Amos 2:1 - Meaning and Application

Here is the judgment on Moab, another nation that bordered Israel. It is counted and punished for “three transgressions and for four,” like the nations before it. Moab’s fourth sin, the one that fills up the measure, was cruelty. The example given is not against God’s people, but against a man like themselves: “The king of Moab burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime.”

We read that Moab and Edom went to war. In that struggle, the king of Moab was driven to desperation and anger, and he even offered his own son as a burnt offering to his god (2 Kings 3:26, 2 Kings 3:27). It seems that later, or one of his successors, took revenge on the king of Edom. He may have seized him alive and burned him to ashes, or killed him and burned his body, or even dug up his bones, especially those of the king who had pushed him into that crisis, and burned them to lime. Perhaps he even used the powder of those bones to whitewash his palace walls and ceiling, delighting in the sign of his revenge.

Revenge is sweeter than life itself, says the old saying. But it is barbaric to misuse human bodies, since we also live in a body. It is even more senseless to abuse dead bodies, and it is impious, because we believe in the resurrection of the dead. To abuse the body of a king, whose person and name should be especially honored, is an insult to royal authority. It shows a low spirit for people to trample on a dead lion when they would have trembled before him while he lived.

Moab’s punishment for this sin is death. Those who act cruelly will be treated cruelly (Amos 2:2). Moab will die, and the Moabites will be destroyed by the sword of war, with its noise, shouting, and trumpet blast. That makes the terror greater, just as a lion’s roar adds to the fright of its tearing. “Every battle of the warrior is with confused noise” (Isaiah 9:5).

The judgment also falls on the ruler who had passed sentence on the bones of the king of Edom, saying they should be burned to lime. God says, “I will cut him off” (Amos 2:3). He will learn that there is a Judge above him. The king, the chief judge, and all the lesser judges and princes will be cut off together. Sometimes people suffer because of their rulers’ sins, but the rulers themselves will not escape (Jeremiah 48:47). So much for the judgment of Moab.

Judah is also a close neighbor of Israel, and now that justice is making its rounds, Judah will not be passed over. This nation has made itself like the heathen and mixed with them. So the charge against Judah is framed in the same way as the charges against the other nations: “For these transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof.” Their sins are as many as the sins of the other nations, and they are grouped with them in the same kind of judgment (Jeremiah 9:26). The sentence is the same too: “I will send a fire upon Judah” (Amos 2:5). Even though Judah is the land where God is known, that fire will devour the palaces of Jerusalem, though Jerusalem was the holy city and had once been known as a refuge (Psalm 48:3).

The sin charged against Judah is different from the others. The other nations were judged for wrongs done to people, but Judah is judged for insults done to God (Amos 2:4). They despised his law, acting as if it were not worth attention and had no value. In doing that, they despised the wisdom, justice, goodness, authority, and rule of the Lawgiver himself. They also did not keep his commandments, showing no real care or conscience about them.

At the same time, they honored God’s rivals, their idols, here called “lies” because they led the people astray. An idol is a teacher of lies (Habakkuk 2:18). When people are led into idolatry, they are often led into many other errors too. One falsehood leads to many more. God is an infinite and eternal Spirit, but when the truth of God is changed into a lie through idolatry, all his other truths are in danger of being twisted as well. Their idols led them into error, and God justly gave them over to strong delusions. It was no excuse that these were the same lies their fathers followed. They should have taken warning from the ruin of those who had gone before them.

At last we come to the words Amos saw concerning Israel. The warnings and rebukes have gone around the surrounding nations, and now they settle here. He begins with Israel in the same way as the others: “For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof.” If all these nations must be punished for their sins, shall Israel go unpunished? Their sins are now named, and God will call them to account. The first is twisting justice. This was the sin of those trusted with courts and public rule, including judges and magistrates, and all who took part with them. They thought little of selling a righteous man and his righteous case for a piece of silver. Judgment was no longer based on the truth of the case. The bribe always tipped the scale, and justice was sold to the highest bidder.

They would sell the life and work of a poor man for a pair of shoes, for the smallest gain they could get. Give them even that much, and they would betray the poor man’s cause and leave him at the mercy of people who show no mercy. Those who will break conscience for anything will, in time, do it for almost nothing. People who begin by selling justice for silver may end by selling it for a pair of old shoes.

They also oppressed the poor and tried to profit by hurting them. They pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor. They greedily swallow up the poor and make prey of those who are already in sorrow, with dust on their heads, like poor orphans mourning their parents. They seize them in order to get their property. They do not rest until the heads of the poor are in the dust, ready to be trampled on. Or the meaning may be that they pant after the dust of the earth, that is, silver and gold, and force it from the poor through unjust demands.

People who enrich themselves by ruining others commit a sin God will not overlook for long. This is a way of pushing aside the cause of the humble, since they plan harm against people they know are mild, patient, and willing to endure wrong. They take away the poor person’s rights, twist justice against them, and block them from pursuing what is right. The more quietly people suffer injustice, the greater the guilt of those who hurt them, and the more reason they have to expect God to defend them. “I was like a deaf man and did not hear,” and then “you will hear.”

There is also the sin of disgusting sexual uncleanness, even incest, a crime so shameful that it was not even named among the Gentiles, that is, the nations outside Israel (1 Corinthians 5:1). A man and his father may go in to the same young woman, a terrible example of uncontrolled lust. When people have already given themselves over to oppression and extortion, this kind of wickedness often follows, because once justice is cast off, modesty is seldom kept. Such sin brings shame on religion and on the profession of it, because it seems to profane God’s holy name and make him hateful among the nations.

They also enjoy themselves with what they have gained by oppression, while still pretending to honor God with it (Amos 2:8). They add idolatry to their injustice, and then try to make up for their wrong doing with worship. They lie down in comfort on clothes taken in pledge, though they should have returned them the same night according to the law (Deuteronomy 24:12-13). They drink wine taken from those they have condemned by fines and heavy penalties, spending on pleasure what they gained by wrong.

Then they try to cover that sin by feasting before their altars and drinking this wine in the house of their God, in the temples where they worshiped their calves. It is as if they would make God a partner in their crimes by sharing the profits of them with him. That may suit false gods, but the true God will not be mocked in that way. He has said that he hates robbery used for burnt offerings, and he can be served acceptably only with what is honestly gained.