Amos 2:8

When poor people borrow money, the lenders force those people to give to them a piece of clothing for them to keep until he can pay back the money. But at the end of each day, instead of returning that garment as Yahweh had commanded them to, they lie down on that garment at the places where they worship their gods! They fine people, and with that money they buy wine and drink it in the temples of their gods!

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

And they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god.

In Context

7It is as though they trample the poor people into the dirt and do not allow those who are helpless to be treated fairly. Men and their fathers dishonor me [MTY] by both having sex [EUP] with the same slave girl.

9Long ago, to assist your ancestors, I got rid of the Amor people-group. They seemed to be as tall as cedar trees and as strong as oak trees, but I got rid of them completely, as easily as someone cuts off [MET] the branches of a tree and then digs out all its roots.

Read all of Amos 2

Cross References

Exodus 22:25If you lend money to any of my people who are poor, do not act like a moneylender and require him to pay interest on the money.

Deuteronomy 24:12But if he is poor, do not keep that cloak all night.

Isaiah 57:7You have sex [EUP] with cult prostitutes on every hill and mountain, and you go there to offer sacrifices to your gods.

Ezekiel 18:12He mistreats/oppresses poor and needy people. He robs people. If someone gives him his cloak to guarantee that he will pay the money back, he never gives the cloak back to him before the sun goes down. He seeks help from idols. He does other detestable things.

Hosea 4:8The priests get food from the offerings that the people bring in order to be forgiven for having sinned, so the priests want the people to sin more and more in order that the people will bring them more and more offerings.

Amos 6:4You lie on beds decorated with expensive ivory, and on soft couches. You eat the tender meat of lambs and fat calves.

Matthew Henry on Amos 2:2-9

The Judgment of Moab and of Judah; The Judgment of Israel. ( b. c. 790.) 1 Thus saith the Lord ; For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime: 2 But I will send a fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the palaces of Kerioth: and Moab shall die with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet: 3 And I will cut off the judge from the midst thereof, and will slay all the princes thereof with him, saith… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Amos 2:8