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כה3541 אמר559 יהוה3068 על5921 שׁלשׁה7969 פשׁעי6588 ישׂראל3478 ועל5921 ארבעה702 לא3808 אשׁיבנו7725 על5921 מכרם4376 בכסף3701 צדיק6662 ואביון34  בעבור5668 נעלים׃5275

Am 6:3-7 2Ki 17:7-18; 18:12 Eze 23:5-9 Ho 4:1,2,11-14; 7:7-10; 8:4-6

Verse 6. 8. For three transgressions of Israel, &c.] To be satisfied of the exceeding delinquency of this people, we have only to open the historical and prophetic books in any part; for the whole history of the Israelites is one tissue of transgression against God. Their crimes are enumerated under the following heads:- 1. Their judges were mercenary and corrupt. They took bribes to condemn the righteous; and even for articles of clothing, such as a pair of shoes, they condemned the poor man, and delivered him into the hands of his adversary.

2. They were unmerciful to the poor generally. They pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor; or, to put it on the head of the poor; or, they bruise the head of the poor against the dust of the earth. Howsoever the clause is understood, it shows them to have been general oppressors of the poor, showing them neither justice nor mercy.

3. They turn aside the way of the meek. They are peculiarly oppressive to the weak and afflicted.

4. They were licentious to the uttermost abomination; for in their idol feasts, where young women prostituted themselves publicly in honour of Astarte, the father and son entered into impure connections with the same female.

5. They were cruel in their oppressions of the poor; for the garments or beds which the poor had pledged they retained contrary to the law, Exod. xxii. 7-26, which required that such things should be restored before the setting of the sun.

6. They punished the people by unjust and oppressive fines, and served their tables with wine bought by such fines. Or it may be understood of their appropriating to themselves that wine which was allowed to criminals to mitigate their sufferings in the article of death; which was the excess of inhumanity and cruelty.

Ver. 6. Thus saith the Lord, for three transgressions of Israel , etc.] The ten tribes rent from the house of David in the times of Rehoboam, and who departed from the true worship of God, and set up calves at Daniel and Bethel: and for four, I will not turn away [the punishment] thereof ; the following part of this prophecy is taken up in pointing at the sins and punishment of Israel; now the prophet is come to the main business he was sent to do: because they sold the righteous for silver ; meaning not any particular person, as Joseph sold by his brethren, for in that they were all concerned, Judah as well as the rest; nor Christ, as others f88 , sold for thirty pieces of silver; since the persons here charged with it, and the times in which it was done, will not agree with that case; but the sense is, that the judges of Israel were so corrupt, that for a piece of money they would give a cause against a righteous man, and in favour of an unjust man that bribed them: and the poor for a pair of shoes ; that is, for a mere trifle they would pervert justice; if two men came before them with a cause, and both poor; yet if one could but give a pair of shoes, or anything he could part with, though he could not give money; so mean and sordid were they, they would take it, and give the cause for him, however unjust it was.

כה3541 אמר559 יהוה3068 על5921 שׁלשׁה7969 פשׁעי6588 ישׂראל3478 ועל5921 ארבעה702 לא3808 אשׁיבנו7725 על5921 מכרם4376 בכסף3701 צדיק6662 ואביון34  בעבור5668 נעלים׃5275