of this life, or the deceitfulness of riches, occupying all our time and thoughts. All this has God beheld; and not a disposition or desire has been hid from him.
The sins of body and of mind have been alike open to him. Each of these has its appropriate lusts: there is a filthiness both of the flesh and of the spirit, from which we are alike concerned to cleanse ourselves. Intemperance, lewdness, sloth, have, in different men, their sway, according as education or constitutional propensity incline them. And in the mind, what an inconceivable mass of iniquity resides, ever ready to start forth into action, as occasion may require! Oh the pride, the envy, the malice, the wrath, the revenge, the uncharitableness, which shew themselves in our daily life and conversation! Add to these the murmuring, and discontent, and covetousness; the self-confidence and self-dependence; and the entire devotion to self-gratification in the whole of our conduct. What an accumulation of wickedness must arise from a life so spent, when, in fact, every imagination of the thoughts of our hearts is evil, only evil, continually!
Of omission, too, as well as of commission, does he behold our sins. He tries us by the standard of his perfect law, which requires that we should love him with all our heart and mind and soul and strength; and that we should live in an entire dependence on his care, and for the purpose only of advancing his glory. But in our whole lives there has not been one single moment in which we have conformed to his law, or come near to the line which he has marked out for us. To his dear Son, also, what gratitude, what affiance, what devotion have we owed! Yet have we been almost strangers to these holy feelings; and, even at the present moment, possess them in no degree comparable to what his love to us requires. Nor have we obeyed the motions of his Holy Spirit, but rather have done despite to him every day we lived. What have the interests of our souls and of eternity demanded? Yet, in what way have we discharged the debt?
Surely, if we put together these things, we must confess that our transgressions have been manifold; yea, more in number than the hairs of our head, or as the sands upon the sea-shore innumerable.]
2.
In all their heinousness and aggravations
[Our sins have been committed against light and knowledge. Though we have not known the extent of our duty to God, we have known far more of it than we have ever practised. No one of us has been so ignorant, as not to see the importance of eternal things, when compared with the things of time and sense; and, consequently, the duty of giving them a precedence, both in our estimation and pursuit. But have we felt the same ardour in relation to them that we have in prosecuting the vanities of this present world? Alas! If we had paid no more attention to our temporal concerns than we have to those which are spiritual and eternal, we should have had very little prosperity to boast of; or rather I should say, there would have been but one sentiment respecting us, among all who knew us.
Against vows and resolutions, too, we have proceeded in this mad career. I conceive there is not any one amongst us so obdurate, as not to have formed some purposes of amendment. At the death of a friend or relative, or in a time of sickness, when our own dissolution seemed to be drawing near, or perhaps after an awakening sermon, we have thought that to humble ourselves before God, and seek acceptance with him, was our duty: but the impression has soon worn away, and, like metal that has been fused, we have soon returned to our wonted hardness. Possibly we may have begun and made some progress in religion, and given to our friends hopes that we would really turn unto our God: but we have been drawn aside by temptation, and have turned back with the dog to his vomit, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.
Above all, we have sinned against all the mercies and the judgments of God. We have seen his judgments upon others, yet have not returned unto him ourselves. We have perhaps felt them in some measure ourselves, yet have made no suitable improvement of them. As for mercies, they have followed us night and day, from our youth up: yet to how little effect, as it regards our souls! That greatest of all mercies, the gift of Gods only-begotten Son to die for us, one would suppose that that should have altogether constrained us to live unto our God. But that stupendous mystery has appeared to us only as a cunningly-devised fable, which might amuse us awhile, but which merited no practical regard. Indeed, if Christianity had been altogether false, few of us would have materially differed from what we have been; for we have neither been allured by its promises, nor alarmed by its threats, so as to comply with its dictates in any essential point.
Is this matter over-stated? Do we not know it to be true? and has not God witnessed it in all its parts? Yes: as he has seen our manifold transgressions, so has he also known our mighty sins, and recorded every one of them in the book of his remembrance.]
Such is the information given us in our text: and it becomes us to consider,
II.
The use we should make of it
Certainly, in the first place,
1.
We should beg of God to discover to us the real state of our souls
[We know it not, though it is so plain and palpable. We are ready to account ourselves, if not positively good, yet far from bad. The sins of which we are conscious, appear only like the stars in a cloudy night, few in number, and at great intervals; whereas, if we saw ourselves as we really are, the whole extent of our lives would present to us but one continuous mass of sins, of a greater or lesser magnitude. But who can open our eyes? Who can shew us to ourselves? Who can bring us to a becoming sense of our extreme vileness? None but God. It is he alone who can open to our view the chambers of imagery which are in our hearts; and shew us, that instead of our being, as we vainly imagine, rich, and increased with goods, and in need of nothing, we are indeed wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.]
2.
We should entreat him to humble us in the dust before him
[It is God alone who can give repentance: he alone can take away the heart of stone, and give us a heart of flesh. Who was it that made the difference between Lydia and the other hearers of St. Paul? It was the Lord, who opened her heart to attend to the things that were spoken by him. And it is the same power alone that can turn us from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God. And let us remember, that humiliation for sin is necessary: it is indispensably necessary for our acceptance with God. God himself has declared, that whoso covereth his sins shall not prosper; and that he only who confesseth and forsaketh them, shall find mercy at his hands.]
