Amos 8:4

4 audite hoc qui conteritis pauperem et deficere facitis egenos terrae

Amos 8:4 Meaning and Commentary

Amos 8:4

Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy
Like a man that pants after a draught of water when thirsty; and, when he has got it, greedily swallows it down at one gulp; so these rich men swallowed up the poor, their labours, gains, and profits, and persons too; got all into their own hands, and made them bondsmen and slaves to them; see ( Amos 2:7 ) ; these are called upon to hear this dreadful calamity threatened, and to consider what then would become of them and their ill gotten riches; and suggesting, that their oppression of the needy was one cause of this destruction of the land: even to make the poor of the land to fail;
or "cease" ^F1; to die for want of the necessaries of life, being obliged to such hard labour; so unmercifully used, their faces ground, and pinched with necessity; and so sadly paid for their work, that they could not live by it.

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FOOTNOTES:

F1 (twbvl) "ad cessare faciendum", Mercerus; "et facitis cessare", Munster, Drusius.

Amos 8:4 In-Context

2 et dixit quid tu vides Amos et dixi uncinum pomorum et dixit Dominus ad me venit finis super populum meum Israhel non adiciam ultra ut pertranseam eum

3 et stridebunt cardines templi in die illa dicit Dominus Deus multi morientur in omni loco proicietur silentium

4 audite hoc qui conteritis pauperem et deficere facitis egenos terrae

5 dicentes quando transibit mensis et venundabimus merces et sabbatum et aperiemus frumentum ut inminuamus mensuram et augeamus siclum et subponamus stateras dolosas

6 ut possideamus in argento egenos et pauperes pro calciamentis et quisquilias frumenti vendamus