Amos 8:6

6 You buy poor people to make slaves out of them. You buy those who are in need for a mere pair of sandals. You even sell the worthless parts of your wheat.

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 Listen to me, you who walk all over needy people. You crush those who are poor in the land.

5 You say, "When will the New Moon Feast be over? Then we can sell our grain. When will the Sabbath day come to an end? Then people can buy our wheat." But you don't measure out the right amount. You raise your prices. You cheat others by using dishonest scales.

6 You buy poor people to make slaves out of them. You buy those who are in need for a mere pair of sandals. You even sell the worthless parts of your wheat.

7 People of Jacob, you are proud that the LORD is your God. But he has taken an oath in his own name. He says, "I will never forget anything Israel has done.

8 "The land will tremble because of what will happen. Everyone who lives in it will sob. So the whole land will rise like the Nile River. It will be stirred up. Then it will settle back down again like that river in Egypt."