Amos 8:1-7

Amos 8:1

Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me: and behold a basket of summer fruit.

 

Then this fourth vision begins by God showing Amos a basket of summer fruit.  This would be the fruit which would have been gathered after summer.

 

Amos 8:2

And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the LORD unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.

 

Then God asks Amos what do you see?  So Amos answers that he sees a basket of summer fruit.  These fruits would be the product of the harvest which would come at the end of the season.  Then God tells Amos that just like the fruit was picked at the harvest, the end of the people of Israel has come.  He has pronounced judgment upon them and now it will come in his timing.  God had previously stated that he had given Israel many chances to repent of their devious ways but they kept rejecting him so no longer would there be any more opportunities to repent, they would be sternly dealt with by means of the Assyrians.

 

Amos 8:3

And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord GOD: there shall be many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them forth with silence.

 

The songs which used to be sung in the temple which meant they were worshipping the LORD and in fellowship with him will no longer be songs of joy but they will be turned into howling or wailing.  God also has in view that when the people who were worshipping at the false temple in Beth-el, instead of them singing songs in joy, they will be turned into howling.  Then God pulls no punches when he states that the coming judgment will result in the deaths of many people and there will be dead bodies strewn all over the land.  Then the bodies of the slain will be removed out of the way without any prayers over them or any type of service.  They will be removed in silence so no one will know how tragic the situation will be in Samaria.

 

Amos 8:4

Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail,

 

Then Amos turns to all those whether they be merchants or whether they be the leaders in Israel that have made war on the poor and needy and have persecuted them till they had nothing left over to live on just so they could lifestyles of luxury.  James had a similar warning to the people of his day that oppressed the poor.  Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.  (James 5:1)  The day of reckoning for the rich was now at hand in Israel and none will escape and that includes the wealthy.

 

Amos 8:5

Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?

 

Here Amos deals directly with the merchants who were crooked and greedy and took pride in cheating their customers.  The first day of every month was a day set aside where no selling was permitted and here the merchants cannot wait for it to end.  It is like many businesses today where they have blue laws where selling on Sunday is forbidden.  They cannot wait for Monday so they can open up shop.  Then they also could not wait for the Sabbath to end so they can get business going again.  It is not that they were selling so much but in the course of their sales, they were falsifying weights and measures to their advantage so they could pull in a bigger profit margin.  The ephah was about one half of a bushel.  They increased the size of their shekel which means when the people weighed out the money to pay for their purchase, they were being robbed because the shekel they weighed against was heavier than normal and therefore they paid out more money than they should have.

 

Amos 8:6

That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat?

 

Then another method they used to cheat the poor was to seek out people who had debt, even debt so small as the price of sandals, and they would buy that debt from the lender and then the people would owe the rich man who purchased their debt and they would make slaves out of them.  {39} And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant:  {40} But as an hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of jubile:  (Leviticus 5:39-40)  Under the law if an Israelite bought another person for debt, they were to treat that person as a hired servant and not as a slave and then were to return them to their families at the year of Jubilee.  The problem is that the rich cared nothing for the poor or for those without influence.  These rich merchants when selling the poor wheat to make bread out of would not sell them the good wheat but the refuse which was dropped and filled with dirt thus diminishing the amount of wheat they sold.

 

Amos 8:7

The LORD hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works.

 

The LORD has sworn by himself referring to himself as the excellency of Jacob that none of their nefarious works will go unpunished and all will be brought against them at the time of judgment when the Assyrians come in to vanquish the land.  The covenant God made with them at Sinai will be brought into remembrance and how they broke it and departed from the LORD.

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