Amos 5:7

7 There are those who turn justice into wormwood and cast 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 Do not seek Bethel or go to Gilgal; do not journey to Beersheba, for Gilgal will surely go into exile, and Bethel will come to nothing.

6 Seek the LORD and live, or He will sweep like fire through the house of Joseph; it will devour everything, with no one at Bethel to extinguish it.

7 There are those who turn justice into wormwood and cast righteousness to the ground.

8 He who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns darkness into dawn and darkens day into night, who summons the waters of the sea and pours them over the face of the earth— the LORD is His name—

9 He flashes destruction on the strong, so that fury comes upon the stronghold.