3.
We should look to our Lord Jesus Christ, as our only hope
[If we conceive our sins to have been only light and venial, we shall easily persuade ourselves that we can make compensation for them by some works of our own. And it is owing to mens ignorance of their own hearts, that they so generally hope to establish a righteousness of their own by the works of the law. But that vain thought must be discarded with abhorrence. We must renounce all hope in ourselves; and flee for refuge to that hope which is set before us, even to the Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that he might atone for our sins, and effect a reconciliation for us with our offended God. Be assured, Brethren, that there is no other way unto the Father than by Christ. If you were to shed rivers of tears, you could never wash away one sin; nor, if you could walk ever so holily in future, could you ever atone for the smallest sin. How then can you hope to wash away or make atonement for all your manifold transgressions, and your mighty sins? Indeed, you must look to Christ as your only hope, and transfer to his sacred head the sins you have committed, exactly as Aaron transferred to the head of the scape-goat the sins of all Israel. It is in this way alone that they can ever be removed from your souls: and if not so removed, they will sink your souls into everlasting perdition.]
4.
We should walk with all possible circumspection before God
[Having so long exercised the patience of our God, we ought to determine, through grace, that we will offend him no more. However careful we may be, imperfection will pervade our very best services. But let it be imperfection only, and not wilful sin, that God shall see in us in future. Let there be no allowed guile in our hearts. Let us search out our duty in its full extent, and endeavour to fulfil it; attending to it in all its parts, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Let it henceforth be the one labour of our lives to keep a conscience void of offence before God, if by any means we may approve ourselves to him, and stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Amo 5:12 For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate [from their right].
Ver. 12. For I know your manifold transgressions, and your mighty sins ] I know them, and can easily set them in an order before your eyes, Psa 50:21 , bring them out (as they did the vessels of the sanctuary) by number and by weight, Ezr 8:34 : make you answer for all with flames about your ears, lay open your many transgressions, and mighty sins, fortia peccata. The Hebrew hath it, your bony, or big boned sins; huge, heinous, and monstrous, capable of all manner of aggravations. All these I know, saith God, they are all in print in heaven, and I will one day read them aloud in the ears of all the world. Fac ergo confitendo propitium, quem tacendo non facis nescium, saith Austin. Make, therefore, God thy friend, by confessing thy sins to him, which thou canst not by any means conceal from him.
They afflict the just
They take a bribe
They turn aside the poor in the gate
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
transgressions. Hebrew pasha. App-44.
sins. Hebrew. chata App-44.
they afflict = oppressors [as ye are] of.
the just = a righteous one.
take a bribe. Reference to Pentateuch (Num 35:31, Num 35:32, the same word). App-92, turn aside. Reference to Pentateuch, (Exo 23:6. Deu 16:19; Deu 24:17. The same Hebrew word in all three cases). App-92, Compare Isa 29:21. Mal 3:5.
the poor’ needy ones. Hebrew. ‘ebyee. See note on “poverty”, Pro 6:11. Compare Amo 2:7. Isa 29:21.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
I know: Deu 31:21, Isa 66:18, Jer 29:23, Heb 4:12, Heb 4:13
manifold: 2Ki 17:7-17, Isa 47:9
they afflict: Amo 2:6, Amo 2:7, Amo 2:16, Act 3:13, Act 3:14, Act 7:52, Jam 5:4, Jam 5:6
take: 1Sa 8:3, Psa 26:9, Psa 26:10, Isa 1:23, Isa 33:15, Mic 3:11, Mic 7:3
bribe: or, ransom
and they: Amo 2:7, Isa 10:2, Isa 29:21, Lam 3:34, Mal 3:5
in the: Amo 5:10, Deu 16:18, Rth 4:1, Job 29:7-25, Job 31:21, Pro 22:22
Reciprocal: Gen 34:20 – the gate Exo 23:6 – General Exo 23:8 – thou shalt take Lev 25:14 – General Deu 1:17 – ye shall hear Job 15:34 – the tabernacles Job 24:10 – they take away Psa 10:9 – when Pro 17:15 – that justifieth Pro 22:7 – rich Pro 24:7 – openeth Pro 31:9 – General Ecc 5:8 – regardeth Eze 16:49 – neither Eze 18:7 – hath spoiled Hos 4:18 – her Hos 5:11 – oppressed Amo 5:7 – turn Amo 6:3 – and cause Amo 6:12 – for Mic 6:12 – the rich Hab 1:4 – for Zec 7:10 – oppress
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Amo 5:12. Everything that is done is open before the eyes of the Lord. The leaders took advantage of their position to oppress the poor so that they could enlarge their own possessions. Not only so, but if some one of the poor had the misfortune of being treated with fraud in a deal, it would not avail him anything to appeal to these leaders who were the rulers, for they could be bribed by the fraudulent dealers to render a verdict against the victim.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Yahweh knew the many transgressions of His covenant and the great sins that these perverters of justice committed. They had distressed the righteous by their unrighteous conduct, accepted bribes from the wealthy, and made it impossible for the poor to get fair treatment in the courts. God was looking for justice (in their relationships to one another) and for righteousness (in their relationship to Him). This dual emphasis on justice and righteousness runs throughout the Book of Amos.