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.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(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.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

5:7-17 The same almighty power can, for repenting sinners, easily turn affliction and sorrow into prosperity and joy, and as easily turn the prosperity of daring sinners into utter darkness. Evil times will not bear plain dealing; that is, evil men will not. And these men were evil men indeed, when wise and good men thought it in vain even to speak to them. Those who will seek and love that which is good, may help to save the land from ruin. It behoves us to plead God's spiritual promises, to beseech him to create in us a clean heart, and to renew a right spirit within us. The Lord is ever ready to be gracious to the souls that seek him; and then piety and every duty will be attended to. But as for sinful Israel, God's judgments had often passed by them, now they shall pass through them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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" Psalm 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" Psalm 73:6, Psalm 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 people's, his ways are of another fashion" (Wisdom Psalm 2:1, Psalm 2:12-15). So when the Truth and Righteousness came into the world, the Scribes and Pharisees hated Him because He reproved them, "denied" Acts 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 Numbers 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 1 Samuel 12:3.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

12. they afflict … they take—rather, "(ye) who afflict … take."

bribe—literally, a price with which one who has an unjust cause ransoms himself from your sentence (1Sa 12:3, Margin; Pr 6:35).

turn aside the poor in the gate—refuse them their right in the place of justice (Am 2:7; Isa 29:21).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

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 Amos 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 prophet’s meaning, and are therefore well supplied in our version.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire 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.

Geneva Study Bible

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.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

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 (Psalm 73:11; Job 22:13), is the ground of the sentence expressed in Amos 5:11.

they afflict the just] Amos 2:6, Amos 3:9 f., &c.

they take a bribe] a ransom or price of a life, the proper meaning of the word (kôpher—not shôḥad); see e.g. Exodus 21:30, and especially Numbers 35:31, where the Israelites are strictly forbidden to “take a ransom (kôpher)” for the life of a murderer. But here the venal judges are represented as accepting such a ‘kôpher’; 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 Amos 5:10 : “turn aside” (sc. from their right, Isaiah 10:2), as Isaiah 29:21; Malachi 3:5.

12–13. Israel’s desperate moral condition, a justification of the sentence just pronounced upon it.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 12. - Your punishment is richly deserved, for "I know how many are your transgressions and how mighty are your sins," especially, as it follows, your sins of oppression and injustice. They afflict the just. The construction is continuous: "afflicters of the just." Hostes justi (Vulgate); καταπατοῦντες δίκαιον, "trampling down the just" (Septuagint); comp. Wisd. 2:12-15. They take a bribe. The translation of kopher as "bribe" is justified, perhaps, by 1 Samuel 12:3; but the word is elsewhere used for "ransom," redemption money paid to escape the consequences of crime (Proverbs 6:35), in direct opposition to the Law in Numbers 35:31, which forbade any ransom to be taken for the life of a murderer. The Septuagint has, λαμβάνοντες ἀλλάγματα "taking wares;" the Vulgate (with which the Syriac agrees), accipientes munus. Turn aside the poor in the gate from their right; or, bow down the needy in the gate, i.e. in the place of judgment (see note on ver. 10). Vulgate, pauperes deprimentes in porta; Septuagint, πένητας ἐν πύλαις ἐκκλίνοντες, "turning aside the poor in the gates." The crime specified is that of wresting judgment in the case of the poor, or not giving the poor man justice unless he could pay for it (comp. Exodus 23:6; Deuteronomy 16:19). Amos 5:12

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

"They hate the monitor in the gate, and abhor him that speaketh uprightly. Amos 5:11. Therefore, because ye tread upon the poor, and take the distribution of corn from him, ye have built houses of square stones, and will not dwell therein; planted pleasant vineyards, and will not drink their wine. Amos 5:12. For I know how many are your transgressions, and how great your sins; oppressing the righteous, taking atonement money; and ye bow down the poor in the gate." However natural it may seem to take מוכיח and דּבר תּמים in Amos 5:10 as referring to prophets, who charge the ungodly with their acts of unrighteousness, as Jerome does, this explanation is precluded not only by bassha‛ar (in the gate), since the gate was not the meeting-place of the people where the prophets were accustomed to stand, but the place where courts of judgment were held, and all the public affairs of the community discussed (see at Deuteronomy 21:19); but also by the first half of Amos 5:11, which presupposes judicial proceedings. Mōkhı̄ăch is not merely the judge who puts down unjust accusers, but any one who lifts up his voice in a court of justice against acts of injustice (as in Isaiah 29:21). דּבר תּמים, he who says what is blameless, i.e., what is right and true: this is to be taken generally, and not to be restricted to the accused who seeks to defend his innocence. תּעב is a stronger expression than שׂנא. The punishment for this unjust oppression of the poor will be the withdrawal of their possessions. The ἁπ. λεγ. bōshēs is a dialectically different form for בוסס, from בוּס, to trample down (Rashi, Kimchi), analogous to the interchange of שׁריון and סריון, a coat of mail, although as a rule שׁ passes into ס, and not ס into שׁ. For the derivation from בושׁ, according to which בושׁס would stand for בושׁשׁ (Hitzig and Tuch on Genesis p. 85), is opposed both to the construction with על, and also to the circumstance that בּושׁשׁ means to delay (Exodus 32:1; Judges 5:28); and the derivation suggested by Hitzig from an Arabic verb, signifying to carry one's self haughtily towards others, is a mere loophole. Taking a gift of corn from the poor refers to unjust extortion on the part of the judge, who will only do justice to a poor man when he is paid for it. The main clause, which was introduced with lâkhēn, is continued with בּתּי גזית: "thus have ye built houses of square stones, and shall not dwell therein;" for "ye shall not dwell in the houses of square stones which ye have built." The threat is taken from Deuteronomy 28:30, Deuteronomy 28:39, and sets before them the plundering of the land and the banishment of the people. Houses built of square stones are splendid buildings (see Isaiah 9:9). The reason for this threat is given in Amos 5:12, where reference is made to the multitude and magnitude of the sins, of which injustice in the administration of justice is again held up as the chief sin. The participles צררי and לקחי are attached to the suffixes of פּשׁעיכם and חטּאתיכם: your sins, who oppress the righteous, attack him, and take atonement money, contrary to the express command of the law in Numbers 35:31, to take no kōpher for the soul of a murderer. The judges allowed the rich murderer to purchase exemption from capital punishment by the payment of atonement money, whilst they bowed down the right of the poor. Observe the transition from the participle to the third person fem., by which the prophet turns away with disgust from these ungodly judges. Bowing down the poor is a concise expression for bowing down the right of the poor: compare Amos 2:7 and the warnings against this sin (Exodus 23:6; Deuteronomy 16:19).