Amos 5:24

Justice, between man and man, is what Jehovah demands: no ceremonial, however punctiliously observed, is a substitute in Jehovah's eyes for moral duties. The argument is exactly that of Isaiah 1, where Jehovah rejects similarly the entire body of ritual observances, celebrated at the Temple of Jerusalem, on account of the moral shortcomings of the worshippers; and where the exhortation is similarly to observe the elementary duties of civic morality "Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes: seek judgement, set right the oppressor, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow" (Isaiah 1:10-17).

run down roll on; R.V. roll down: let justice, which has hitherto been too often thwarted and obstructed in its course, roll on, as waters, in one perpetual flow; and righteousness as an overflowing stream. Streamis in the Heb. naḥal, a word for which there is no proper English equivalent, but which corresponds really to the Arabic wâdy, so often found in descriptions of travel in Palestine. The naḥal, or wâdy, is a torrent running down through a narrow valley, which in the rainy season forms usually a copious stream, while in summer it may be reduced to a mere brook or thread of water, or may even be entirely dry. Righteousness, Jehovah claims, should roll on like a perennial(or ever-flowing) wâdy, like a wâdy which is never so dried up, but flows continuously. The word rendered ever-flowing(êthân) is the term applied specially to characterize such a perennial wâdy. It is one of the words (like hibhlîg, Amos 5:9), of which the true meaning was lost by the Jews, and was recovered only when Arabic began to be compared systematically with Hebrew, some two centuries ago. The renderings strong, mighty, strength, are in reality guesses made from the context by the mediæval Jewish commentators, whom the translators of the Authorised Version often followed as their guide. Examples of the word: Exodus 14:27 (see R.V. marg.), Psalms 74:15; and in a metaphorical sense, Jeremiah 5:15 (of a nation whose numbers are never diminished), Jeremiah 49:19 and Numbers 24:21 (of an abiding, never-failing habitation).

Others understand judgement and righteousness here of God's punitivejustice (cf. Isaiah 1:27; Isaiah 5:16; Isaiah 28:17; and for the figure, Isaiah 10:22 "a consumption, overflowing with righteousness"); but the former interpretation, which is the usual one, is more agreeable with the context.