Amos 8:6

6 That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for shoes; and we will trade in every kind of fruit.

Amos 8:6 Meaning and Commentary

Amos 8:6

That we may buy the poor for silver
Thus making them pay dear for their provisions, and using them in this fraudulent manner, by which they would not be able to support themselves and their families; they might purchase them and theirs for slaves, at so small a price as a piece of silver, or a single shekel, worth about half a crown; and this was their end and design in using them after this manner; see ( Leviticus 25:39 Leviticus 25:40 ) ; and the needy for a pair of shoes; (See Gill on Amos 2:6); [yea], and sell the refuse of the wheat;
not only did they sell the poor grain and wheat at a dear rate, and in scanty measure, but the worst of it, and such as was not fit to make bread of, only to be given to the cattle; and, by reducing the poor to extreme poverty, they obliged them to take that of them at their own price. It may be rendered, "the fall of wheat" ^F3; that which fell under the sieve, when the wheat was sifted, as Aben Ezra, Kimchi, and Ben Melech, observe.

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FOOTNOTES:

F3 (rb lpm) "labile frumenti", Montanus; "decidum frumenti", Cocceius; "deciduum triciti", Drusius, Mercerus, Stockius, p. 690.

Amos 8:6 In-Context

4 Hear now this, ye that oppress the poor in the morning, and drive the needy ones by tyranny from the earth,

5 saying, When will the month pass away, and we shall sell, and the sabbath, and we shall open the treasure, to make the measure small, and to enlarge the weight, and make the balance unfair?

6 That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for shoes; and we will trade in every kind of fruit.

7 The Lord swears against the pride of Jacob, None of your works shall ever be forgotten.

8 And shall not the land be troubled for these things, and shall not every one who dwells in it mourn? whereas destruction shall come up as a river, and shall descend as the river of Egypt.