Amos 2:8

And they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god. AND THEY LAY THEMSELVES DOWN UPON CLOTHES LAID TO PLEDGE - the outer garment, which Exodus 22:25-2 ordered to be restored to the poor man before sunset, as being his only covering. [ Bªgaadiym (H899), chiefly used of the outside cloak wrapped over the long loose shirt, kªtonet (H3801)]. The Hebrew is from a root [ baagad (H898)] to be faithless: clothing having been first used when man became false to his God. It aggravated the crime, that they lay on these clothes in an idol temple. Th...

Here the Prophet again inveighs against the people’s avariciousness, and addresses his discourse especially to the chief men; for what he mentions could not have been done by the common people, as the lower and humbler classes could not make feasts by means of spoils gained by judicial proceedings. The Prophet then condemns here, no doubt, the luxury and rapacity of men in high stations. _They lie down, he says, on pledged clothes nigh every altar. _God had forbidden, in his law, to take from a poor man a pledge, the need of which he had for the support of life and daily use, (Exodus 22:26) For instance, it was prohibited by the law to take from a poor man his cloak or his coat, or to take the covering of his bed, or any thing else of which he had need. But the Prophet now accuses the Israelites, that they took away pledges and clothes without any distinction, and lay down on them nigh t...

1-8 The evil passions of the heart break out in various forms; but the Lord looks to our motives, as well as our conduct. Those that deal cruelly, shall be cruelly dealt with. Other nations were reckoned with for injuries done to men; Judah is reckoned with for dishonour done to God. Judah despised the law of the Lord; and he justly gave them up to strong delusion; nor was it any excuse for their sin, that they were the lies, the idols, after which their fathers walked. The worst abominations and most grievous oppressions have been committed by some of the professed worshippers of the Lord. Such conduct leads many to unbelief and vile idolatry....

Verse Amos 2:8. Amos 2:6....

THEY LAY THEMSELVES DOWN - They condensed sin. By a sort of economy in the toil of sinning, they blended many sins in one; idolatry, sensuality, cruelty, and, in all, the express breach of God’s commandments. The “clothes” here are doubtless the same as the “raiment” in the law, the large enfolding cloak, which by day was wrapped over the long loose shirt , the poor man’s only dress besides, and by night was his only bedding Exodus 22:26. God had expressly commanded, “If the man be poor, thou shalt not sleep with his pledge” Deuteronomy 24:12; in any case “thou shalt deliver him the pledge again, when the sun goeth down, that he may sleep in his own raiment, and bless thee; and it shall be righteousness to thee before the Lord thy God.” Here the “garments laid to

EXPOSITION AMOS 2:1 Judgment on Moab. AMOS 2:1 MOAB. The prophet now denounces the other nation connected by ties of blood with Israel (see on Amos 1:13). Moab's hostility had been shown in the hiring of Balsam to curse the Israelites, and in seducing them to idolatry (Nu 22-25:3). He was their oppressor in the time of the Judges (Judges 3:12); and David had to take most stringent measures against him (2 Samuel 8:2). The Moabites joined in a league against Jehoshaphat ...

AND THEY LAID [THEMSELVES] DOWN UPON CLOTHES LAID TO PLEDGE BY EVERY ALTAR,.... That is, the clothes they took in pledge of poor people, which they should have restored before sun setting, Exodus 22:26; these they spread by every altar, of which they had many erected to their idols, and on these as on carpets they slept by them, as was usual with the Gentiles; who not only in common used to lie and sleep on garments, or carpets, or skins spread on the floor s, but upon such in the temples of their idols, in order to obtain good dreams; so in the temple of Amphiaraus in Greece, after purgations and sacrifices to him, and to the gods whose names were engraven on the same altar, they slew a ram, and spread the skin, on which they laid themselves down, and had dreams, the signification and events of which they presently interpreted t; and Jerom says u, they used to spread the skins of the sa...

CHAPTER 2 _ 1. Moab (Amos 2:1) _ 2. Judah (Amos 2:4) 3. Israel (Amos 2:6) Amos 2:1. So fierce was the hatred of Moab that they dishonored the bones of the king of Edom. “Moab burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime” (see 2 Kings 3:26). The fire or judgment came upon Moab and her glory, too, departed like the glory of the other nations. Amos 2:4. While the measure was full of these nations, who had heaped transgressions upon transgressions, Judah and Israel were

THE SIN AND DOOM OF ISRAEL. Suddenly the prophet turns and confronts Israel. The benighted heathen nations have sinned and must be punished. What of Israel, God's chosen people? Why, just because they have been chosen and more privileged, failure to act up to their responsibilities and privileges deserves greater condemnation! Of this failure the prophet proceeds to give typical examples, and announces a punishment more severe even than that of Israel's neighbours. The Israelites (Amos 2:6) sell as slaves honest, unimpeachable men who refuse to bribe their judges, and poor men who incur trifling debts to the value of a pair of sandals. They trample to the dust of the earth the head of the poor (Amos 2:7 *). The rich and powerful callously crush the poor, and obstruct or divert from its natural course the simple path of the hum

LAY THEMSELVES DOWN, _&c._ Reference to Pentateuch (Exodus 22:26; Deuteronomy 24:12), App-92. every altar. The sin lay in the fact that the law of the one altar had been known as an ancient commandment as well as the law concerning the restoration of pledged garments. WINE, Hebrew. _Yayin._ App-27. OF THE CONDEMNED: or, exacted wine....