Amos 5:7

Words of doom

7 Doom to you who turn justice into poison, and throw righteousness to the ground!

Amos 5:7 Meaning and Commentary

Amos 5:7

Ye who turn judgment to wormwood
This seems to be spoken to kings and judges, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi observe; in whose hands is the administration of justice, and who often pervert it, as these did here addressed and complained of; that which was the most useful and salubrious, and so the most desirable to the commonwealth, namely, just judgment, was changed into the reverse, what was as bitter and as disagreeable as wormwood; or "hemlock", as it might be rendered, and as it is in ( Amos 6:12 ) ; even injustice: and leave off righteousness in the earth;
leave off doing it among men: or rather, "leave [it] on the earth" ^F3; who cast it down to the ground, trampled upon it, and there left it; which is expressive not only of their neglect, but of their contempt of it; see ( Daniel 8:12 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F3 (wxynh) "in terram prosterunt", Piscator; "justitiam in terram reliquerunt, i.e. humi prosternitis et deseritis", Mercerus; "collocantes humi", Junius & Tremellius.

Amos 5:7 In-Context

5 But don't seek Bethel, don't enter into Gilgal, or cross over to Beer-sheba; for Gilgal will go into exile, and Bethel will come to nothing.

6 Seek the LORD and live, or else God might rush like a fire against the house of Joseph. The fire will burn up Bethel, with no one to put it out.

7 Doom to you who turn justice into poison, and throw righteousness to the ground!

8 The one who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning, and darkens the day into night; who summons the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the surface of the earth— this one's name is the LORD—

9 who causes destruction to flash out against the strong, so that destruction comes upon the fortress.