Amos 8

Amos 8:1-14 . VISION OF A BASKET OF SUMMER FRUIT SYMBOLICAL OF ISRAEL'S END. RESUMING THE SERIES OF SYMBOLS INTERRUPTED BY AMAZIAH, AMOS ADDS A FOURTH. THE AVARICE OF THE OPPRESSORS OF THE POOR: THE OVERTHROW OF THE NATION: THE WISH FOR THE MEANS OF RELIGIOUS COUNSEL, WHEN THERE SHALL BE A FAMINE OF THE WORD.

1. summer fruit--Hebrew, kitz. In Amos 8:2 "end" is in Hebrew, keetz. The similarity of sounds implies that, as the summer is the end of the year and the time of the ripeness of fruits, so Israel is ripe for her last punishment, ending her national existence. As the fruit is plucked when ripe from the tree, so Israel from her land.

2. end--( Ezekiel 7:2 Ezekiel 7:6 ).

3. songs of . . . temple--( Amos 5:23 ). The joyous hymns in the temple of Judah (or rather, in the Beth-el "royal temple," Amos 7:13 ; for the allusion is to Israel, not Judah, throughout this chapter) shall be changed into "howlings." GROTIUS translates, "palace"; compare Amos 6:5 , as to the songs there. But Amos 5:23 , and Amos 7:13 , favor English Version.
they shall cast them forth with silence--not as the Margin, "be silent." It is an adverb, "silently." There shall be such great slaughter as even to prevent the bodies being buried [CALVIN]. There shall be none of the usual professional mourners ( Amos 5:16 ), but the bodies will be cast out in silence. Perhaps also is meant that terror, both of God (compare Amos 6:10 ) and of the foe, shall close their lips.

4. Hear--The nobles needed to be urged thus, as hating to hear reproof.
swallow up the needy--or, "gape after," that is, pant for their goods; so the word is used, Job 7:2 , Margin.
to make the poor . . . to fail--"that they (themselves) may be placed alone in the midst of the earth" ( Isaiah 5:8 ).

5. So greedy are they of unjust gain that they cannot spare a single day, however sacred, from pursuing it. They are strangers to God and enemies to themselves, who love market days better than sabbath days; and they who have lost piety will not long keep honesty. The new-2moons ( Numbers 10:10 ) and sabbaths were to be kept without working or trading ( Nehemiah 10:31 ).
set forth wheat--literally, "open out" stores of wheat for sale.
ephah--containing three seahs, or above three pecks.
making . . . small--making it below the just weight to purchasers.
shekel great--taking from purchasers a greater weight of money than was due. Shekels used to be weighed out in payments ( Genesis 23:16 ). Thus they committed a double fraud against the law ( Deuteronomy 25:13 Deuteronomy 25:14 ).

6. buy . . . poor for silver . . . pair of shoes--that is, that we may compel the needy for money, or any other thing of however little worth, to sell themselves to us as bondmen, in defiance of Leviticus 25:39 ; the very thing which brings down God's judgment ( Amos 2:6 ).
sell the refuse of . . . wheat--which contains no nutriment, but which the poor eat at a low price, being unable to pay for flour.

7. Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob--that is by Himself, in whom Jacob's seed glory [MAURER]. Rather, by the spiritual privileges of Israel, the adoption as His peculiar people [CALVIN], the temple, and its Shekinah symbol of His presence. Compare Amos 6:8 , where it means Jehovah's temple (compare Amos 4:2 ).
never forget--not pass by without punishing ( Amos 8:2 , Hosea 8:13 , 9:9 ).