Amos 8:5

Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit? WHEN WILL THE NEW MOON BE GONE, THAT WE MAY SELL CORN? So greedy are they of unjust gain that they cannot spare a single day, however sacred, from pursuing it. They are strangers to God, and enemies to themselves, who love market days better than Sabbath days; and they who have lost piety will not long keep honesty. The new moon () and Sabbath were to be kept without working or trading (). AND THE SABBATH, THAT WE MAY SET FORTH WHEAT - literally, 'open out' stores of wheat for sale. THE EPHAH - containing three seahs, or above three pecks...

The Prophet goes on here with the same subject; for this could not apply to the whole people, but only to the plunderers who were able to oppress the miserable and the poor among the common people, and who had a great abundance of corn: the same we see at this day, — a few men in time of want have provisions hoarded up, so that they as it were put to death miserable men by reducing them to want. Since then the few rich held the whole people in a state of famine, the Prophet says here, “Do you think that God deals too rigidly or too cruelly with your inasmuch as ye have hitherto been killing men with misery and want?” Were any one to object, and say, that the slaughter which the Prophet has already threatened was to be common to the whole people, and that therefore it is now improperly stated, that the wrongs done to the people were brought on them by a few men: to this I answer, that the...

4-10 The rich and powerful of the land were the most guilty of oppression, as well as the foremost in idolatry. They were weary of the restraints of the sabbaths and the new moons, and wished them over, because no common work might be done therein. This is the character of many who are called Christians. The sabbath day and sabbath work are a burden to carnal hearts. It will either be profaned or be accounted a dull day. But can we spend our time better than in communion with God? When employed in religious services, they were thinking of marketings. They were weary of holy duties, because their worldly business stood still the while. Those are strangers to God, and enemies to themselves, who love market days better than sabbath days, who would rather be selling corn than worshipping God. They have no regard to man: those who have lost the savour of piety, will not long keep the sense o...

Verse Amos 8:5. _WHEN WILL THE NEW MOON BE GONE_] This was kept as a kind of _holy day_, not by Divine command, but by _custom_. The _Sabbath_ was strictly holy; and yet so covetous were they that they grudged to give to God and their own souls this seventh portion of time! But bad and execrable as _they_ were, they neither _set forth their_ _corn_, nor _their wheat_, nor _any other kind of merchandise_, on the _Sabbath_. They were _saints_ then, when compared to multitudes called _Christians_, who keep their shops either _partially_ or _entirely open_ on the Lord's day, and _buy_ and _sell_ without any scruples of conscience. Conscience! alas! they have _none_; it is seared as with a hot iron. The strong man armed, in them, is quiet, for all his goods are in peace. Making the ephah small, and

WHEN WILL THE NEW MOON BE GONE? - They kept their festivals, though weary and impatient for their close. They kept sabbath and festival with their bodies, not with their minds. The Psalmist said, “When shall I come to appear before the presencc of God?” Psalms 42:2. These said, perhaps in their hearts only which God reads to them, “when will this service be over, that we may be our own masters again?” They loathed the rest of the sabbath, because they had, thereon, to rest from their frauds. He instances “the new moons” and “sabbaths,” because these, recurring weekly or monthly, were a regular hindrance to their covetousness. The “ephah” was a measure containing 72 Roman pints or nearly 1 1/10 of an English bushel; the shekel was a fixed weight, by which, up to the time of the captivity...

EXPOSITION AMOS 8:1 § 5. _In the fourth vision, the basket of summer fruit, the Lord shows that the people is ripe for judgment. _Explaining this revelation, Amos denounces the oppression and greed of the chieftains (verses 4-10), and warns them that those who despise the Word of God shall some day suffer from a famine of the Word (verses 11-14). AMOS 8:1 A BASKET OF SUMMER FRUIT; Septuagint, ἄγγος ἰξευτοῦ_, _"a fowler's vessel;" Vulgate, _uncinus pomorum, _which Jerome explains," Sicut uncino rami arborum detrahuntur ad poma carpenda, ita ego proximum captivitatis tempus attraxi." The word _chelub _is taken to mean "a basket of wickerwork;" it is used for "a cage" in...

SAYING, WHEN WILL THE NEW MOON BE GONE, THAT WE MAY SELL CORN?.... The first day of every month, on which it was forbid to sell any thing, or do any worldly business, being appointed and used for religious service; see 2 Kings 4:23; and which these carnal earthly minded men were weary of, and wanted to have over, that they might be selling their grain, and getting money, which they preferred to the worship of God. Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it of the month of harvest, when the poor found what to eat in the fields; when they gleaned there, and got a sufficiency of bread, and so had no need to buy corn; and hence these rich misers, that hoarded up the grain, are represented as wishing the harvest month over, that they might sell their grain to the poor, having had, during that month, no demand for it; and so the Targum renders it the month of grain: or the month of intercalation, as J...

CHAPTER 8 The Fourth Vision: The Basket With Summer Fruit _ 1. The vision (Amos 8:1) _ 2. Israel ripe for judgment (Amos 8:4) 3. The coming days of famine (Amos 8:11) Amos 8:1. In his fourth vision the prophet beholds a basket of summer fruit. The Hebrew shows that it was a basket filled with ripe fruit. The ripe fruit is a symbol that Israel was ripe for the harvest of judgment. The message of the Lord to the prophet is, “The end is come upon My people Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.” The songs would be changed into howling lamentations and many should be slain....

DEVELOPMENT OF THE THEME OF AMOS 3. This section, which re-echoes Amos 2:6, has been regarded as a conglomeration of rather loosely-connected fragments (_cf._ G. A. Smith). The prophet addresses himself to those who persecute and destroy the needy and humble (Amos 8:4), the ruthless and godless rich who regard holy days and Sabbaths as tiresome interruptions of business and as troublesome reproaches to their guilty conscience (Amos 8:5), who traffic in the lives of the poor (see Amos 2:6) and tamper with the very staff of life (Amos 8:6). Such men and such deeds Yahweh will never forget or forgiv

THE NEW MOON. Reference to Pentateuch (Numbers 10:10, &c.) the sabbath. Ref to Pentateuch (Exodus 20:10). App-92. Stopping their business for. day. SET FORTH WHEAT. Hebrew. wheat market: "wheat" being put by Figure of speech _Metonymy_ (of Adjunct), App-6, for the place where it is kept. open granaries, or sell grain. hp EPHAH. Measuring the goods. See App-51. SHEKEL. Weighing the money. See App-51....